Mira Mesa Teacher Wins National Grant

A Mira Mesa High School English and world history teacher has been awarded $30,000 by the National Endowment for the Humanities to study in Japan next year.

Paul Otis is one of five California teachers who received a “teacher-scholar” grant to help improve the state of humanities education in American schools. There are 38 winners nationwide, with 75% from high schools.

Mira Mesa Principal Jim Vlassis said Wednesday that Otis is a “damn good teacher, a high-powered intellectual” who deserves the honor. Otis had a summer grant several years ago to study in Japan as well as another summer award for research at Princeton University, Vlassis said.

Vlassis said that Otis would like to put together a course on the Pacific Rim to teach at either Mira Mesa High or the new Scripps Ranch High School that will open in two years.

Otis’ project for his study in Japan next year is about the Tokugawa era, the 300 years from the 16th to 19th centuries when Japan was closed to foreign influences and many Japanese cultural attributes that survive today were forged.