CORRECTION: This article incorrectly states that Jose Jacobo would be moving to a farm. Jacobo shared that he will be moving to the countryside, not a farm. We regret the error and apologize for any confusion it may have caused.
After 25 years at WCHS, Math teacher Jose Jacobo will retire with 30 years of teaching. He started off as a teacher assistant (TA) for four years in an elementary school at the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). During Jacobo’s junior high, he realized he wanted to pursue a career in math.
While Jacobo attended Cal State LA, he was a soccer player, but experienced an injury that required him to undergo surgery, which ended his career quickly. Despite playing soccer at a college level, he knew that his future career needed to involve math.
Once he pursued his education and being a TA, Jacobo’s master teacher had difficulty teaching fifth-grade math. After being able to successfully explain it himself, he found how to pursue his math career.
“A lot of the students were, you know, understanding me, and they were so into it, and then that’s kind of like I realized that maybe I can do something positive for the students, that I could make a change, and that’s what inspired me,” Jacobo said.
Finding interest in teaching math didn’t stop there for Jacobo; he found pride in students learning from his teaching, pushing him to teach 25 years of high school math.
“I saw students learning, I also, the fact that, as I was teaching, I was feeling myself that I was giving something back to them, so, and also I felt nice in front of a classroom,” Jacobo said.
Jacobo didn’t just hope to teach students about math, but wanted them to learn that everything requires hard work and dedication in life.
At times, Jacobo had students that would have trouble with math and be discouraged by how difficult equations can seem, reminding them that hard work can help overcome that.
“It’s something that if they work hard that they can improve. So, there is always a room to improvement, a chance to improve,” Jacobo said.
As a math teacher, Jacobo is worried for the future of math and AI and claimed it’s not helpful if it does the work for students without actually seeking explanations, contradicting his belief in students to work hard.
“Students should know when and how to use it for their benefit to learn and not just to copy and paste,” Jacobo said.
Jacobo’s favorite memory throughout his teaching career is seeing students take his advice to constantly improve in math, them to pursue learning.
Along with seeing his students improve, he remembers a specific freshman couple that became high school sweethearts in his classroom.
“So I arranged my students in groups, and there was this couple of boy and girl that were in the same group, and somehow they started dating because of that, and then they continued dating, and I had them twice, and at the end of four years they came to my class,” Jacobo said.
After 30 years, Jacobo figured that he was healthy and financially able to retire. He plans to take a year of relaxing while adjusting to his new place in Missouri.
“I have some relatives over there, and I was able to buy a nice house with land over there, and it is very peaceful. It’s a very nice area,” Jacobo said.
