On a bright March afternoon at Roosevelt Middle School in Oakland, the classroom has that lived-in feeling—news clippings pinned up on the wall, and the soft click of instruments being adjusted before class.
In the corner, it almost smells faintly of wood polish and glue, the kind you notice only because you’re paying attention.
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Porter’s also the kind of teacher who gives students a safe space to practice, hang out, and—yes—snack after school.
But this is his last year teaching, because he is retiring.
At this juncture, the future of music classes in Oakland public schools is uncertain, with looming budget cuts across the district.
Porter doesn’t want arts education to fall by the wayside, so he started a fundraiser for Roosevelt’s music program.
“[The arts] is an absolutely essential part of a kid’s development. Music, art, PE, manipulating things with your hands – this is how kids learn,” he said. “It’s how a lot of people learn. And when you take them away, a certain portion of the population gets a little bit left behind,” Porter added.
Students hear the possibilities in jazz and Sun Ra
For students like seventh grader Diego, band class wasn’t exactly a natural fit when he entered middle school.
“It was so weird,” Diego said of jazz music.
“I was like, ‘will people actually wanna listen to this?’ I didn’t even want to play it at first.” But he kept going—“I hesitated and then I just stuck with it,” he said.
“I like that there’s so many possibilities and different combinations so that you can make any different one.”
Another of Porter’s seventh grade students, Imani, who plays guitar, became interested in playing Sun Ra’s music in band class.
“All the parts are so different and they all come together into chaotic bliss,” she said.
Some days, that’s the kind of line that sounds like it belongs in a music review.
Here, it just sounded like her explaining what the songs feel like.
Porter also points to what he finds most exciting about middle schoolers—the age group that’s notorious for unpredictability, high energy, and increased social awareness.
If you can tap their interests, he said, growth can happen fast.
And former students are part of that story, too.
Ten-graders like Ryan come back every Thursday to mentor middle schoolers, and when Ryan arrived in Porter’s classroom about five years ago, he already had experience playing violin and had picked up the cello—but Porter’s jazz-filled band class pushed him to look for something else.
“It just felt exciting to be in the music class…that’s when I started to think, ‘wait, I need to switch to an instrument that’s more suitable for jazz,’” said Ryan.
At Porter’s suggestion, Ryan picked up his third instrument—the trombone.
“It really opened up a new world for me,” Ryan said.
Now he plays a total of fifteen instruments, is a member of the SFJAZZ High School All-Stars Band, and has played in a youth orchestra for three years, all at the encouragement of Porter.
Porter will keep his hand in the local music education community in retirement, though he admits students are what he’ll miss most.
“I wanna be helpful.
I wanna mentor teachers.
I want to do what I can just to see things continue to be successful,” he said.
He also plans to tap back into the professional music world—this summer, you can find Porter playing at one of his annual gigs, Chapel of the Chimes.
And honestly, watching him prep instruments and talk over students’ ideas, it’s hard to imagine he’ll ever fully step away from the classroom—maybe he just changes the room he’s in.
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