The Hall stars have come to town.
The five newest inductees to the National Teachers Hall of Fame arrived in Emporia on Thursday afternoon. And with teachers arriving from Nevada, Florida, Washington state and Tennessee, naturally it was the one from Kansas who had the most challenging trip.
“I was up at 4 a.m.” said Norman Conard of Uniontown, who had been with his students at National History Day in Washington, D.C., and had to rush back to Emporia before the event was over. “I hurried and caught the shuttle to Baltimore-Washington Airport and flew into Kansas City at 3 p.m.
“I’m the closest one,” he chuckled, “and I’m the latest one.”
Even so, Conard and his compatriots found nothing rushed about Emporia’s hospitality. And within the group, new friendships were being quickly made and old ones revived.
“These people are amazing,” said language arts teacher Geri Rohlff of Auburn, Wash., as she looked around the Hall at the other inductees. “It’s a complete honor. I keep talking to all these individuals and saying ‘How did I get here?’”
Most of them got here by a little subterfuge. Fake assemblies, stern lectures that suddenly turned into surprise parties and other similar methods were all par for the course when it came to announcing the honor last spring.
“They tricked me,” kindergarten teacher Edna Rogers said with a sparkle in her eyes.
Rogers is from Sevierville, Tenn., and is a director of the Dollywood Foundation created by country singer Dolly Parton. So when Rogers was told that somebody needed to shoot some footage of her for the Canadian branch of the Foundation’s “Imagination Library” program, she said sure.
“So then I go and guess what? There were no Canadians there!” Rogers said.
Instead, there was a good-sized crowd waiting to congratulate her for her selection to the Hall of Fame.
By contrast, computer science teacher John Snyder of Las Vegas knew someone was being honored the minute he heard the assembly called. He just didn’t think it was going to be him.
“I had nominated a lady I work with for an American Star of Teaching,” said Snyder, the first Nevadan to be inducted into the Hall. “I sat next to this lady just to see her reaction, because I knew I’d nominated her and she didn’t. And then I look out and see my wife come in and both my parents.”
The gig was up.
To be in the hall takes at least 20 years service. And they’re invariably years well-spent. Joseph Underwood of Miami was a one-time actor and radio man who ended up building a small television and moviemaking class into a sizable broadcast program. Conard’s students created the Irena Sendler Project, honoring a Polish Catholic who rescued 2,500 Jewish children from the Holocaust. The project includes a student-created play of her life, “Life in a Jar,” that has been performed internationally.
The five will be formally inducted into the Hall of Fame at a ceremony beginning at 7:30 p.m. tonight in Albert Taylor Hall. The evening will also feature the Hall of Fame Honor Choir made up of schoolchildren from across Kansas.
On Thursday night, though, it was a chance to unwind with a good dinner, a little conversation and a band concert in Fremont Park.
“Your hospitality has been appreciated,” Underwood said to the band and the crowd as the five were recognized during the band concert. “Thank you for taking time out of your schedule to be so entertaining.”
The five even joined the children’s march, four of them stepping around the park with their American flags in hand and Snyder holding a fifth star-spangled banner high as he joined the parade in his wheelchair.
“This is perfect,” Conard said as the music played. “What more fitting place could there be to have a Hall of Fame than in the heartland?”