No One's Gonna Need Me More Than My Own Son

This week’s interview comes from my good friend Jackie’s husband! I’ve known Alex for several years now and had heard the bullet points of his teaching transition, but never the full story. It was great to sit down and hear about his career journey, and realize how aligned we are in values and beliefs. It’s no wonder we’re friends, or that Jackie ended up with such a cool dude!

Introduce yourself!

Hello! I’m Alex Flores, currently residing in El Sereno, California. My journey in education spans five incredible years—three years teaching middle school and two years at the high school level, focusing on digital media, animation, and game design. It’s been about three years since I transitioned from K-12 teaching to higher ed. I now have the privilege of teaching at Los Angeles City College.

Start us at the beginning of your career journey.

When I was in high school, I took this CTE class. I still remember the teacher, Mr. Murphy, because he made such a big impact. He recommended that we submit our films to the Southeast Los Angeles Film Festival, which no longer exists. But at the time it was pretty big. We got some recognition, and because of that, we were able to apply to a film intensive summer course at USC.

[The intensive] was run by Inner City Filmmakers, Fred and Steph. They had a career of helping students. They were the unsung individuals—these mentors, these champions, who were helping us get opportunities. They always treated us and saw us as family, as their kids, and I'm grateful to them, still to this day.

After the boot camp, they encouraged me to apply to this internship program at Disney Studios. And so I did. There again I met some really amazing executives doing live-action production at Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group (so within the Walt Disney Studios). They saw my student films, and they believed in my vision, and they allowed me to come into the studio and learn… I worked as hard as I could, and they invited me to come back the next year and then extended my contract to two years. After the two-year contract was up, I was called once again by my mentors and told, “Hey, there's this opportunity at Warner Brothers, you should apply.” I applied, and that's where I landed a job that lasted for eight years.

These were amazing opportunities that I would have never had, except for all these mentors. They didn't really get any kind of personal gain out of it, you know. They were paying it forward. And that made a huge impact on me. So you can start to see why being an educator and being a teacher was something that was important for me—because of all these people who extended their hand to help me.

What inspired that pivot from production to education?

That's a great question. My grandpa in Mexico was a professor at the Universidad de Guadalajara. Not only that, he was an activist; he was a union leader for the student union, and championed this idea of a public university. When he started, the University of Guadalajara was private, and it was not accessible, so he was part of this huge movement to make it public. So those ideals were instilled in me early on. 

Aside from that, having been mentored, having received so much support as a student also birthed this need for me to give back and pay it forward. 

[At the studios], I had a steady income and all this stuff, but I really had this need to finish my education. It's an important value for my family. So I went back to school. And when I went, I realized that everything I had learned so far was like gold. All the other students were younger than I was, and they were looking up to me. And I was like, “Yeah, doesn't everyone know this?” And they're like, “No, this is like, really valuable.” So my passion for education just kept developing. 

When I finally completed my master's degree [in social documentation at UCSC], I was concerned for my student loans. I had been working steadily in the studio system for a long time, and my contacts were still inviting me to come back.

But I also got an opportunity to volunteer my services at this really small, tiny charter school in Highland Park [Los Angeles]. Why did I feel it was such a great opportunity? Because I could give back more than ever to these students. The students were faced with a lot of street violence and gang violence. The school had very limited amount of technology and supplies, but it was the alternative to the big impacted high schools that were around. So this school was kind of like a safe haven for a lot of students. 

I realized that I could make the most impact in this type of school. And so I volunteered to do film and videography for them while I was looking for my next gig. And of course, the [school] director asked me, “Hey? You have all this experience, you're looking for a job—why don't you teach?”

And I said, “Well, because I've never done it before.” He's like, “Well, you can work on your credentials while you work, while you teach.” And I said, “Okay, that sounds reasonable.” 

I only realized later—because I'm always learning things the hard way—that the school didn't pay for my certification. They were expecting me to take these classes, but then they weren’t paying for it!

Briefly describe your experience teaching. What did you like about it? What did you find challenging or unfulfilling?

I started teaching while I was getting my credential, so I was starting from a tough place. I was really surprised that I got zero training, zero support. I had to bring my own equipment from home, and I didn't have an office. I didn't even have a classroom; I had to haul my equipment from one classroom to another. Can you even imagine a film production class where you have to do that? But I did get an opportunity to learn how to create a program by myself. I got to get the grants to build the labs. 

In 2020, [my family] moved to Lancaster [approximately one hour outside of LA], because we could live more affordably during the pandemic. I got a job at a similar type of school in Lancaster. With what I had learned [at the last school], I built them a radio station. I built them a game design lab. I built this CTE program that was very successful. 

And so I was getting a lot of success, but I was working twelve hours a day, and sometimes six days a week, throughout all these [five] years of teaching.

All I kept getting told was, “Hey, do it for the kids, they deserve it.” And they were right. The kids did deserve it. But that's usually how the admin would get me to do all these extra hours—and most often it was unpaid hours, right? I was so emotionally invested that, of course, I wanted to give that time and effort.

Because you believe in the students, and you see your effort does make a difference in their lives. However, it took a toll on my personal life, and my health, and on my family's life.

What brought you to the decision to leave teaching? What was the breaking point?

You know, my family is a family of educators. I fell in love and married a great educator. She’s very passionate, and it’s something we connected on.

Having said that, when it was time to start our own family, [teaching] was taking me away from that. That happens with any job, of course, but particularly in education, because twelve hours a day is a lot. 

And then suddenly, we get the diagnosis of my son’s autism. So this means we're gonna be taking him to get his services and support, because that's what going to help him be successful. And it's especially important those first five years. So suddenly [teaching] wasn’t sustainable; it wasn’t something I could keep doing. 

I was between a rock and a hard place. When I thought about it, what was keeping me was the students, because they needed me. But at the end of the day, no one's gonna need me more than my own son. 

And so [my son’s diagnosis] propelled me and pushed me to make this change. Of course, there was a lot of uncertainty, and I talked about it a lot with my wife. She was a key person for this change. She was very supportive the entire time, and she was telling me, “Hey, you can make this leap, and we'll rely more on what I'm making right now.”

What plans, if any, did you put in place to help you make this transition?

As I was teaching, doing my credentials, doing these labs, getting these grants, I was also applying for other jobs. Whenever I saw stuff at the college level, I applied for it. I didn’t hear back most of the time.

But I finally did hear back from one in person, and they told me, “You can work one class, because we really need someone. But it'll be one class.” It was gonna be a huge pay cut, with no health care, nothing. I only made the switch because my wife was gonna support me.

What was the initial transition from K-12 to higher ed like?

I got lucky because I only did adjunct for about two years. Every semester, it was hard to know how many classes they were gonna give me. Sometimes it'd be one; sometimes it'd be two. They couldn’t give me a full workload. That's a huge issue for folks: they get stuck in part-time positions, when they're trying to do full-time. Luckily, I was able to to find a full-time position after those two years. 

I’ve been at LACC for three years now. The first year I was just part-time, then I became full-time, tenure-track. I'm now helping to build this animation program from scratch, which I love. It’s kind of a match made in heaven in terms of this campus and the values and what I can bring as well.

Of course, now I feel like everything paid off. But it was a huge gamble. We had to roll the dice, and we didn't know if it would work. One thing I’ve learned throughout my whole history is that if there's an opportunity, it's worth it to take the risk. Because if you wait for the right moment, it might not be available anymore. So I got really lucky with this opportunity, but I also realized that it's important to jump into the opportunity when it's there.

What was the biggest difference, or the biggest surprise in the leap from K-12 to higher ed, and how did you navigate that? 

There are so many! 

One is the independence, the flexibility. These are things that I value so much, especially with my family and being able to schedule things around my son's services. I have to take him and pick him up, so the flexibility is huge.

Another is the opportunity for more advanced curriculum. Because we have our interests and our professional experience, but of course, we always want to meet students where they're at. But at the college level, you can tackle more advanced assignments. 

As a college professor, I can still reach out to middle schools and high schools, and provide opportunities and that connection to college. So I can still give back, but in a way that works for my own work-life balance. I can prioritize my health and my family in ways that I couldn't possibly have before. 

Aside from that, I also learned that those classroom management skills are amazing. Some people who have only taught college don’t have that. So that’s a superpower. There's a push currently for dual enrollment classes [college courses taught to high school students, on a high school campus]. And it’s been such a challenge across the board, everywhere. If [professors] don't have [K-12] experience, they're going to these high schools and trying to teach the college-level classes, and they're finding a lot of challenges. 

What advice would you give a K-12 teacher who’s considering transitioning to higher ed?

There's so much advice! 

I’d say, if you have that emotional connection with the students, that's a good thing. But it's important to also to have a similar connection with yourself, and your family, and your loved ones. Of course, I want to help as many people as I possibly can, but sometimes I have to prioritize: who needs me more right now? Who could possibly need me more than my own family and my own health—my own self, you know? 

Aside from that, take the leap. It makes sense if there's fear; it’s a gamble. So I'm not saying like, “Hey, gamble on any possible opportunity.” But there's a time where you just gotta make that leap. And it really helps if you communicate with your family and your partner. Hopefully, you're able to find that support network, because it’s going to take you a long way.

Also, value your skills. When I was applying to college classes and to other careers, I would hear stuff like, “Well, you have more middle school or high school experience, so I don't know if it would be a good fit.” Well, it was up to me to tell them, “Wait a minute. Did you know at the middle school, I built this lab? I had to run a radio station. I did this administrative work. I had to manage all these people and create this project.” 

I realized that I wasn't the only one. We teachers in K through 12 are asked to do a hundred things that aren’t in our contracts, right? Well, these are marketable skills that we’re learning along the way. So really be able to toot your own horn, and then communicate what those skills are, because they're not just valuable in education. The skills that a teacher is forced to [learn and develop] are valuable in so many industries. 

I still think teaching is the greatest job in the world. Unfortunately, teachers don’t get the support we need and deserve. So don't feel bad about that. It's an uphill battle, in terms of making teaching sustainable as a career, and making it where the teacher doesn’t have to prioritize [the job] above their own health, their own mental health, or their own family's health. I dream of the time where that's not going to be a major issue. But currently, that’s the state of it. And it's gonna take all of us to make that change. 

So I'm really glad that you're doing these conversations. And hopefully, you know, it helps someone. When I was making the leap, I was always looking for this type of resource. Why does it have to be so hidden, right? We can share. We can help each other. Having that network of teachers just talking to each other, communicating, sharing—it helps so much.

Alex Flores is a passionate animation and game design educator, nonprofit media director, teacher advisor for Story Xperiential, and producer of impactful social justice documentaries.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.