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My name is Nathan Castro, I teach high school here in Oakland at Oakland Unity High. Been out here in Oakland for about five years of serving the community, loving every part of it. I teach freshmen computer science as well as sophomore algebra B. And I'm in my officially third year of teaching. I don't have any kids, but I have a few hundred kids who I worry about. To know certain times what they're going home to, or what they're dealing with at home, or how they're feeling and only being able to provide so much, it can weigh on you. And today is a whole lot of uncertainty, it's very hard, and so I definitely do consider leaving it. So I'm excited to talk to Bryan because he's teaching 10 minutes away from where I teach. So he's obviously dealing in the same community with the same people essentially, right? The same crowd. On top of the fact I love his message as well. Seems like someone who's right up my alley, not only loves his students, but pushes them. [MUSIC] My name is Bryan Bassette. I'm the assistant principal at Elmhurst Middle School over the seventh grade, and PE department, teaching for the last seven years. And this is, I'm what, several months into my administrative career. I'm Oakland through and through. I love my city, and I attribute who I am to Oakland, but also improving it, and making it better than it was when I was growing up, I grew up in Oakland in eighties, and at the height of the crack epidemic, and I've seen a lot of violence. I've seen things and been through things that just 8, 9, 10 year old little kids shouldn't have to go through. &gt;&gt; No. &gt;&gt; Right? &gt;&gt; Yeah. And so I didn't plan on becoming a teacher. I was academically disqualified from Cal State East Base. It's a fancy way of saying I got kicked out of school for bad grades. And so when when I got kicked out of school, what happened was, I started coaching high school baseball. I really love coaching. I love that the interaction, and it was young, I wanted to go to college level. And so that's what drove me to get back into school, and get my BA. And at that time, I had two sons, and so I should, I got to have a job, I got to take care of my family. And so that's why I took a job as a step sub, and then my principal at the time, she had a large population of black boys that she wanted to support. She knew that the Oakland Unified had just started the Office of African American Male Achievement. &gt;&gt; Right. And so she's like, yeah, I want this on my campus. I ran the pilot for the elementary level. And it just, that's when I like really fell in love with teaching. It was my first time having my own classroom, having my own students. The curriculum was a fusion of black culture, social awareness, a cultural education piece that our kids didn't get, that I didn't get in my education, K through 12 experience. Once I got in the classroom, and saw what it was, and the relationship building with the students and. How I had the ability to pour into students like my teachers, and coaches did for me, like I just fell in love with the job. I still get to be involved with students through coaching. But I genuinely wake up on most days, wake up looking forward to actually going to work, and building with my students. &gt;&gt; It sounds like you pretty much followed your heart, right? Your heart was sports, and you followed it, and it's led you along the path, it ain't the path you wanted but at the same time it's led you to something you'd never would have expected. So what do you think you took away from coaching that you're able to transfer to being a teacher, like what skills were directly applicable to each other? &gt;&gt; One of the biggest things is my ability to build relationships with students. And especially our Black and Brown students in Oakland who school districts have been a part of oppressing and suppressing Black and Brown communities. And so there's, one this understanding like put just putting teachers of color in front of students of color like it is going to just work out. &gt;&gt; Magically right? That's not how it works. And so despite the fact that I am born and raised in this same community, kids do not care what you know until they know that you care. So having those conversations with students. Is how I get around that, like it's not going to be you by yourself. &gt;&gt; Yes. &gt;&gt; You have support, whatever you need, I'm going to work with you. I know you living on McArthur and Seminary in the kill zone in Oakland. &gt;&gt; Right. &gt;&gt; I know what you're walking through to go home. I know what the experience is. And just encouraging our kids that world is bigger than Seminary and MacArthur. The world is bigger than West Oakland, the road is bigger than Oakland. And there's a lot of opportunity out there for you. I try to connect their success to their decision making, because there are a lot of distractions and a lot of pitfalls. That are in our kids, that are in our kids' way and giving them the support and the information to navigate around that, that is our job. Right? &gt;&gt; Right. That's literally why you're here, right? [LAUGH] This is why you do what you do. &gt;&gt; Right? As an administrator just being like four months into what I've seen, and just being an also being a teacher. Teachers come all across the spectrum on their awareness, and willingness to address issues of race and class in their classrooms and in their school communities and in their school culture. And so, you do have like teachers who come into schools like Elmhurst, where there's predominately students of color, and I'm coming to save the students. And that's just a completely wrong perspective to come into this work. We don't need anyone to save us. We just need the playing field to be leveled. We need support. That addressed our specific needs. There is no cookie cutter approach to this. If it was that easy, we wouldn't have the issues that we have. &gt;&gt; Exactly. &gt;&gt; There's education that our teachers have to have, you have to grow your practice, and you have to grow your ability to connect with these students. So again, it's back to the relationship piece. One of my best friends in this work is a white Irish woman who I met at the YMCA, and she was just as effective with the black boys as I was. And it was because she was empathetic, she was genuine, she was real. Like I got to meet my kids where they are. I have to understand who they are and what they need in order to help them be successful. So raising that awareness was one of the motivators to becoming an administrator, how I supported my kings in my classroom as an administrator, my reaches is longer. &gt;&gt; Beautiful, yeah, sounds like a lot of weight, right, on your shoulders on top of the fact that you said you have some kids and all that. &gt;&gt; Right. &gt;&gt; So how do you find a moment to decompress because I have to assume that it builds on you. I know myself as a teacher my kids' worries tend to become my worries, how do you have a moment? &gt;&gt; I just lose myself in the work, it doesn't wear me down in that way. And I've been to too many funerals of students, right, and so just that perspective, even down to where like I lost my younger brother to gun violence in this past August. &gt;&gt; Wow. &gt;&gt; And so like that understanding, it's like this has to change. And so that's kind of what drives me is being that that agent of change, but like you said like I do need to find better ways of just diving deeper into self care, so that I am giving from my overflow, and not burn myself out. &gt;&gt; Right. &gt;&gt; Part of it is just having an understanding, sadly that I'm not going to be able to help every single student because of the volume of need of our students, and families, and our teachers. That's just not feasible. &gt;&gt; Right. One of my goals and my end game one, I would like to go back to teach at the high school I went to, because it had so many issues, and I saw how bad it was at times. And I ideally would like to get onto something like school board, and city council, and seeing as you're already lined up directly with that, you're literally doing what I'm looking to do, how does that feel? And what is that really like? &gt;&gt; That's one of the most fulfilling parts. I'm standing on the shoulders of the coaches, the teachers, the mentors who poured into me, and if we can just improve the systems, improve the community. It'll just, there'll be so much more success stories. If I can get a UC Berkeley degree. I'm thinking about all the other people and kids who I grew up with, who were just as smart just as talented as me, but who had other issues, and who didn't get these opportunities, and what could have been for them. &gt;&gt; I love hearing that, because the same way I think of certain friends that didn't make it because of things at home or didn't make it because they got killed. And to think of what could have been because they were more talented than I, that's for sure. I want to thank you for everything you've done, everything you're doing. That's a crazy fight that you're fighting, but you're doing it, you're making it look easy, to be honest. &gt;&gt; [LAUGH] &gt;&gt; Thank you for your time. Thank you for everything you do for the community. &gt;&gt; I appreciate it and commend you for going back to school and getting your degree because we need more people like you in front of our kids who understand them and who have the heartbeat for it. &gt;&gt; I loved Bryan's honesty. It's not about you, it's about helping the community at large, changing everything from your lesson plan to just the way you talk to kids, to the way you approach them, to the way you approach the issues in class. I think it helped with some of the burning questions I had of how, how do you really deal with this? And as far as helping me with my longevity in this career that I do love, but it's very taxing. Seeing someone do what I want to do, who is very much like me, that gives me a better outlook on the possibility of sticking with it longer, or even completely long-term. 

Oakland educators Nathan Castro and Bryan Bassette sit down to talk about the unique trials and tribulations students face in their hometown. As they reminisce on their own upbringings and their current career trajectories, they talk about their roles as educators in helping Oakland youth navigate through, overcome, and excel in the face of adversity.

Oakland principal on how to support students by building relationships

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