“I feel like I am in that movie ‘Groundhog Day’ with Bill Murray, where the alarm just got off. You know — getting in my car, driving across Bear Creek Road, same music is playing. [It’s] just my same day — it just starts over.”
For 35 years, art and ceramics teacher Leah Aguayo has done just that. As a Boulder Creek resident, she drives across Bear Creek Road, gets to Saratoga and unlocks the door to her beloved ceramics studio each school day.
As the second-longest teaching staff member, Aguayo has seen many changes over the years, each of which has shaped the school into what it is today.
For instance, she said the prevalence of technology has noticeably changed the dynamic of the classroom, shortening students’ attention spans. According to Aguayo, it has become more difficult for students to follow her organic, hands-on approach in ceramics because technology has made everything is so instantaneous in their lives.
“Putting a lump of clay or a blank canvas in front of a student and getting the student to be creative and not be afraid to make a decision, whether it be in color or form, is hard right now,” Aguayo said.
She has also noticed a change in what students want to do for careers. In the ‘80s, many wanted to become doctors or lawyers, whereas now more are pursuing engineering.
She said these changes have occurred due to shifts in parents’ professions, as many students want to take after their parents.
“[A student’s profession] is tied in with their parents’ careers and to the times,” Aguayo said. “It might be parent pressure of what [they] might become, but I also think it’s very hard to know what you want to do when you are 16 or 17.”
Yet many of the other influences on students’ career choices remain the same. Aguayo recalls that when she ran a support workshop for boys 30 years ago, some of the boys’ parents were doctors or dentists, but the boys wanted to become professions like arborists or landscapers.
“Sometimes here in this community it’s not acceptable to be a landscaper,” she said. “That was an issue 30 years ago, and that’s a challenge I still see.”
Despite the uncertainties students face in deciding their futures and the demographic changes that have occurred in Saratoga, she believes that students remain much the same.
“You guys are still young, beautiful people trying to figure it out,” Aguayo said.
She truly believes that the quality of students are what make the school unique and have kept her showing up excited to teach.
“It’s been 35 years of my life — opening that door every day,” she said. “As the years pass by, I get new students every year, and it’s awesome. It’s a joy to come to work here.”
