Ava Knapp

Economics teacher Eric Bloom encourages students to return their textbooks for the end of the year. According to Bloom, students might have recognized his unique fashion choices including vibrant shoes and belt buckles. Bloom said his attire choices actually linked to his lessons. “I have a lot of shoes, I have a lot of belt buckles and wear them purpose because of its educational value,” Bloom said. “Especially in the earlier part of my career when we would talk about product differentiation, I had an assignment where students go home and count how many different kinds of shoes [they have].”

During one of Palo Alto High School’s seemingly endless fire drills, economics teacher Eric Bloom stood beside a dumpster in the 300s parking lot drawing supply-and-demand curves in chalk for his students.

For his colleagues, the moment became a joke about Bloom turning anything into an economics lesson. And, over nearly three decades of teaching at Paly, that’s exactly what he’s done, again and again,  in his distinct Mr. Bloom style.

After 27 years of teaching social studies at Paly, Bloom is retiring at the end of the 2025-26 school year, leaving behind a reputation for curiosity, collaboration and deep roots in the Palo Alto community.

In his time as an educator at Paly, Bloom has taught economics, World History, U.S. Government, U.S. History and classes for the SJP. Bloom said that one of his most rewarding experiences as a teacher came from his involvement with the SJP.

“I would say my favorite classes were … in SJP because it gave me a lot of autonomy,” Bloom said. “The kind of learning that I asked students to do was what I perceived as being more authentic. They generated some really cool things that made me proud.”

Bloom has collaborated with a variety of teachers in the social studies department, among them, history teacher Austin Davis who found Bloom an incredibly helpful mentor, even if a little disorganized.

“At any point if you need help with something, he’ll [Bloom will] just drop whatever he’s doing and help you,” Davis said. “It’s been fun watching him go out with a bang this year. I feel like he’s been letting loose this year a little bit and that’s been pretty fun to see.”

History teacher Erin Angell worked with Bloom in SJP and said she only has fond memories of collaborating with him.

“Mr. Bloom is a blast and is so much fun to work with,” Angell said. “He has an excellent sense of humor and keeps things lighthearted without it being a joke. We went to Alcatraz together on a field trip once for the Social justice pathway and we have gone to conferences together with other teachers in Boston and in San Diego. We just have had the greatest time teaching together. I’m sure I’ll have an opportunity to, to work with more teachers in the future, but no one’s going to hold a candle to Mr. Bloom. He’s going to be the best co-teacher I’ve ever had.”

Bloom said that what he enjoys the most about Paly are the connections he made with his students and fellow teachers.

“I’ll miss this relationship you build with students,” Bloom said. “We’re not going to be best friends, but I feel like I’m able to make genuine connections with students. … That’s a part of teaching, that interpersonal part, that I really get a lot of my goodness from. The other is the relationships I have with other teachers. … That’s where I do my best work, not working in isolation, but with somebody else.”

According to Bloom, his experience as a teacher has never felt like a chore.

“I really have not felt the burden to go to work very much, and I see that as a huge blessing that I found a career that I don’t mind going to work,” Bloom said. “I feel so lucky that I’ve had such a good place to come to work. If I [were to] describe my experience with a word, it would be some combination of satisfaction, joy and feeling lucky.”

Looking forward to his retirement, Bloom said he plans to spend the time doing things he couldn’t before.

“In the last five years, both of my children have moved out and my mother died,” Bloom said. “My garage is filled with things that you didn’t think you would need and weird stuff from my mom that I couldn’t get rid of, so my garage is overwhelmed. In order to clean the garage, it’s going to take more than two days and I’ve never been able to do it during the school year. We’re [his family] going to take a trip in October and go to Japan.”

For future economics teachers, Bloom advises them to take an encouraging approach to learning. 

“My philosophy of teaching is that you can’t force people to learn,” Bloom said. “You can’t punish them [students] into learning. You get far more offering kids one point to do something than to take away one point for not doing something. … You think about the structure and rules for your class, and you need to make them as flexible as you can do for the students.”