Every summer, families pack up their cars to travel the country to various destinations. Many people choose to include stopping at or having their primary destination be a Hall of Fame. This was my 'Pop' and I in the summer of 1982, when we trekked to Cooperstown to the Baseball Hall of Fame. A trip I will never forget. We hear so much about whether or not Pete Rose should be in the Baseball Hall of Fame (Or at least if you're a sports fan you do!) and whether or not this person should be an unanimous first ballot HOF-er. In a few short weeks in Canton, Ohio, we will bring in the new crop of Pro Football Hall of Famers to don their new 'Gold Jackets'. We have all spout our opinion on who should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (Check it out on the left here...pretty cool huh!) and why they might be better than say 'Kiss' who was inducted in 2014. But where is the place to honor our 'eduheros' for a lifetime of commitment and contribution to the profession?
Now that I know you've already Googled the Education Hall of Fame and come up as empty as I did...isn't it kind of crazy that we don't have an Education Hall of Fame? My search brought me to Wikipedia to try and see what are the different Halls of Fame (see partial list below). They have Halls of Fame for so many different things, but none for Education! I did do a little more research and found that New Jersey has a Hall of Fame! Pretty cool to see the E-Street Band, Thomas Edison, Judy Blume and James Gandolfini all together in one place recognized for what they have done in each of their respective fields. As a displaced Jersey-boy, I find it interesting (and sad) that we don't have one person who is a pure educator in the Jersey Hall of Fame. I imagine (my research is not exhaustive on this subject) that many states have a Hall of Fame. It's a great way to recognize people for what they have done in their lives.
What would the criteria be for nominating an educator for the Education Hall of Fame? What would the process be for induction? Where would we have it located? What kind of artifacts would you have in the Education Hall of Fame?
We do have a National Museum of Education and a National Teacher Hall of Fame in Emporia, KS, which is a great start and allows people to be recognized and everyone of us should take a minute to recognize a teacher that has had an impact on their lives. Maybe that's where the Education Hall of Fame should be located? Or maybe we should just go with a virtual Hall of Fame that allows visitors to choose an avatar and tour the museum and learn about educators in a different way than a traditional Hall of Fame. It could be free and accessed from anywhere. That's the family trip for me...I'm not sure my kids would want to spend a week traveling to see and hear about educators in Kansas rather than go to the beach.
Then I started to think about educators...are we so humble as to not want to be recognized for or want to recognize our peers and predecessors for their work? I'm not sure that's the case. Is it so complicated for us to determine who is deserving to be in the Hall of Fame? Maybe.
Either way, we have a history of educators with a profound impact on education in our country and the world and they do deserve to be recognized. I'm not saying that we should have a 'Mt. Rushmore' of educators, but a space for significant recognition to their contributions to the field (BTW-If we have this already, please let me know and disregard the contents of this blog!).
Then I started to think about educators...are we so humble as to not want to be recognized for or want to recognize our peers and predecessors for their work? I'm not sure that's the case. Is it so complicated for us to determine who is deserving to be in the Hall of Fame? Maybe.
Either way, we have a history of educators with a profound impact on education in our country and the world and they do deserve to be recognized. I'm not saying that we should have a 'Mt. Rushmore' of educators, but a space for significant recognition to their contributions to the field (BTW-If we have this already, please let me know and disregard the contents of this blog!).