Dr. Oyé Carr

Dr. Oyé Carr is an AP U.S. History teacher who has previously taught at schools in Oregon and Boston. He grew up in New Hampshire, and this summer he moved from Luxembourg, where he worked for a private company, to Cambridge, Massachusetts. Dr. Carr says that although life was a lot quieter in Luxembourg, he really enjoyed the country’s natural beauty and quality of life.

What are some hobbies or things you do outside of school?

I’m a cyclist, I ride my bike a lot, and I used to race my bike a little bit, not for a long time. That’s a sport I enjoy doing. I read a lot, and I try to write. I play guitar, and I perform very, very rarely.

When you’re in the classroom, what’s one thing you always remember, or one thing you try to do?

I always try to help students speak up. I always want students to not only speak up, but to think out loud. It’s always okay to say “I don’t know” in my classes. I want them to be able to hear their own voices.

Is there one topic or one particular unit in history that you teach that you feel is really important?

I think that there are important themes to U.S. history. I think that as we think about equality and what that means for our society, we think about gender, race, etc. I think that we are a society with lots of stereotypes and a lot of people who have really good intentions. It’s important for us to think about how we make a better society.

Is there any one person, or a couple people, who really influenced you or inspired you to be the person you are today?
I grew up in a very social justice family. My dad was a clergyman, a champion for social justice and moral justice. But I don’t think I necessarily have one person. There are a lot of historical figures that I think are really interesting. I’d love to sit down and talk to them, but I don’t know if I really have any historical heroes. Either that, or I have lots of them. There’s no one person that really stands out. I think the more you learn about people, the more you realize that everyone has flaws, and saying, “This one person is perfect and exemplary” is something we do a lot in our society and I think that’s why we have disappointment in individuals. People can do really amazing things to transform society but at the same time can be really fallible human beings. I think it’s much more about the cause than it is about the human being.