PATRICK'S PEOPLE: Norm Conard was named the 2012 Kansan of the Year

Six years ago Norm Conard, a social studies teacher at Uniontown High School, wrote a grant to start the Lowell Milken Center in Fort Scott.

“People asked if I had retired or stepped out of the classroom,” Conard said. “No, I hadn’t.”

What the center director had done was push the boundaries of his Kansas classroom to encompass the globe, and extend his student base to include learners in every nation.

For his accomplishments, the Topeka Capital-Journal has named Conard the 2012 Kansan of the Year.
“Everything that’s happened has been because of wonderful people I’ve worked with over the years, students and educators,” Conard said.

The Lowell Milken Center offers two programs. The Discovery Award is given to students in fourth through 12th grades for research and development of a student-driven project  on an unsung hero, and Fellows Projects, fellowships that bring exceptional educators to the center for two weeks to work on projects.

“We’re planning to increase our Fellows program and bring 20 of the world’s best teachers to the center this summer,” Conard said. “Last year we brought eight.”

The center’s programs involve project-based learning, sometimes also called performance-based learning.

“In this method, the teacher becomes a facilitator and the students own their project,” Conard said. “They are seeking knowledge. The teacher is not doing their thinking for them.”

One of the most famous examples of project-based learning is “Life in a Jar,” a play developed by several of his Uniontown students  on the story of Irena Sendler, Polish Catholic social worker who rescued 2,500 children from the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II. Her story had been almost totally unknown until it was discovered by Conard’s students, who later had the opportunity to travel to Poland and meet the elderly Sendler.

“Our 310th performance of ‘Life in a Jar’ is going to be performed in Naples, Fla., and Megan Felt, an original cast member, is still playing Irena,” Conard said. “The book about Irena was the second most popular book about the Holocaust  on Amazon.com three weeks ago.”

But, he said, he and his students had been doing project-based learning for 10 years, well before “Life in a Jar,” and he had received the Milken Educator Award eight years before the play was developed.

Conard said the search for unsung heroes from all nations continues.

“We never run out of unsung heroes,” he said. “Thursday morning I got a request from a teacher in Maine who wanted an unsung hero from Cuba.”

Stories are developed on these unsung heroes to inspire young people and provide role models.

Conard cited the story of Ken Reinhardt who, with Ann Williams, befriended the Little Rock 9, the African American students who integrated previously all-white schools in Little Rock, Ark. Most of the other white students, and teachers as well, were hostile to the African Americans.

“Ken did the right thing,” Conard said. “We can’t all save 2,500 children during the Holocaust like Irena did, but we can all do the right thing.”

A southeast Kansas native, he grew up near Chetopa. His father was a farmer, and his mother was a teacher.

“I went out to southern California and taught there, but came back when my mother had cancer,” Conard said. “I decided to stay a year and took a job at Uniontown High School. The principal then, Jim Lambert, said, ‘Norm, if  you stay a year, you’ll stay 20,’ and that’s what I did.”

He doesn’t regret coming back.

“Southeast Kansas is not only very historic, but educationally is a very powerful place,” Conard said.

He received a master’s degree from Pittsburg State University in the 1990s and said the center has many ties with Pittsburg.

“What I’d really like is for more PSU international students to visit us and find that we’ve got unsung heroes from their countries,” he said.

Conard said that the non-profit center is growing, and revealed that plans are being discussed for a Lowell Milken Center Europe.

“It would be located in southern Poland and directed by one of our Fellows,” he said.

Conard is pleased with all this, and grateful.

“I don’t feel I’ve blessed,” he said. “I’ve been blessed.”