David Busch

Here I am with my friend Albert Alexander at the Arizona Memorial in 2001.  He is a Pearl Harbor Survivor who actually lived in a neighboring town.  In May of 2001 he came to Washingtonville High School to share his story with my students.  A very memorable day for sure.

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As for me, I was born in Brooklyn and spent my childhood there during the 1960s and 1970s.  We lived in a poor neighborhood and I fantasized about getting out. At Ditmas Junior High I learned to play the saxophone and was influenced by a wonderful teacher.  My journey took me to the High School of Music and Art in Manhattan where I saw a much larger world.  The different kinds of people I met shaped the man I would become.  It was a place of acceptance and openness that I had never imagined.  Again,  I was influenced by a wonderful teacher.  I knew then that I would be a musician.

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Life is a journey as my book describes so not having much money I enrolled in Brooklyn College.  I lost some of the fire needed to become a musician and took up an interest in teaching and history.    The very first time I walked into a classroom I knew I'd found my calling.   There was energy, anxiety, and yes - magic. 

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My teaching career began in 1980 at Midwood High School in Brooklyn working with struggling teenagers.  After a tough first day, I loved every minute of it.  Five years later due to marriage and family I moved to the small village of Washingtonville in Upstate New York.  I was offered a job in Washingtonville immediately,  and the rest of my High School teaching career was spent in that small, sleepy village where everyone knew everyone.  I couldn't have asked for a better place to teach.

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In 2013 I left Washingtonville and moved to a small island on the Gulf Coast of Florida called Tierra Verde.  I rekindled my music career and now volunteer at Eckerd College and develop "Learn to Learn" workshops for high school students.   Life has been very good

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