Stand & Deliver / Lean On Me

Look at the too-cool-to-cope kids in Jaime Escalante's class at East L.A.'s tough Garfield High, and many will say they see a bunch of losers. Escalante sees scholars. How he cajoles, instructs, challenges and inspires his no-expectations barrio kids to pass the daunting Calculus Advanced Placement Test forms the amazing heart of Stand and Deliver [Side A], starring Edward James Olmos and Lou Diamond Phillips. Paterson, New Jersey's Eastside High is the setting for Lean on Me [Side B], starring Morgan Freeman as bat-and-bullhorn-toting principal Joe Clark, whose controversial methods turned the failing school around and made Clark a national symbol of tough-love education. His message: Don't lean on excuses, drugs or anger. Lean on yourself and me...and learn. School's now in session with these two true-life tales!