PAMELA BLEISCH

High School Latin Teacher

Pamela R. Bleisch joined SLOCA in the summer of 2018 as our new Librarian and freshman Latin teacher. A native of University City, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri, Dr. Bleish studied classics at Brown University (BA), the University of Chicago (MA), and UCLA (PhD), and trained in Library Science at Simmons College in Boston. Before arriving at SLOCA, she helped coordinate the Digital Commons at the Cal Poly Library and assisted in the Registrar’s office, coordinating the university curriculum. At SLOCA she senses that she is in her element—“no longer a fish out of water!”—helping to craft an interdisciplinary approach to history and literature that allows students and their families to become active participants in the Great Conversation. Perhaps owing to her mother’s reading aloud and reciting poetry to her as a child, or perhaps to her older siblings’ dinner table conversations about Beowulf, Lysistrata, and My Antonia, Dr. Bleisch is drawn to SLOCA’s deeply interwoven community of families and inspirational teachers, as well as its emphasis on virtue and excellence. She also credits the rich and rigorous curriculum at her public high school (which offered French, German, Latin, Russian, Spanish, and NEA-funded Art History program), as well as her mother’s love of classical music, jazz, and The Ramones. These days you can find her in Los Osos, cashiering at the Abundance Shop thrift store on 9th Street, leading the children's education programs at St Benedict's Episcopal Church, or walking on the bluffs at Montana de Oro. She lives in San Luis Obispo with her husband, Tim, and son, Akshay, a senior year at SLO High. Her daughter, Reva, works in town and attends classes at Cuesta College. Dr. Bleisch also aspires one day to study Spanish—“such a beautiful language, such a rich culture”—preferably in a classroom setting, because “the human brain is hard-wired to learn language by interacting with other humans. That's one of the fun challenges to teaching Latin!”