Larry Hart is retired from a lifetime in education, most recently as Lincoln Elementary principal. Nowadays he and wife Pam spend much of their time on the road to watch and support their grandchildren’s activities.
Even so, Hart still has the heart and soul of an educator.
He recently read a book about Kansas, which included information about the Osage migration along the Neosho River. The tribe passed by Iola and camped for a spell west of Humboldt.
That triggered a thought that has been fermenting in his mind for some time. He thinks local kids should know more about where they are growing up. They get a good dose of Kansas history, and along their public school journey are exposed to U.S. and world history. By and large they don’t learn so much about Iola and Allen County, unless a teacher takes the initiative.
Hart plans to approach the board of education with a plan to change that.
He has been whiling away the winter weeks — in warmer weather golf is a diversion — reading and researching. When he goes before the board he will tell them he’d like to substitute teach from a self-devised curriculum about local history.
In years past, when the district’s budget was more flush, speakers often came to give students intriguing programs about all sorts of places. Cost, Hart said, was $300 or $400, and the youngsters sat in awe, fascinated by the stories. “We can’t afford that now,” he said, but for substitute pay his plan would be workable.
He would tell students about the time there was a Big Chief root beer stand in Iola, part of a national chain. He could talk ad infinitum about Fred Funston, one of most prominent of military men and adventurers of the late 1800s up until his death in 1917. Funston grew up north of Iola and is commemorated by a museum and a statue on the west side of the courthouse square.
The early industries of Iola — smelters, button factories, bottle factories, cement plants, et al — and the enabling gas boom would fill many classroom days.
While he’s at it, Hart might spur others to share with students interests that have made them well aware of little pieces of local history.
Not only would students learn. They also would develop a better appreciation of where they live — perhaps encourage them to make this area home for a lifetime.
