Hope In Action Essays - Jaime Escalante, Stand And Deliver

Hope In Action STAND AND DELIVER In the Gospel of Matthew it states, ? Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.? (Matt. 25:40). This relates to Moltmann's guideline of the preferential option for the poor. In today's society we are faced with the poor everywhere we go. Whether it be in the largest cities in the world such as London, New York, or Los Angeles; or in the smallest towns in middle America, or third world countries the poor are suffering all around us. I chose to discuss what I believe is an excellent example of the preferential option for the poor. The movie is called ?Stand and Deliver?. This movie is based on the true story that focuses on a high school teacher in Los Angeles. His name is Jaime Escalante, portrayed by Edward James Olmos. He was a well-respected, well-liked teacher that decided to take a job at an L.A. high school in a poor, Spanish area, known for its violence, drugs and gangs among other things. Many of the families that lived in this area could barely speak English, if at all. Many could not read or write past a fifth grade level either. The families were usually overpopulated with children that were underprivileged. These high school students were just trying to survive in their ?world? without getting into trouble or dying, school was not a major concern for many of them. Most of these students normally ended up in jail, working in blue-collar jobs or even dead. The teacher, Mr. Escalante, was also of Spanish decent and could relate to the trials of his new group of students. He had grown up in a tough neighborhood as well. He could not understand though, why they gave up so easily and why they seemed to lack self-discipline and self-respect as well as a lack of respect for others. He was taught to survive but to also respect his elders. Mr. Escalante's area of expertise was in mathematics and he was hired to teach these students calculus. He walked into the classroom and was astonished to find that most of his students only knew basic mathematics. His goal was to prepare them for a statewide test in mathematics in order for them to be able to graduate from high school. His job was extremely difficult though, more difficult then he had anticipated. He never gave up hope for his students though. After a few trying weeks the students seemed to pick up on the math that Mr. Escalante was trying to get across to them. He used everyday ideas and problems to convey the math to the students. For example, he used an apple to show the students that when you split an apple it gets cut in half (1/2), and if you cut the half you have quarters etc. This gave the students the help they thought they needed because they were always shown that they would end up like their families did, poor and always fighting for the necessities of life. All the while he was also becoming their friend, mentor, father figure, counselor, motivator, as well as a teacher. He became involved in their personal lives helping them when and if he could anyway he could. For example, one student portrayed by Lou Diamond Philips, was a gang member, drug-dealing punk who lived with his Spanish-speaking grandmother who couldn't read. Mr. Escalante on his own time taught the boy's elderly grandmother how to read and when a particular student got into trouble Mr. Escalante got him out of it as well. Another example of hope in action found in the film was the fact that every week Mr. Escalante would teach a night course to a group of ESL adults. He taught his students that they should be above all else proud to be who they are and that they can achieve something that many of their parents didn't achieve. They would with perseverance go on to better themselves in all aspects of their lives. He gave them the best gift of all?hope. It was this hope that was key when Mr. Escalante suffered a heart attack

Gender of Animals in Spanish

Gender of Animals in Spanish If you think that masculine nouns in Spanish are always used with referring to males and feminine nouns when referring to females, your assumption would be wrong - especially when talking about animals. Like most nouns, the names for nearly all animals are either masculine or feminine. For example, the word for giraffe, jirafa is feminine, and it can be used when referring to any giraffe, whether male or female. Similarly, rinoceronte is masculine, and it can be used to refer to rhinoceroses of either sex. The same is done with people. El humano (human) is masculine even when referring to a woman or girl, and la persona (person) is feminine even when referring to a man or boy. Animals With Sex-Differentiated Names Some animals have different names for each sex. For example, a perro is a male dog, and a perra is a female dog or bitch. The names dont have to be so similar: a cow is una vaca, while a bull is un toro, even though they refer to the same species of animal. As in these examples, it is common, although not universal, for animals with sex-differentiated names in Spanish to have differentiated names in English as well. Some other animals with different names for the sexes are: el lagarto (male lizard), la lagarta (female lizard)el elefante (male elephant), la elefanta (female elephant)el caballo (stallion), la yegua (mare)el carnero (ram), la oveja (sheep)el gallo (rooster), la gallina (hen)el macho (billy goat), la cabra (nanny goat) Generally, the masculine form can be thought of as the default name for the type of species. Thus if you dont know whether a cat is male or female, its fine to refer to it as un gato. But a cat known to be female can be referred to as una gata. Groups of Animals In the case of animals whose names vary with the sex, if you have a group of animals, some female and some male, they should be referred to by the masculine plural: thus los gatos or los perros. But if the name of the animal is invariably feminine, the feminine must still be used: las jirafas (even for a group of males) or las araà ±as (spiders). In a very few cases where each sex has a different name - they include vaca, cabra, and oveja - the feminine form can be pluralized to represent a group. (The same can be true in English, as cattle might informally be referred to as cows even if bulls are part of the mix.) Macho/Hembra If you need to indicate the sex of an animal with a undifferentiated name, you can add the word macho for male or hembra for female: la jirafa hembra, the female giraffela jirafa macho, the male giraffeel dinosaurio macho, the male dinosaurel dinosaurio hembra, the female dinosaur Note that macho and hembra, however, are traditionally considered to be either nouns or invariable adjectives. Thus they do not vary in form with gender or number: las jirafas hembra, the female giraffeslas jirafas macho, the male giraffes Although treating macho and hembra as invariable adjectives is the grammatically safe thing to do, in real life speakers often make them plural. You should stick to the traditional form in formal writing, however. Personal Names When referring to animals with personal names (such as pets), you should use adjectives whose gender matches the given name of the animal when using that name as the subject of a sentence: Pablo, la jirafa ms alta del zoo, est enfermo. (Pablo, the zoos tallest giraffe, is sick.)Su hmster negro se llama Elena. Elena es muy guapa. (His black hamster is named Elena. Elena is very pretty. Note the change in grammar depending on whether the category name or given name is the grammatical subject.) Key Takeaways The category or species names for most animals are either masculine or feminine, and the gender for the animal name is used whether a specific animal in male or female.Some animals have separate names for each sex, such as a cow being una vaca and a bull being un toro.When the subject of a sentence is the personal name of an animal, such a pet, the accompanying adjectives should match the animals sex rather than that of its species name.