Meet One of Our Teachers: EnCompass Academy's Mario García

During Mario García’s second year as a teacher, he had “one of those moments.”

“I taught this 3rd-grader, Salvador, I remember him to this day,” reflects García. “He started the year with no literacy skills – didn’t even know the alphabet. By June, I had taught him how to read. He was reading entire books, and I’ll never forget how that made me feel.

“I just saw a whole new world open up to him. That’s when I realized: As public school teachers, this kind of moment is our greatest payment. I catch myself saying corny things, but I have to say it: It’s priceless. That breakthrough with Salvador set the tone for the rest of my career.”

Now in his 14th year of teaching in Oakland (and sixth at EnCompass Academy), García has a wealth of inspiring moments to draw on. But his commitment to Oakland students has roots that run deeper than his teaching career. His grandfather was a teacher and administrator in the Bay Area, and his father was a Chicano Studies professor at UC Berkeley (García’s alma mater). His mother recently retired after teaching for 40 years in the Oakland Unified School District, and his brother and sister also teach. “We’re a family of teachers,” says García. “That’s a powerful foundation for me.”

So too was his parents’ dedication to social justice and equity for all of Oakland’s students. “My parents were very driven to make sure I was aware of the issues around equity and civil rights.” Along with other parents, García’s mother and father advocated for one of the Bay Area’s first bilingual preschools, Centro Infantil de la Raza – and García became one of its first students. “It was rooted in celebrating language and culture and giving everyone equal access to curriculum,” he says.

García remained immersed in this equity-minded atmosphere during elementary school at La Escuelita, the only bilingual Oakland elementary school at the time. “Looking back on it, it was just a beautiful experience,” he recalls. “Every student’s identity was very valid and celebrated. As I got older, I realized that was a pretty unique experience, and it’s very much a part of who I am to this day.”

But García was becoming aware that what “seemed so right and normal” to him was not, in fact, the norm. García started teaching largely because he “felt a deep responsibility to make sure the identity of every child is honored, and to never underestimate the power of that. As adults we tend to forget how important it is to be validated in that way at that young age. That’s something I’m very passionate about, coming from the family I come from.”

It’s no surprise that García wound up teaching at EnCompass Academy, an elementary school that embraces the “whole-child” approach he benefited from throughout his own childhood. In fact, the school’s motto perfectly echoes his upbringing: Starts with self, guided by family, engaged in community, rooted in ancestors.

“There’s a real satisfaction I get when I see students’ eyes open up about learning their own history and gaining a deeper understanding of the impact they can have in their own community and in the world.

“When I teach about African-American inventors, the pride I see in my Black students is extremely powerful,” he says. “That knowledge becomes a badge of honor that connects them to something and motivates them. It’s also empowering for my other students to have that knowledge. The key to me is connecting it all. It's an all-encompassing thing of making it relevant.

"As proud as I am of the gains my students have made academically [García's classes routinely show growth on California Standards Tests], deep inside I always want to do more in terms of cultural and historical teaching."

EnCompass is in the heart of East Oakland, where García grew up and still lives. (His house is around the corner from his parents’ first home.) “I’m from Oakland, I’m Latino, I’m bilingual. I understand what they are going through,” he explains. “That’s the power of working in the community where you grew up, and I feel like I’m fulfilling a need here. You know the saying Get in where you fit in — that's exactly what I'm doing. I feel I am right where I should be at this moment in time.”

He also feels this is the time to tackle another critical issue facing East Oakland. “We need to have a powerful focus on bringing the African-American and Latino communities together,” says García. To this end, he and an African-American childhood friend, also a teacher, have developed a project unofficially named “The Black and Brown Connection.” Their hope is to build a curriculum around it and host workshops to bring communities together. “Once we can create those connections,” says García, “so many positive things will flow out of that.”

Always teaching, always reaching, García is clearly extending his family’s legacy of community-building and social-justice education. “I feel strongly that you should inject your passion in what you teach,” he says. “The kids know I care about what I'm teaching them and they know I care about them. My kids are excited when they know Mr. García met Jesse Jackson when he was young, or that I had dinner with Dolores Huerta, or that I attended Cesar Chavez’s funeral. That’s real-life stuff I bring to the students.”

And they don't forget it. Recently, while out buying a Raiders jersey for his son, García bumped into someone he'd taught 10 years ago. "'Mr. García? she said. You were like the greatest teacher in the world!' That felt really good," he says. He also has old students frequently drop by his classroom, and every year he is invited to former students' quinceanera (15th birthday) parties.

When you hear him speak about his commitment to Oakland kids, it’s not hard to picture him teaching here as long as his mother did. “Oakland has a lot of beauty, a rich and beautiful history that not enough people know about,” says García. “I’m going to do whatever I can for these kids. They have just as much potential as anyone. As a teacher, I know that every day, the words I say have such an impact. It’s a pretty powerful burden, but also a profound gift. It’s both, and you have to be careful with it.”