Plough’s editor-at-large, Caitrin Keiper, speaks with Anthony Garces-Foley, a teacher at a public elementary school in Virginia.

Plough: You’re someone with a real heart for the mission of public schools to serve every student, and who sees that mission as a way to express your faith. Tell us your story.

Anthony Garces-Foley: I was raised in a very religious Catholic family in the Philippines. My mom’s uncle was the cardinal in the Philippines, Cardinal Rosales, and her cousin was a bishop. I knew religion was important in my family, but I didn’t understand it growing up. Then my dad died, and we came to the United States when I was seven, during Marcos’s dictatorship.

It was hard. That was when I leaned into the religion. My mom, my brother, and I would pray the rosary every night. I ended up going to a Catholic school from seventh grade on and then Notre Dame, thanks to scholarships. Seeking answers to my questions about faith, I majored in theology.

Anthony Garces-Foley works with students. Photograph by Spencer Weiner/Getty Images. Used by permission.

After graduation, I worked for Brothers of the Christian Schools and for Mission Dolores Basilica in San Francisco, getting to know church life in different ways. At night I would sit by myself and read scripture.

I felt called to serve and wanted to become a Franciscan; I could see myself giving my life to a community. I spoke to an older Franciscan who suggested that I live and study alongside others in formation but not commit to something yet. So I enrolled in the Franciscan School of Theology thinking that I wanted to become a priest. But then I fell in love. I was grateful I had been told to wait. But what should I do next?

I thought back to those nights I spent reading scripture; the Gospel of Matthew spoke to me the most. It includes the Sermon on the Mount and shows Jesus as an amazing, courageous person who challenged everything. It’s baffling. I was like, What? I’m supposed to love my enemies? And it stood out to me that he was called teacher. I thought, I can still do God’s work. We are all called to be like Jesus in one form or another.

Because my background was in theology, I taught at a Catholic high school for two years. But I still felt like I wasn’t doing the work that I needed to do. I felt called to shift to Title I – public schools that receive federal funding to serve predominantly low-income students – and earned my elementary school and English as a Second Language (ESOL) teaching credentials.

What drew you to a Title I school?

I wanted to serve students who are marginalized in our society. I see the kids learning English, living in their one-room studios, dealing with a lot of hardship, and think, Oh, that was me. I remember coming to this country on the heels of the Vietnam War in the 1970s and being yelled at for looking Vietnamese.

My first day in school, I went to the cafeteria and I was given a lunch card. I didn’t know what to do with it, and I didn’t speak the language, but someone put food on my plate: ground beef with a tortilla around it. I’d never had a taco before, but I thought, Wow, this looks amazing! And then this kid came up to me and said, “Hey man, you want your taco?” When I didn’t understand the question, he grabbed it and ran off. I was seven years old. I cried. This kid just took my food. I didn’t eat that day.

As time went on, I learned by observation. One time I was out on the playground, and this kid said, “I got to go take a leak,” and then ran to the bathroom. When I went back to class, I went up to the teacher and said, “I got to take a leak.” She yelled at me for being “rude.”

How could I have known? I thought, If I’m ever a teacher, I’m going to try to understand what somebody’s going through.

There were many other times I was scared and misunderstood. And if I had these fears and feelings of inadequacy, what are these kids who went through the Darién Gap dealing with? You leave your life behind and go on this difficult journey, only to reach the other side and still face so much discrimination. You thought you made it to this wonderful place, but there are cockroaches in your backpack and some teacher is telling you you’re still not good enough. That is so discouraging.

I want my students to know their worth and know what’s possible for them. So I share my story and share the stories of others who came from where they are and persevered.

There was one girl I taught in fifth grade, an ESOL student from Pakistan. She was a gifted student, but she wasn’t given special recognition or identified for the district’s more prestigious academic programs. Years later, I ran into her at Starbucks. She had worked her tail off in high school and was about to graduate with a full ride to Princeton.

My jaw dropped. I had her come and talk to the teachers and students at the elementary school, and I hold her up as an example to this day.

Even for the vast majority who don’t go on to Ivy League, a teacher who values you for who you are makes all the difference.

There was one kid who didn’t want to leave on the last day of school. He asked his mom if he could help me clean up, and he stayed the whole time. As he was cleaning, I could see tears in his eyes. He said, “I’m going to miss you.” I sometimes don’t realize the effect I have on young people until they show me. I’m more than just a teacher for these kids, and I have to hold that in mind.

Although sometimes they are the ones who teach me! I had one student famous for his behavioral issues, and I felt like I wasn’t getting through to him. One day when I thought he wasn’t listening, I was getting fed up. He just looked at me and asked, “What triggered you?” I stopped and said, “Thank you. I wasn’t aware I was being triggered and you could tell.”

That profoundly changed me. A kid who people thought was difficult to work with recognized in me what he would recognize in himself.

I had another hard-to-reach kid back when I taught high school. He was the lead singer in a heavy metal band. One time I went to his concert to see another side of him. From that day on he changed his tune and, in the classroom, he would say, “Hey, respect! Listen to the teacher.” And he was fantastic. He got others involved and interested in music, and together we formed a little music group at school.

Talk to me about longevity. Many people go into the profession with a lot of energy and are committed to reaching these students, but it’s tough, and there is a lot of attrition and turnover. How have you found a way to go the distance?

This is my twenty-sixth year teaching, and I still love it. Along the way, I earned a doctorate, and people would ask me, Hey, so now that you have your PhD, what are you going to do? I said, Well, I’m going to keep teaching because it’s the most important work. I had done some work in policy review, and I could have continued further down that pathway or taken the administration route, but – not to knock the value of those roles – I knew it wasn’t what I was called to do. As a male teacher and a racial minority with an advanced degree, I’m an anomaly in this profession – which makes me want to serve as an example. And in the end, the most important thing is my relationship with the students.

As for teachers at risk of burning out, I would encourage them to maintain their lives outside the classroom, to stay mentally and emotionally rested. Inside the classroom, they should take some risks and remember why they got into this. We’ll never be wrong if we focus on caring for these children. I know the paperwork and all these evaluation things are going to be difficult, but if we care about these kids, all of that will come together in the end.

How do you or don’t you bring your faith into a secular environment?

My best gift as a teacher is Jesus, who is my model. My faith is integral to who I am. I might mention that Jesus was an immigrant too, when his family fled to Egypt and lived there for two years.

And I love to talk about the different religions that are represented in our district, why we take the day off for Rosh Hashanah or Eid, what’s the history of the Fertile Crescent and how it relates to what’s happening there today. It blows my students’ minds to hear that Jesus himself was Jewish, or that according to the Hebrew calendar it’s not 2024 but the year 5785.