Title Page & Abstract
An Interview with Antonio Carbajal
Part of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library
Tumultuous 2020 Oral History project
Interview # T20-A-L-2021-056
Antonio Carbajal, a Spanish teacher in a fifth-grade dual-language classroom, was interviewed on the date listed below as part of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library’s Tumultuous 2020 Oral History project.
Interview dates & location:
Date: November 1, 2021
Location: Jefferson Elementary, Harvard, Illinois
Interview Format: Digital audio
Interviewer: Philip Pogue, ALPLM volunteer
Total Time: 1:08 / 1.13 hrs.
Accessioned into the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Archives on December 15, 2021.
The interview is archived at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, Illinois.
© 2021 Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library
Abstract
Antonio Carbajal, Tumultuous 2020, T20-A-L-2021-056
Biographical Information Overview of Interview: Antonio Carbajal was born in Las Vueltas, Mexico in 1959. Carbajal graduated from Escuela Nacional Preparatoria High School in Mexico City in 1978. He studied dentistry at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. He practiced dentistry for four years before coming to the United States, where he settled in McHenry County, Illinois. Carbajal worked for fifteen years at Home Innovations, a textile company, eventually becoming manager of the plant. He attended McHenry Community College and earned an associate degree and taught G.E.D. courses at McHenry for twenty-two years. He attended Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois, where he earned his Bachelor of Teaching and then a master’s degree in literacy in 2008. At the time of the interview, he had been working for Harvard Community Unit #50 School District for twenty years. The district includes Harvard Junior High and Jefferson Elementary. Carbajal is the dual language Spanish teacher for fifth grade at Jefferson.
Carbajal discusses the challenges of remote learning which began in March 2020 with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of the struggles students faced included limited access to the internet, food insecurity, transitions from elementary school to middle school, and more. He describes the district’s training for remote learning over the course of the summer in 2020. The hybrid model that the district attempted to follow for the autumn semester of 2020 was thwarted by rising COVID-19 cases, forcing the school to return to remote learning until the spring of 2021. Jefferson Elementary fully opened in August of 2021 and Carbajal outlines both the challenges and excitement of in-person classes.
Subject Headings/Key Words: Jefferson Elementary School; Harvard Community Unit #50 school district; English as a Second Language; remote learning; COVID-19 pandemic;
Note to the Reader: Readers of the oral history memoir should bear in mind that this is a transcript of the spoken word, and that the interviewer, interviewee and editor sought to preserve the informal, conversational style that is inherent in such historical sources. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library is not responsible for the factual accuracy of the memoir, nor for the views expressed therein. We leave these for the reader to judge.
COPYRIGHT
The following material can be used for educational and other non-commercial purposes without the written permission of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. “Fair use” criteria of Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976 must be followed. These materials are not to be deposited in other repositories, nor used for resale or commercial purposes without the authorization from the Audio-Visual Curator at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, 112 N. 6th Street, Springfield, Illinois 62701. Telephone (217) 785-7955