“Life is a big tapestry, and every time you put a new thread in a kid’s life, then a teacher’s job is fulfilled,” said Madame Barbara Chaillou. A French teacher for thirty-nine years at University of San Diego High School and later Cathedral Catholic High School, Madame Chaillou is an invaluable teacher with a fascinating life story.
Madame Chaillou was born in Washington D.C. to a French mother and an American father. Her parents got divorced when she was about eight years old, so Mme. Chaillou moved in with her grandparents who were living in Cannes, France.
Growing up in a small, all-girls Catholic school named Le Lys, located in France, Madame Chaillou worked hard in school and achieved her goal of reaching the highest academic level called the French baccalaureate.
After high school, she got married in France at eighteen years old. Mme. Chaillou had her first child there and then another when she moved back to the United States soon after. Before Madame moved back to the U.S. with her husband and daughter, she went to college in Nice for about half a year before deciding to move to the U.S. Mme. Chaillou settled in Nashville, Tennessee for one year because her father lived there. Eventually, she and her new family were ready to move again. She says of her trip: “We took our Chevy Impala and U-haul, and packed the two kids in, and took off to San Diego!”
San Diego is a sunny city among other things that it’s know for, and Mme. Chaillou agrees, saying, “… San Diego has everything; that’s why I moved here.” She has lived in San Diego with her family ever since.
Teaching was surprisingly not Madame Chaillou’s first career option. As a middle schooler and high schooler, Madame wanted to become a missionary. Then she decided to be an English teacher in France, but later she wanted to be a French teacher in the U.S. She attended Mesa College and then SDSU. Her first teaching career was at San Diego State University as a TA and lecturer.
Right before becoming a full-time teacher at Uni, Madame signed up to be a substitute for San Diego Unified School district. After just a few months, Uni called her and Madame was hired.
What many people might not know about Mme. Chaillou, is that she adopted four of her six children, two of which she was not planning on adopting until she personally met the baby girls and fell in love. All of her adopted children were children born from a drug addicted mother. Because of this, Mme. Chaillou advocates against drugs and their negative effects on people.
Not only does she have a strong passion against drugs, Mme. Chaillou also has an inspiring drive to teach the ‘romantic’ French language. She expresses the reasons why she loves teaching French, saying “I like languages and [above all], the grammar part of the language.” Mme. Chaillou relays that French grammar and English grammar, although completely different, are unique in their own way. Teaching this aspect to her students is special to her.
In addition, she has passions outside of the classroom. “I love to travel and think that people should travel too because it opens up your mind to see how other people live. It’s exotic, exciting, and most of all interesting.” Quite the worldly person herself, Mme. Chaillou expresses these views to her students in their French cultural learning.
In the end, teaching lots of different types of students one unique language has pushed Mme. Chaillou all of these years. Her USDHS and Cathedral experiences continually motivate her to have many more experiences teaching her French students.
An amazing teacher and role model, Mme. Chaillou has affected hundreds and hundreds of students. “As a teacher, being able to see students over and over again and watch them grow up is one of the best things about being a teacher,” she said. And this is how Madame Barbara Chaillou fulfills her life on a daily basis, mentoring and inspiring kids to be the best they can be for themselves.