The Black Male Teacher, The Unicorn In Education | S8E1

A recent study showed that there are more female fighter pilots, per capita, than there are male teachers in the United States.  This statistic doubles when referring to Black male teachers.  This week we discuss what it's like to be a Black male teacher, and what the state of education looks like in the Black community in 2024.  All this and much more.  Informed.  Intelligent.  In The Black!

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Yes.

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I saw a stat the other day

that said that there are

more female fighter pilots

per capita in the United

States than there are black male teachers,

and then specifically black

male teachers in the United States,

which really struck me.

And that ultimately became

the catalyst for tonight's topic.

We're going to talk about

what it is teaching while

black and the state of

education in the black

community at this point.

So I have a special guest tonight.

My guest, Sean Baldwin.

I'm going to let him introduce himself.

Brother Baldwin, what's up, man?

Hey, hey, hey, how's it going?

Hey.

It's going, it's going.

Thank you, man.

I really want to take time

out to say thank you.

I appreciate you taking time

out of your schedule to

come and have this conversation,

a much needed conversation.

As I've introduced you as

little as I can at this point,

please tell our listeners,

our viewers a little bit about yourself.

Absolutely.

My name is Tashaun Baldwin.

I am a middle school ELA teacher.

So I teach English six through eight.

I teach in Brownsville, Brooklyn.

I am also a PhD student at St.

John's University.

Just got into my dissertation phase.

So this show is actually a

healthy break from working

on my dissertation proposal.

Don't laugh.

So I'm happy to be here.

I'm happy to talk about the

state of education from the

Black male perspective.

And I'm just looking forward

to the conversation.

Fantastic.

Now,

don't use me as an excuse when you

don't do what you're supposed to do,

that you was out here with

me on the show.

I don't need that trouble.

You know,

my dissertation committee chair

will be like,

what were you doing last night?

You know what?

OK, now we have.

laid the groundwork right in

terms of what this

conversation is going to

look like but I've got to

ask the primary question

the first and foremost what

is it like being a black

male teacher I know it's a

loaded question it's a

vague question but I mean I

think right I think we if

we start from there we can

build off on everything

else so what is it like

being a black male teacher

Ah, man.

It's such an experience, right?

There are many positives and

negatives to being a Black male teacher.

You know, we're the two percenters.

So I could say I'm a two percenter.

I mean,

I'm in the upper echelon of teaching.

So being a Black male

educator to me is amazing.

It's amazing.

I love teaching.

I get up every single day and I'm like,

yes, I love teaching.

I go to work.

I love what I do.

I love empowering the young

minds and bonding with my kids, you know,

no matter what.

But there have been some

interesting happenings as a

Black male teacher.

Like I've been the disciplinarian.

I've been the one to break up the fights.

you know, I've been the one to, uh,

do lunch detention, just go,

go to Mr. Baldwin, you know?

And I'm like, well,

why did you send me the kid?

You didn't handle it.

I've been, uh,

talked to escalated parents.

Like, um, it's just, it's just a lot,

but the whole disciplinarian thing,

I'm like, uh, yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

Send me the kids because I'm

gonna take care of them.

But

why can't you do it?

You know,

if get somebody else to do it was

a person.

They just pushing it on you.

I dig it.

I dig it.

Okay.

So given what you've just,

given what you've just described,

then do you ever feel out of place?

Because like we've already

described or how,

as we've already alluded to,

You are a unicorn in this

field at this point.

Do you ever have like

imposter syndrome or feel

out of place when you're

coming into the school or

trying to discipline a

child or when you're trying

to lead or nurture or guide a child?

Maybe not directly from the

child themselves,

but maybe from like a

parent or your colleagues

or from the administration.

Like,

do you feel sometimes like you're

meant to feel like an outsider?

Um, early in my teaching career,

I did because I was trying

to find my footing,

but now I just take up space.

I want to, I'm here, you know,

I'm gonna say what I want

to say respectfully, of course.

Um,

and I'm always going to have

the mind of what's good for

the students what's good

for my kids because I don't

have kids so my students

are my kids what's good for

the kids because that's why

I'm here you know that's

why I get I get paid you

know um but there have been

times where I've been

labeled aggressive and I I

have a pretty calm demeanor

I don't know if you can tell that but

I'm pretty calm.

I mean, I turn up... Okay,

so I turn up when I need to.

But overall, I'm pretty calm.

I'm easy.

I go with the flow.

But I have been met with a

lot of resistance.

It didn't make me feel like an outsider,

but when you're trying to

do something that you know is good,

and it's just like, oh,

this is not going to work.

This is not going to work.

This is not... You know, we can't do this.

They can't do this.

And it's like...

I internalize that.

So that's something that I'm working on.

But for the most part,

I create my own lane.

I pave my own way.

I stand up.

I step up.

I speak up.

And I also give space for

other people to talk to.

And

It's just come with the territory.

Like,

you have to learn the people that you

work with and also the kids

that you're teaching.

So, you know,

I know who I can talk to a little firmer.

I know who needs a little

bit more hand-holding when

I speak to them, you know,

instead of it being like, hey,

do what I say.

Say it with a smile.

Hey, can you do what I just said?

You know,

so it lands differently for people.

And that's something that I

had to learn along the way.

But, you know, I'm just me.

And, you know,

people people go like me regardless.

And if you don't like me, that's all you.

I dig that.

I dig that.

OK, so.

You've already described,

we've already explained

that you work as a teacher,

a middle school teacher in Brownsville,

which is predominantly

black for those folks that don't know,

right?

Yes.

Being a, do you feel like your,

I want to word this correctly,

and I hope I'm wording it correctly.

Do you feel like your

blackness is a positive or

a hindrance in Brownsville?

As a teacher.

I feel like it's a positive.

See,

the thing that I like about the school

that I work with,

and I know we talked about

this a little bit,

even though it's a small school,

it's an intimate school and

the staff is 98 percent black.

So we have that ability to

make a real difference with

our kids and the school community.

You know, previous school,

schools I worked at,

I've been like the token black guy.

So it feels better to be

with people that I can

commune with in that way

and bond with in that way.

Because I'm not one of those

hang out with your coworkers people,

but I love to hang out with

my coworkers now.

you know, it's like, all right,

we're bonding.

And that makes it more,

it gives more collaboration.

It gives more community

because we're able to learn

each other both inside and

outside of the school.

So I think that being at a

school where the majority

of us are people of color

is very positive for the

neighborhood because the

kids get to see varying

levels of Blackness.

principals black aps of you

know a person of color the

teachers are of color the

parents are of color school

secretary right so they get

to see blackness and black

excellence at every every

level of the school even

down to the custodian so

it's like okay cool these

are my people you know

I dig it.

Makes perfect sense.

OK,

what I want you to do is just if you

could just talk a little

bit about the experiences

that you've had at these other schools,

because I'm assuming just

the way you've described it,

that these other schools

were predominantly white or

had more white than not.

Let me let me say that.

Yes.

And I'm not you know,

I love everywhere I've been.

I've only been to three other schools.

But I love everywhere I've

been because it has molded

who I am as a professional

and as a person.

But there were a lot of

times where there was

disconnect because some of

the non-people of color

teachers were jealous

because of the

relationships that I had with my kids.

And it's like, OK, well.

You know,

do you know who likes to play piano?

Do you know who likes to cook?

Do you know who, you know,

do you know what they do in

their free time?

Cause I asked those kinds of things.

And I think that it's that, um,

you know,

that passed down level of

authority type thing.

Like I'm in front of the room,

you do what I say, instead of, you know,

it being a open

collaborative effort to

create a positive learning

environment with you and your students.

So, you know,

I even talk to my kids about that too,

when they're, when they used to be like,

you know, just active, I'll say active.

I would be like, hey,

I walked past the math room

a couple of periods ago and

you were with such and such

and y'all were quiet.

So what's up?

You know,

I would have those conversations

with them and I would ask

them in so many words is,

is it because I'm Black?

You know, and when you take a step back,

you know, you kind of see like, oh,

have we been taught to

respect certain types of

people over others?

And, you know, in a mixed school,

you can see it, you know,

and it's not just white teachers,

for example, it's, you know, all cultures,

you can see the cultural differences,

you know, like,

you're saying there's a

hierarchy of respect in terms of culture.

Yeah, absolutely.

Interesting, interesting, interesting,

interesting.

uh okay so we do have some

questions and I posed this

to you at the very

beginning while we're over

here we do we have some

questions uh that we've

done a poll with our folks

so I'm going to be asking

some questions throughout

the course of the show and

our first question comes

from trent and trent says

his question is how do they

specifically or how would

you specifically combat

resist the whitewashed

curriculum and school board

politics I you know I i approach uh

I approach everything black.

You know, when they ask you, what are your,

how do you identify?

The first thing I say is black.

So when it comes to the curriculum,

the first thing I do is look at it.

I look at it.

And if the story, listen,

they don't care about that.

So I try to pick things

where my students will see

themselves in it.

Like,

I do a lot of stories that are of New

York City.

I do a lot of stories where

the main characters are

Black or people of color because...

let's be honest,

these kids don't want to

read Shakespeare.

You know,

they don't want to read Shakespeare.

They want to read other

things like Jason Reynolds or, you know,

they want to read that kind of stuff.

With my seventh graders, for example,

we're doing Raymond's Run

by Tony Cade Bombera and, you know,

The main character is a

little black girl their age

and she lives in New York.

So that's something that

they can relate to.

So when I approach the curriculum,

I'm like, listen, what's the skills?

Because I could pick my own material.

You know, what's the skills?

I got the skills.

I could pick my own material.

But I try to make sure it's

something that they're

going to be interested in.

I also try to pick current things,

you know,

about technology because they're

really big.

on digital things and just

stuff that they want to talk about.

So, yeah, I eavesdrop in the cafeteria.

I listen to what they're talking about.

You know,

I try to incorporate that because

that that promotes

engagement and participation.

And, you know,

now because you're in New York, though,

because you're in New York

and you're in Brooklyn,

that's more that's a more

for lack of a better description,

that's a more liberal perspective.

So you might not get as much

push as someone who's in Florida,

for example,

or as a teacher that's in Florida.

But even with that being said,

I know that there has to be

some battles that you've

had to take a step back and

look at and say, okay, well,

is it worth taking this battle head on?

So can you describe that or

talk a little bit about that?

Don't get yourself in trouble.

I told you before,

I don't want to get you in trouble.

I want you to be able to go

back to school.

But I want the real.

I asked you to be on because

I know you're going to give me the real.

So go ahead and do your thing.

A lot of the, oh,

I need to back down because

I have to do that is more

around like the standardized testing.

The way the tests are delivered,

the way that, you know,

the way that we are

encouraged to teach like

test prep and stuff like that.

That's, that's the most,

if I had to label a number one,

that would be the most

resistance because it's about data,

you know, data, data,

data funding is about data.

What are your kids doing?

We can get y'all some more money.

You can get higher enrollment,

more students, more money, you know?

So at that point, that's when I have to,

kind of take a step back

right because then the kids

are just numbers right

they're numbers and figures

so then it's like all right

I can't stray too far away

because I want them to do

well I want to encourage

them to do well so I have

to follow this program okay

all right we're going to

take another question um

question come one of our

questions comes from

queenie and queenie says

Coming out of the pandemic,

and you talked about this a

little bit when we were off here,

but coming out of the pandemic,

we saw many reports about

teachers leaving the

profession because of stress,

lack of compensation, and some would say,

undue burden placed on teachers.

How do you manage distress

that comes with your role?

And part two,

what keeps you showing up day after day?

Also, what do you think, God,

she's in part three.

Also,

what do you think we as a society

need to do to improve the

work environment for educators?

So let's start with the first one.

How do you manage distress

that comes with your role?

So I partially leave work at work,

but I'm like,

teaching for me is 24 seven.

I kid you not.

Sometimes I wake up out of

my sleep at like four 30 in the morning,

like, oh my gosh,

this will work for them.

And I grabbed my laptop and

I started typing and I'm like,

why are you up right now?

You,

your alarm's about to go off in an hour.

You probably still need to be sleep,

but I just,

I just get so excited about it.

Um,

On the weekends,

I try not to do anything

but like schoolwork.

So Sundays is my absolute do nothing day.

Don't call me.

Don't email me.

I'm not doing anything but

what I want to do.

So if I wake up, make my coffee,

make my breakfast and say,

I want to go lay back down.

You know what I'm going to do?

I'm going to go lay back down.

And I just have to keep self

at the front of my mind,

because if I'm not good.

then I'm not going to be good for my kids.

It's hard.

It's hard because I have

that little itch like,

you can grade these papers.

But then I'm like, nah, no.

Do not do it because then

that's going to be an

avalanche and you're going to be like, oh,

look at this, look at this, look at this.

They might like this,

they might like this.

And then my whole day is gone.

So I really just kind of

I take time for me and that

that's been the most important,

important thing for me.

Like, and I try to stick to it.

Um, so yeah, my dedicated day helps.

It works wonders and it sets my week up.

So, um, then, you know, during the week,

I give myself a cutoff time.

Like I had stopped grading

papers around 6.30 so I

could prepare for this and

get my mind right.

So hard deadlines.

Stick to your deadlines

because the work is still

going to be there.

Yeah.

And, you know,

I get prep time so I can roll it over to,

I can do it tomorrow during

my prep time where I could

do it tomorrow night.

I'm not trying to fit it all

in in one day.

Like the sense of urgency

once I leave the building

is me and on my weekends is me.

So that's really, that's really what I do.

Dedicated time for myself.

Okay.

I want to follow up with

this question just given

how we've laid this out.

Yes.

The next question comes from Lee,

and Lee says,

how does the education

system in the inner cities,

and he uses the example of Baltimore,

how does it continually

fail Black children?

Whoa, you could have said that to the end.

The inner city, okay,

this is a great question, by the way.

I think we fail our kids

because we don't fully

understand our kids.

And it's not just

understanding the kids as a student.

It's understanding the kids as a person.

I believe that a lot of

you know,

the behaviors like the one-offs

are because the kids don't

feel seen and heard or understood.

And there's a stigma about

inner city communities and

kids that come from inner

city communities.

And that has been longstanding.

Like the education system, let's be honest,

nothing has changed about it.

Scores have not gone up.

Reading levels have not gone

up in the past 30 to 60 years.

School has been absolutely the same.

And that should tell you

something right there.

And the failure also is standardization.

One size fit all.

One size doesn't fit all

when it comes to these kids,

especially these kids.

You know, we talk about COVID.

COVID affected everybody.

COVID has desensitized the

entire world and the kids

are desensitized the most.

Explain that some more for me.

Break that down a little bit.

Desensitized the most.

They don't care about anything.

If we're going to be real,

they don't care about anything.

They're fearless.

They don't care about anything.

Some of the things that come

out of their mouth are very

inappropriate and reckless.

And the kids are really impulsive.

So there's no, Hey,

that little window you get

before you react or say something,

they don't have that.

They're kids already,

so that's going to be the case anyway.

I probably shouldn't say

this or I probably shouldn't do this.

No, they just skip and do.

It's like, I don't know.

It just created this space

of I always got to defend

myself against something.

I tell the kids all the time, listen,

I'm not your enemy.

I'm here for you.

I mean me, but you.

You know,

I'm not your enemy you don't

have to defend yourself to

me you don't have to be

defensive to me I don't

know about you know anybody

else else but yeah yeah

this room is a safe space

for you I tell them all the

time you can come talk to

me about anything however I

am a mandated reporter so

Be careful about what you're telling me,

because if you're harming somebody else,

you don't want to harm

yourself or somebody's harming you.

I got to report it.

But if you want to just talk

about your mama getting on your nerves,

you know what?

My mama get on my nerves, too.

Tell me about it.

Now, given what you just described, I mean,

we in preparation for the show,

we watched a video about all of the.

incidences that teachers

have to deal with um and

we'll play segments of that

video for our viewers so

they get an understanding

of what we're talking about

how true how often how

accurate is that video in

terms of the the

I guess for lack of a better description,

the attack on teachers,

like the whole school

teaching environment,

especially from teacher to

student interaction,

because some of the things

that I was watching in that video,

I can't even fathom.

Like as a kid,

I would have never even

thought to say and do some

of those things.

But, you know, like we said,

the internet is not the only,

the internet sometimes is not real life.

So that's why I want to ask you,

how accurate was that video?

That video was very, very accurate.

And I don't even know.

I couldn't even tell you what changed.

I tell the kids all the time,

when I was your age,

when I was growing up,

we wouldn't dare curse at our teachers,

let alone roll our eyes at

a teacher because it was a

level of respect there for teachers,

even as adults.

Right.

It's it's it's not there.

I mean,

once you've built positive rapport

and relationships with the kids,

but just like first level, hey,

I'm just meeting you respect it.

It's not there.

It doesn't exist anymore.

It doesn't exist.

And it's crazy some of the

things that come out of

these kids' mouths.

I can't even repeat it.

Outside of the pandemic,

because we've talked about that,

the pandemic and COVID being part of it.

What do you think is the reason for that,

though?

Because like I said,

I'm still trying to wrap my

mind around...

just some of the behavior

that we see from children

in today's day and age.

And I don't want to sound

like an old grumpy,

get off my lawn type dude,

but sometimes you see this stuff.

And I felt for the teachers

in the video because it

appears as though it's

gotten to a point that it's

really one of the things,

not the only thing or the majority thing,

but one of the staples of

why teachers are leaving.

Do you think that that's fair?

And what do you think, like I said,

what else do you think is

the cause of that?

I think it's fair.

Teachers are leaving for a lot of reasons.

Student violence and disrespect,

like the video said,

that's real high on the list.

I think that, and I lost my thought,

I'm going to come back to it.

Not only is it the

disrespect from the students and

Oh, it's because it's no consequences.

There's no consequences.

When that lady said the kid

goes get taken out the room,

given a snack and come back

in five minutes.

That is absolutely true.

Sometimes with or without the snack.

You know,

I've been in environments where

kids have fights.

They're back at school the next day.

You know, when I was coming up,

and I sound like a grumpy old man too,

huh?

When I was coming up, if you fart,

you got suspended.

Right.

Okay?

And the premise to that is

if the kids are out of the classroom,

they are missing valuable learning time.

Now, I agree.

But at the expense of what?

Class is 45 minutes.

I've spent 20 minutes in a

discussion with a child

just trying to get them to

be quiet so that I could teach.

I only have 25 minutes to teach now.

And five of those minutes,

they got to pack up, right?

So at what point is it okay?

This is a real situation.

Let's take care of the situation.

Let's pull the parent in.

Let's have a parent meet.

Let's get everybody to the table.

Let's have a powwow.

Let's figure out the

solution because I cannot

come to work every day and

argue with your child for

20 minutes and then try to

teach for 20 so y'all can

pack up in five.

Because it brings on different things,

right?

So if I argue with child A,

from bell to bell child b c

d and e are like oh child a

is getting attention let me

do the same thing so now

it's a domino effect and

now I got 10 kids that I

gotta argue with for 20 minutes or more

And then the other kids

don't want to participate.

They're in their shell because, one,

they're probably tired of it.

Two,

they don't want to speak up because

they don't want somebody to

say something to them out of the way,

right?

So no consequences.

That's the root of that

problem is no consequences, right?

Do you think it's a parenting?

And I'm going to let you

finish your thought.

But do you think that,

what role does parenting play in it?

Because I know that's a

question that we're going to ask.

And we ask very frequently

in the Black community that

our parents are not where

they're supposed to be or

doing the things they're supposed to do,

so on and so forth.

So I'm going to ask that question.

What role does parenting

play in what you just described?

You know, shameless plug.

Part of my research for my

dissertation is about the

factors that impact family

literacy and parent

involvement in Black communities.

So this is kind of in my wheelhouse,

right?

I want to say that there

have been a lot of

parent meetings and phone

calls that I've had where

just speaking to the parent

I could say that cliche the

apple doesn't fall too far

from the tree like oh this

is why your child acts the

way they do because look

how you acted you know um it gets wild um

It gets wild.

And I'm like, oh, my gosh,

we're trying to come up

with some solutions.

And you have insulted me 10 times.

I'm going to excuse myself

because that's not that's

one thing I'm not going to stand for.

I am here to teach your child.

I called you.

Because we have a problem.

And instead of letting it

fester and become this big thing,

I'm like, hey, listen,

you should probably come in

for a parent meeting.

We'll pull the child in.

We can all talk and figure out a solution.

You're coming in here.

I'm this, that, and the third.

Ma'am, I am about to get my third degree.

And I don't even like to

pull the degree card.

Don't insult me.

Please.

I have to just be quiet and

excuse myself because, you know,

I know who I was.

And I ain't too far from it

when it comes to stuff like

being disrespected.

So I just excuse myself because, listen,

you only have to show me

who you are once.

I dig it.

And I know how to deal with you.

And it's crazy because...

that happened to me.

And then after the fact,

parent wants to apologize to me.

No,

I don't want to hear anything you got

to say because you could

have acted right.

Yeah.

And I, you know,

I'm not blaming parents

because parents are who they are.

Right.

Parents do the best that

they can with what they have.

But what I've noticed is

some parents don't believe the teachers,

right?

I know my child.

Do you?

Because if I could legally

videotape your child,

you probably don't know your child.

It's almost like

they're offended because

something's wrong.

You know, like, oh,

I know my child and this is

how I raised my child.

However,

school is a totally different place.

School is the place where

some kids let loose because

they're not at home, right?

And it's so crazy because

the thing that's going to

improve education is

And if I see this somewhere else,

it's copyrighted, right?

The thing that's going to

improve education is the community factor,

the parents, the student, the teachers,

the administrators, the school community.

It has to be a group effort.

Everybody has to do their

part because that's the only way.

We have to go back to communing.

We have to go back to being

a collective in order for

school to work because it's

so far gone that one person

can't do it alone.

If I call you and say, hey,

We got to talk about Lil Johnny,

Lil Johnny's language.

I'm not calling you to get

Lil Johnny in trouble.

I'm calling you because it's serious,

because Lil Johnny's

language is impacting him, his learning,

his peers learning and everybody else.

So I think that it's just.

I don't think that we call

for enough good stuff.

But what good stuff is

happening sometimes?

So when I call,

I try to lead with a compliment.

You know,

your child did excellent on their essay.

They got an A. Wonderful work.

However,

we do need to discuss the behavior

of my class.

It's all about delivery sometimes, too.

You know,

and I don't get offended when I'm

in that place of being insulted.

because it kind of comes

with the territory.

Right.

But, you know,

I try to be empathetic

because everybody's home

life is so different.

However, I also have, like,

this much tolerance for adult BS.

Can I say BS on your show?

You can say whatever you want to say.

Go ahead, Sean.

So, I...

My empathy for that is

little because adults

should be able to adjust.

Kids, they're kids.

They're growing up.

It's no collaboration with the parents,

to be quite honest.

Now, you have some that are very involved.

You have some that are on

top of their kids.

but there are also the

majority of others that I

know my kid people you

can't tell me anything

about my kid well you know

how about you come spend

the day with your kid you

miss you miss work because

when I gotta argue with

your kid for 20 minutes I'm

missing work right um what

what was your last question

I'm sorry I think I've

No,

I was actually going to ask you another

question, man.

So beforehand, before we got on air,

we talked about how you try

to relate to your students

and seeing how you grew up,

seeing how you grew up and

you tried to use that as

the linchpin between you and your kids.

But you said that trauma

bonding is not the way to go.

Please explain a little bit more.

Explain that for our listeners.

All right.

So future teachers of America,

especially black teachers,

do not attempt to trauma

bond with your kids and

think they're going to be

angels for you because it's

not going to work.

That's my shameless plug.

So early in my teaching career,

I felt like because I was from the hood,

let's be real.

And, you know,

my kids are from similar

communities that that was

our bonding point.

Like, hey, look at me.

in front of you, the successful teacher.

You could be anything you want to be.

I am just like you.

I came from the same environment you did.

Them kids weren't trying to hear that.

Them kids were not trying to hear that.

I had so many frustrating

moments because I'm like,

I don't understand why they

won't behave for me.

We're the same.

I'm their role model.

I'm their role model.

We all came from the hood.

Why y'all not behaving?

You know?

So I had to quickly get away from that.

Do not attempt a trauma bond

with children.

It doesn't work with adults either.

But it doesn't work with kids especially.

They can see through that.

They're like, get out of here.

But you did say something,

and I think that it was poignant.

I mean, you can't trauma bond,

but I think as a teacher, you empathize,

and you gave an example

about the young lady

raising her siblings.

Yes, yes.

So go ahead and...

We talked about that.

I have a student who kind of

experienced something that

I experienced growing up,

like giving kids adult responsibilities.

So a young lady had to...

wake her siblings up,

get them ready for school, cook breakfast,

take them to school,

and then come to school.

And she was not herself when

she got to school.

Like, she was frustrated.

She was snappy.

And that's not like her.

She's very bright, very sweet.

So, of course, the antennas go up like,

hey, what's going on?

So I learned about all of

these things that she had

to do before 8 a.m.,

When school starts from another teacher,

and I'm like, wow, that is a trend,

right?

That's like, you know,

the curse of the oldest.

That's what we're going to call it,

the curse of the oldest.

Because I, you know...

Growing up, I was 10.

I was telling you I was 10

taking care of my baby

cousin who was a baby.

Like, no,

I'm supposed to be outside getting dirty,

you know, going to play basketball,

playing cars.

I'm not supposed to be

changing baby diapers and fixing milk and,

you know, doing all this stuff.

So it snatches away the childhood.

And that plays a large role

in it because kids aren't

allowed to be kids.

When they have these adult

responsibilities,

they're forced to grow up

but still have a child mentality.

Like, okay, you know, I know,

and I'm sure that this

student doesn't mind helping mom.

I'm pretty sure of that.

And I'm sure that they have

a great relationship, but it's like,

at what point

Is this going to stop for

the community as a whole?

I mean, you know, oldest kids,

we don't mind helping out,

but there are certain

things that we definitely

should not be doing.

Yeah, I dig it.

I dig it.

All right,

we're going to take another question.

I think this will be the

last question for the evening,

but I'm going to take

another question from one

of our listeners, Addie.

Addie says,

we hear often about the lack of

Black male educators,

especially in the K-12 space.

Can you talk about the

impact of your presence in

the school building on the

students you work with?

Yeah, we were talking about that.

I like taking up space.

Because I know my why.

I know why I teach.

I know who I'm teaching.

And the little nuances and

the little headaches don't

mean much to me.

It's the,

I had a student find me on Instagram.

He's a senior now.

So I taught him when he was

in sixth grade.

He's like, hey, Mr. Baldwin,

I don't know if you remember me,

but you was my favorite teacher.

That's what keeps me in the classroom.

And knowing that I'm

changing the narrative of

how Black men are seen everywhere,

you know, I've gotten the, I'm aggressive,

this, that, and the third,

but I'm also a nurturer.

I'm the fixer of the glasses that break.

I'm the nurse.

I'm the counselor.

I'm the father, right?

And I take that lightly.

Some of my kids call me dad,

which is kind of creepy.

And I kind of be like, eh, no, no.

I dig it.

Mr. Baldwin is fine.

But I take that role, right?

And I don't take it lightly because I

kids want structure no

matter how how much they

don't want to hear what

you're saying they want

structure they want to know

that they're loved they

want to know that they're

cared for they want to know

that somebody is in their

corner and guess who that

is this guy so just you

know the it's a it's a lot

of I've had a lot of uh

pressure put on me as a

Black male teacher.

Like the high school that I,

one of the high schools I taught at,

I was the first Black male

English teacher.

That's a lot.

That's a lot of pressure, you know?

And, you know, I've been,

I've been the first Black

male English teacher in a lot of spaces,

but, you know,

just knowing that I am

positively contributing to

how we are seen, it means a lot to me.

You know, it's, hey,

this profession

historically has been set

aside for white women.

Let's be real.

School started white women educators.

So then that started to

change when women of color

started becoming teachers.

And then that continued to

change when the men started to come in.

You know, and

you know, a lot of black male teachers,

they, the math teacher, they, the coach,

they, the PE teacher, you know, they,

the science teacher,

they ain't usually the English teacher.

We out there though, but you know,

they're not used.

You won't,

you don't really think your

first thought is not,

I have a male black male English teacher,

you know?

Um,

So just my presence and the

high expectations that I

have for my kids and that I keep for them,

no matter who they are,

I have the highest probably

expectations of my kids

because I see their

potential and I want them

to see it and I want them to tap into it.

So if that means I got to be

over your head every day,

then guess what?

I'm on your neck, okay?

I dig.

But I do it out of love and

they know that.

And that is what helps me

have great relationships

with my kids because they

know that I'm doing it

because I actually care

about them and I love them.

And I'm going to stick up for them.

I'm going to go to bat for them always.

Y'all might get on my nerves,

but let somebody else say

something about you.

Oh, no, don't talk about my kids.

Do not talk about my kids

because you don't know them.

I do.

So I can talk about them.

In a loving way.

I just want, you know,

if I was to talk about the

state of the 2%, we need more of us.

We need more of us for visibility,

for representation.

We need more of us in this space.

It is tough being a teacher today.

It is absolutely hard.

But it's so rewarding.

Like,

it's so rewarding to see your kids

graduate and walk across

that stage and just be so happy.

Like, I did it.

I did it.

It's so rewarding to see

your kids as little timid

sixth graders go to be strong,

vocal eighth graders.

Like,

that's something most people don't

get to experience.

And to be like, you know what?

I was a part of that experience.

Listen, I told you I love DJ.

It's just a feeling like no other,

but it's hard.

So let's talk about the obstacles.

It's hard.

I think it's hard for us

because of perception, right?

How we are actually

perceived in these spaces,

especially when it's time to talk.

Okay.

Because I've seen...

you know, people be, oh,

I don't like to talk to

Baldwin because he's just, you know,

he just talks so abrasive

and so rough and stuff.

That's why I say you got to

learn people because that'll be,

that's the fallback.

I'm talking aggressive.

I walk aggressive.

no I have a southern stroll

actually I don't know I

walk at my own little pace

but just because I'm saying

something with emotion or

passion doesn't mean I'm

aggressive it doesn't you

know I i keep other me

locked up pretty well you

know um and I i just think

it's just the stigma that keeps

keeps people away and it's

um it's other things that

you know it's a fine line

things that people don't

like to tread on that'll

cause like harassment

issues and things like that

you know I feel like just

like it's disproportionate

discipline for black kids

it's disproportionate

reporting also uh for you

know teachers of color men

um you know we we even talk

about that like

You know, if the girls start fighting,

I ain't breaking it up

because then I don't want

to be in a situation where, oh,

Mr. Baldwin did X, Y, Z. No, I didn't.

I broke up that fight.

Right.

You know,

so and then it's also how the

students perceive us.

Right.

You know,

if a child sees a black male

teacher as an authority figure,

maybe remind some of their dad.

If they don't have a good

relationship with their dad,

there's contention there.

you know,

I'm a fight with you just because

you remind me of my dad, you know,

it doesn't matter that

you're my teacher and

you're trying to help me.

I just don't want you

telling me what to do.

Somebody else can, but you can't.

So a lot of that, you know,

a lot of that is faced as well.

I just, you know,

and also it's just the way

to get into education,

the obstacles there,

like the teacher prep programs are great.

I came through Teach for America.

So,

you know, but I also had it in me.

Well, short story.

I, when I was in undergrad,

I didn't want to dedicate

like the school time to

learn to teach because I

feel like teaching is natural, right?

You, you either got it or you don't, um,

as far as your classroom presence.

But, you know,

I came through Teach for America and they,

that's how I,

that's how I ended up in New York.

They sent me to New York, um,

But I pretty much made my

own way as far as a teacher.

They gave me the tools, awesome tools.

But as far as who I wanted

to be in the classroom and

what I represent for myself, my community,

that's all me.

And, you know,

it gets tweaked every day

because I might have said

something reckless yesterday.

Maybe.

But how did you take it?

What was the context?

You know, so.

It sounds like you should be

saying reckless stuff all the time.

I'm just going to let you slide on that,

though.

You know what?

I actually don't.

Okay.

I'm going to invite you to

Brownsville one day.

Okay.

I know my wife will love it.

You should come sit in on a staff meeting.

I don't.

I got you.

I got you.

I don't say reckless things.

I got you.

Brother Tashaun, thank you so much, man.

I appreciate you taking the time out, man.

Thank you for your story.

Thank you for your insight.

Thank you for your input, man.

I can't say thank you enough.

Now, please tell our listeners,

our followers,

where they can find you if

they want to find you and

if you want to be found.

How about that?

Okay.

So I do not.

Okay.

So I'm going to tell y'all

listeners out here,

the key to my success on the internet is

It's the only thing that's

connected to my real name

is my LinkedIn page because, listen,

I don't want anybody rolling up like, oh,

I see your Instagram page, which is fine.

Y'all can follow me on

Instagram at KingDavid

underscore zero four.

Please follow me.

I do a lot of things other than teach,

but it's hard to find me.

My students always be like, well,

where am I finding you?

No, you're not.

You're not going to find it.

Because I want to be a mystery.

You'll find my LinkedIn page.

Have at it.

But you're not going to find

any of my personal stuff.

So you can show everybody.

No, no, no, no, no.

No doubt, no doubt.

Thank you, man.

I appreciate it, man.

And I'm Big O, Mr. In the Black himself.

You can find me on Twitter

and on Instagram at MR

underscore In the Black.

And I want to thank you guys

for joining us for another

incredible episode of the

In the Black podcast.

You could have been anywhere

else in the world,

but you chose to kick it

with us and we appreciate it.

Make sure you follow us

across social media at In

the Black PDCST on Facebook, Twitter.

and on Instagram.

And as I said before,

if you really want to

become part of the family,

you can come on over to our Patreon.

You will not regret it.

But as always, until next time, informed,

intelligent, in the black.

Peace.