Escalantes: (Refering to his neighbor's boat) Looking good, Joe.

Joe: Jaime, when are you coming aboard?

E: I get seasick in the rain. (Have you) seen my boy?

J: Yeah, I saw him riding around here somewhere. Hey, listen, I heard your company is pushing whole hog* into PCs.

E: I don't work there anymore.

Fabiola: Jaime's teaching high school now. Here's your thingy.*

J: Wow. Why didn't you come to me if you got laid off? We're paying kids right out of college 30 Gs* to start.

E: I didn't get laid off, Joe. I want to teach.

J: A high school teacher. Well, good. That's great.

Escalante, to his son: This is your job. I don't want to have to tell you.

Son: I was going to do it. Why do you think I was hurrying home?

E: You're not even breathing hard, you're hurrying home so fast. Have a good night, Joe.

Two

Principle: (The point I'm) trying to make, Mrs. Oretega, is, I don't want to be the principle of the first school in the history of Los Angeles to lose it's accreditation.

Ortega: I'm the last person to say that this math department couldn't improve, but if you want higher test scores, start by changing the economic level of this community.

Principle: The purpose of this meeting is to review the recommendations for accreditation*. Any suggestions? Anybody?

Teacher: Yeah, I don't think that I should be teaching math next semester, I mean, I was hired to be a Phys Ed* instructor.

Ortega: As I said before, we lack the resources to implement* the changes that the district demands.

Principle: Mr. Suzuki, you must have at least one comment.

Suzuki: This may not be the right time to say this but...I'm not coming back after Christmas. I got a job with Aerospace.

Teacher: How much will you make?

Principle: Look, we have the remainder of the year before we are put on probation.* Now if we fail we'll lose our accreditation.

Ortega: If we fail? You can't teach logarithms* to illiterates*. Look, these kids come to us with barely a seventh grade education. Now there isn't a teacher in this room who isn't doing everything he possibly can...

Escalante: I'm not. I can teach more.

Ortega: I'm sure Mr. Escalante has good intentions, but he's only been here a few months.

Escalante: Students will rise to the level of expectations, Senor Molina.

Principle: All right, what do you need, Mr. Escalante?

Escalante: Ganas.* That's all we need is ganas.

Teacher: What's ganas?