Maggie: My name is Maggie Padilla. I am a fifth grade teacher for Baldwin Park Unified. This is my first year, my first year actually teaching the dual language program, which is half English, half Spanish. And I’ve been a teacher for five years.

Interviewer: Please tell us about the bright side of education.

Maggie: I think, for me, the bright side of education is the age group that I work with is still very willing to listen to you. They’re usually between ages of ten and eleven years old. They’re still very optimistic, they’re still very, um, enthusiastic, some of them, well, for the most part, about school. Um, I think what gives me a sense of accomplishment is that you can still help students, and you can still get them to set goals and envision where they can still go in life. Um, especially for those that tend to have problems. They tend to struggle – if you can encourage them, if you can support them, and find ways to support them along with their families, they tend to do better and they tend to strive more and they tend to do a lot better.

Interviewer: Okay. And how about the opposite, the dark side?

Maggie: I think the opposite for me would have to be that we do deal with a lot of social problems that sometimes people don’t understand. Um, I feel that people believe, that when they send their children to school, that we’re going to somehow magically solve everything for them that’s going on in their life, and oftentimes we do try to be supportive, and it is our responsibility to try to help them cope. But we also have the ultimate responsibility of, we have to make sure these students are well-educated, that they reach certain standards. And sometimes it’s difficult for people or for families to accept that the social issues going around affect their child. So that’s, that’s sometimes difficult. And I think what’s also difficult is the way that it’s set up – I really don’t feel like we have enough resources, or the resources we deserve to be able to handle. The workload that it is to, to teach, because of the social issues behind it – it’s not just to be teaching a child basic arithmetic or to read. There’s so many other parts of it that are ingrained, that no one ever thinks about. And I think that’s probably what’s the most difficult for me, and I’m saying this for the most part in the media, “Oh, our teachers are so bad, oh our teachers – they’re the reason why our country is failing, oh, our teachers”... it’s really not like that. It’s more like, we are, what they are, as our principal put it, the front line. Because they come to us for seven, eight hours of the day and we have to try to figure out a way to not just educate them, but teach them how to cope as well.

Interviewer: Advice for people learning English.

Maggie: I think for learning English, I think about it compared to the way I’m trying to teach my students how to speak in, in Spanish – the best way to do it would have to be, just living it. Living it, reading it, writing it, speaking it. I think there’s only so much you can learn out of a textbook than rather than experiencing it yourself, first hand. I think that’s probably the best one, is to speak. And even though it might be a frightening situation at first for many people, I think it’s better that way. You learn more, and you learn how to cope and deal a lot faster.