Grant High School English teacher Jonathan Carr doesn’t have a typical origin story. Growing up in Connecticut, Carr originally had no interest in teaching. As a young man, he wanted to be a dairy farmer, but he soon realized “that wasn’t
going to work out.” He then decided he wanted to build wooden boats, but later abandoned that idea as well. “There’s no money in that either,” he says.
After graduating high school, Carr enrolled at the University of Connecticut, studying English while making furniture on the side. However, he was unsure of his career goals. “I figured I’d have (a) college education and a trade. And with those two things, I’d be able to do something,” he says.
After college, Carr spent time in the Peace Corps in a small town in Bolivia, where he met his wife. “My wife was there for, like, four years. I was there for two years. We were outside of Cochabamba in an old town called Nacorancho, and it was kind of a fun experience.” he says. While there, he worked in a community garden outside a school for disabled children and assisted a nurse, traveling all over rural Bolivia helping mothers with their babies.
After their time in Bolivia, Carr and his wife moved to Portland, and he got a job as a teacher at Grant, which was his first teaching position. “I knew that I would hold myself accountable to people like students— I would do the good work for students,” he says.
Now, Carr has taught for 23 years, many of which have been at Grant. Carr says that his teaching style was most influenced by his “charismatic and interesting” college English professors. In particular, he mentions Sam Pickering and Lee Jacobus, the former of whom is known for inspiring the movie “Dead Poets Society.”
Carr also says that his teaching philosophy is heavily inspired by his various adventures. According to him, these experiences gave him a better sense of perspective. “I don’t get too bogged down in power struggles or the day-to-day details,” he says.
In many of his life experiences, Carr hasn’t had an overarching plan. Rather, he says, “(I) just did the things that I kind of enjoyed doing; I always liked to read and write, always liked to work with my hands.” Carr currently teaches African American Literature and AP English Literature and Composition, both classes requiring significant critical thinking. Carr says he hopes that students leave his class thinking that “‘books are something I want to spend time with,’” and that “‘I want to engage with a media that actually requires something of me.’”
According to Carr, literature “just asks something of you.”
The skills and experiences that Carr gathered over the years have come together for him to teach a passion for critical thinking to the next generation. From Connecticut to Bolivia and eventually Grant, Carr has picked up all the tools necessary to become the teacher he is today.
