{photo credit: Jessica Wilson, staff photos: Michelle Dorman}
Next up for Friday Faces: High School! SLO Classical Academy High School is an exciting place to learn deeply and broadly, and our students are being prepared not only for college but for life beyond. Here are the outstanding teachers who bring this final stage of the trivium to life for our high schoolers. Thank you for pouring so much into these kids, teachers!
Paul McCullough
High School Literature and Composition Teacher, Parent Book Club Coordinator
Q: How long have you been at SLOCA?
A: I’m the new literature teacher as of this fall.
Q: What brought you here? How did you discover our school?
A: For three years as a Cal Poly student, I lived across the street in a house on Grand and McCollum, so I was at least peripherally aware of SLOCA from its earliest days. I recall being a little envious of the classical curriculum once I figured out what the SLOCA students were learning over there. Latin disappeared from Cal Poly’s course catalog long ago, although they still have some Latin on the school crest, discere faciendo–“learn by doing.” (I seem to recall the philosophy club printing retaliatory t-shirts: “learn by thinking.”) What brought me back here, I suppose, other than the cajoling of Miss Sarah Shotwell, was the need to keep reading old books, which I never tire of learning from. Of course the past has its problems and prejudices and blind spots, too. But they are not ours. There’s a great deal of wisdom in old books that we have yet to catch up with. The German poet Rainer Maria Rilke had a wonderful name for it: “the grace of great things.”
Q: When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A: A hobbit. Who doesn’t like elevenses?
Q: How many pairs of shoes do you own?
A: Too many. I only have one pair of feet! My latest shoe indulgence is a pair of tan Clarks Wallabees, which I love so, so much.
Q: What do you like on your pizza?
A: I love food (I eat it practically every day) and I am not a very discriminating eater. If it fits on a pizza and is edible, I will fit it into my mouth. I do enjoy pizzas with multiple cheeses, though. Mozzarella is great, sure, but why limit yourself? I realize this contradicts everything I said previously about being such a champion of tradition and so forth, but there’s a brave new world of gorgonzolas and smoked goudas and chevres out there, beckoning.
Q: Name a book you read this summer and enjoyed, or have read this year.
A: Marilynne Robinson’s latest novel, Lila, left me speechless last fall. Also, The Old Ways by Robert MacFarlane; Richard Rodriguez’s essays; Milan Kundera’s classic, The Art of the Novel; John O’Malley’s Four Cultures of the West; Christian Wiman’s two most recent poetry collections, Every Riven Thing and Once in the West; Teresa of Avila’s Interior Castle.
Sonja Bair
High School Science Teacher
Q: How long have you been at SLOCA?
A: This is my fifth year.
Q: What brought you here? How did you discover our school?
A: My husband and I desperately wanted to escape winter in Michigan and when we visited SLO we knew immediately this was our town. When I was looking around for a teaching job I discovered SLOCA. During the interview I completely geeked out at the awesomeness of SLOCA and knew I wanted to be a part of it.
Q: When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A: A marine biologist. And I didn’t outgrow that dream until… well, to be honest maybe when I retire from teaching I’ll still become a marine biologist.
Q: How many pairs of shoes do you own?
A: Not enough! Never enough!
Q: What do you like on your pizza?
A: Lots of veggies, but hold the onions please.
Q: Name a book you read this summer and enjoyed, or have read this year.
A: I love any and all Malcolm Gladwell books. The latest book of his I read was David and Goliath. The premise of the book was about how being the little guy is actually an advantage, if you play it right. Among other things, for me it confirmed that SLOCA, though small, is going to change the world.
Tony Taylor
Middle School and High School Math Teacher (Algebra 1, Algebra 2, Trigonometry, Calculus), 4-Day Enrichment Teacher
Q: How long have you been at SLOCA?
A: 2 years
Q: What brought you here? How did you discover our school?
A: I came to San Luis Obispo 12 years ago for a short break from England and by some extraordinary twist of fate I’m still here. I knew about SLOCA from parents and then one day I saw an advert for a teacher… the rest is history.
Q: When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A: An actor or a novelist
Q: How many pairs of shoes do you own?
A: Not very many. There only about 3 different pairs I regularly wear, but I guess there are other pairs in the closet.
Q: What do you like on your pizza?
A: They do a lovely indian pizza in San Francisco. It has has curry on it. Beyond that, lots of garlic.
Q: Name a book you read this summer and enjoyed, or have read this year.
A: Into The Woods by John Yorke (it’s on story structure).
Steve Rein
Geometry Teacher
Q: How long have you been at SLOCA?
A: As a parent, 10 years… as a math instructor for the HS level classes, 6 years.
Q: What brought you here? How did you discover our school?
A: My wife, in her wisdom, had a vision for the sort of education that SLOCA provides and once the school started, we had signed up.
Q: When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A: Tough one… I did think that I wanted to be a professor at one time…
Q: How many pairs of shoes do you own?
A: Own? Probably 5. Use with regularity? 2.
Q: What do you like on your pizza?
A: Depends on the place that makes the pizza. It is hard to have bad pizza.
Q: Name a book you read this summer and enjoyed, or have read this year.
A: I recently re-read A Man in Full by Tom Wolfe.
Nicholas Larson
High School Spanish Teacher, 4-Day Enrichment Teacher
Q: How long have you been at SLOCA?
A: This is my second year at SLOCA.
Q: What brought you here? How did you discover our school?
A: The language department at SLO High passed the good word to Tom Weinshchenk (Magister Linguae Latinae at SLO High), who, in turn, recommended that I contact the great Sarah Weinshchenk. She told me that SLOCA was in need of a Spanish teacher. But what was SLOCA? I began researching to determine if it might be a good fit for me. Then I fell in love with its approach and guiding principles. I still feel like it all was a bit of a dream sequence.
Q: When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A: When I was really young, I wanted to be a barber because I thought that my guy was cool and very happy to be cutting people’s hair (ironic that I haven’t cut my hair in quite some time!). From about age 8 to age 17, I thought I was going to be a chef. My dad used to tell me when I learned to cook, I wouldn’t have to wash the dishes, so I learned to cook.
Q: How many pairs of shoes do you own?
A: That’s a loaded question. When I was a teenager, I used to collect shoes (THIS IS VERY EMBARRASSING TO ADMIT NOW). I suppose that those shoes are still stacked up in my mom’s garage, so I guess I have a lot of shoes. However, now I alternate between my running shoes, dress shoes, and flip flops when I am certain that no one is going to chase me that day.
Q: What do you like on your pizza?
A: I’ve discovered recently that I am a sucker for a breakfast pizza: fried eggs, lots of veggies, sautéed onions, but I prefer that Artemis doesn’t contribute to my pizza.
Q: Name a book you read this summer and enjoyed, or have read this year.
A: After reading Watership Down for the first time and becoming obsessed with rabbits and meadows and copses and furriness, I decided to look up some interviews of Richard Adams so that I could see and hear the man behind the legend. That led me to learn that Richard Adams is an aficionado of Shakespeare and his favorite work of all is Twelfth Night, so I spent a good chunk of the summer immersed in it. Neither Adams nor Shakespeare disappoint.
