Five teachers from all over the country representing the epitome of excellence gathered Friday evening for a ceremony to be inducted into an exclusive club — the National Teachers Hall of Fame.
This year’s class of hall of fame inductees represent the full spectrum of public education — from kindergarten to high school — and join their 85 predecessors in promoting and advocating the importance of supporting and appreciating teachers.
For two days the five inductees were feted here in Emporia, and Friday was their night to receive their honor for being chosen to represent the more than 3 million teachers working in the United States today. Among campus tours and honorary dinners, the five took time to share their opinions on issues facing today’s educators.
“Tonight we have some heroes right in this room,” said Michael Lane, ESU president and chair of the NTHF board of directors. “... I think it’s important that we realize the daily heroics of these five people, who defend our liberty every day in the classroom.”
The honor this year was extended to Kenneth Bingman, a biology teacher at Blue Valley West High School in Overland Park, who was honored earlier as one of the 2009 Kansas Master Teachers; Leslie Nicholas, a 7th-grade English teacher at Wyoming Valley West Middle School in Kingston, Pa.; Steve Rapp, a physics teacher at A. Linwood Holton Governor’s School in Abingdon, Va.; Patrice McCrary, a kindergarten-1st-grade teacher at Cumberland Trace Elementary School in Bowling Green, Ky.; and Jerry Parks, a 7th-grade social studies teacher at Georgetown Middle School in Georgetown.
Christine Downy-Schmidt, chair of the Kansas Board of Regents, was on hand to offer her congratulations. She said she could be speaking to represent grateful former students, parents, peers or role models, but she chose instead to speak for the teachers the inductees represent.
“What we have here tonight is performance at its highest peak, at its pinnacle,” she said, “and we’re putting them on a pedestal ... and they are indeed worthy of this position.”
Janet Waugh of the Kansas Board of Education spoke a few words in honor of the inductees, saying it was a special honor to recognize Bingman, one of Kansas’ own.
“As you know, the single most important factor to improving student achievement is the teacher in her classroom,” Waugh said. “So what makes an exemplary teacher? Passion, zest, knowledge of subject, collaboration, student engagement, the creation of a nurturing, safe environment, creativity, the list goes on and on.”
This year, the five inductees were joined by a sixth honoree. Harry Hart, an Emporia art teacher who died this spring, was posthumously inducted as an honorary member of the hall of fame for his dedication to his work.