Margaret Rodrigues worked 38 years for MHUSD
Published in the April 27 – May 10, 2016 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Robert Airoldi
Photo by Robert Airoldi
Margaret Rodrigues at the Morgan Hill Museum where she volunteers and helped set up the school field trip program.
Growing up in the 1960s, Margaret Rodrigues thought she’d either become a secretary, nurse or teacher. That’s what young women aspired to back then. Although she had dreams of becoming a journalist, traveling the world writing important stories, she realized that wouldn’t work with her desire to start a family.
“I didn’t want to be a secretary, and I was a (hospital volunteer) candy-striper — and knew that being a nurse wasn’t what I wanted to do,” she recalls about her career choice. “So by default I became a teacher.”
Though not far-fetched as both her sisters and her two daughters work in education, the decision was one she would not come to regret.
“Our family was always about education and I love children,” she said. “I got to work with those I love. And I love art and history and to be able to teach that … it was just the best.”
Rodrigues, 65, retired in 2010 taking early retirement from the Morgan Hill Unified School District. Although she was not planning on retiring at the time, she admitted “the deal was just too good to pass up.”
Her career spanned more than three decades. She taught physical education, language arts, social studies, history and art with her teaching partner, John McPherson, who taught math and science to fourth, fifth and sixth graders. She closed her 38-year career by teaching fifth graders. She and McPherson taught at Encinal, Nordstrom, then opened Barrett, back to Encinal then to Los Paseos. She also served as president of the Morgan Hill Federation of Teachers union for eight years.
Born in San Jose, the fifth-generation Californian graduated from Willow Glen High School where she earned varsity letters in field hockey, volleyball and softball. Her grandson (one of four) will graduate from her old alma mater this June.
Rodrigues got her secretarial experience while working for her father, a State Farm Insurance agent. She married in 1969. After graduating from San Jose State University, she got pregnant while applying for grad school in 1972. She delivered their oldest of three children on a Friday and the next Monday she started student teaching in Cupertino.
Now that she’s retired, the life-long Giants fan has time to accomplish a life goal: to attend every Major League Baseball stadium. “I’m about halfway there,” she said. She loves to travel, and she and her husband, along with a dozen or so family members, visited the Azores to see the islands where both her and her husband’s families come from.
Her passion for education and history led her to be part of the Morgan Hill Historical Society team that developed the field-trip program that every year hosts about 900 people — mostly elementary school students. The children go through the tours and do interactive learning activities where they discover facts about local history and the various people who once made their homes in the Morgan Hill region. When Rod-rigues retired, she realized she could continue her passion for local history. She enjoys teaching the stories of our community’s past to kids by organizing school field trips at Villa Mira Monte.
Her grandchildren had spent several weeks on the East Coast the previous summer visiting museums and various living history sites. The children had dressed up and interacted with the docents, pretending to be soldiers or servants, and told the field trip development team not to just take students on the tour. They had just experienced three weeks of museums and they said the ones that meant the most were those where they could don period costumes and interact with people and recreate customs.
So they created a curriculum that includes all five senses.
“The kids are touching, feeling and smelling history,” Rodriques said. “They are so into what they are learning. And that’s what teaching is all about.”
