James Donohue

When I started teaching 21 years ago, I never could have imagined that I’d be sitting here wearing a mask,  not worrying so much about engaging my students as I am about not letting them breathe on me.  

A few years ago, I had a particularly difficult student who was an extremely reluctant reader. After reading “Of Mice and Men” and moving on to other aspects of the ELA curriculum, Reggie raised his hand and said, “Yo, Mr. Donohue, when are we gonna read more Steinbeck?” Since that day,  I’ve used that comment as both solace when I’m feeling unappreciated (does the word “effective” on an observation suck the life out of anyone else like it does me?) but also as motivation to keep doing what I know I do best, which is to open my students’ eyes to the reasons that great literature is called great literature, and to show them that a good book can compete with a good video game.