David McKinney/University Relations
School of Education faculty and staff board the bus for a one-day "Tour of the Heartland." Dean Rick Ginsberg had the idea to take the faculty on the trip after taking part in the Wheat State Whirlwind Tour earlier this year.
School of Ed takes 'Tour of the Heartland'
When Rick Ginsberg, dean of the School of Education, traveled the Kansas countryside on the Wheat State Whirlwind Tour in May, he was so impressed he couldn't wait to do it again.
On Oct. 11, Ginsberg lived the experience again as he and 50 other faculty and staff members from the School of Education took a "Tour of the Heartland."
Ginsberg and his colleagues took a one-day trip to soak up the state's sites, meet local residents and learn about issues important to public educators in Cottonwood Falls and Council Grove. Along the way, they stopped at the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site in Topeka, visited a national preserve and toured the historic downtown areas in Cottonwood Falls and Council Grove.
The first stop was in Topeka at Monroe School, the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site. Deborah Dandridge, field archivist for the African-American collections in KU's Spencer Research Library Kansas Collection, addressed the group.
From there, the bus took the educators to Cottonwood Falls. There, the group toured the downtown area and the community's historic courthouse. They had lunch at the Grand Central Hotel, where Rick Weiss, Chase County Unified School District superintendent, will spoke.
Following lunch, the bus traveled to the Z-Bar Ranch and Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve. The group then travelled to Council Grove, where tour participants visited the downtown area, met with local residents and spoke with Diane Miller, superintendent of USD 417.
Ginsberg said he not only wanted the School of Education faculty and staff to see new parts of Kansas, but to take part in the unique learning experience that comes with a trip modeled after the Wheat State Whirlwind Tour, a six-day, 1,500-mile trek across Kansas.
"I felt that my days on the tour were very educational and taught me things about Kansas that I dare say most native Kansans don't know," said Ginsberg. "I've been to places many of them have never seen and met many former students and mothers and fathers, even grandparents of students we serve. I also learned what great respect the people of the state have for KU. When the governor of a state takes the time out of her busy schedule to meet with 50 of us from the university, as Gov. Sebelius did this past May, you know that we hold a special place here."
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