Contact: John Scarffe, KU Endowment Association, (785) 832-7336
Freeman Foundation pledges $387K for K-12 teacher education at KU
LAWRENCE - Thanks to a privately
funded program at the University of Kansas, Garden City High School history
and sociology teacher David Ermish started the school year with lots of enthusiasm.
Fresh from a summer trip to East Asia, Ermish also took into his classrooms
a replica sculpture of an ancient Chinese soldier, new ways to teach about
the region and a plan to take his students on a cultural field trip to China.
Now more teachers will have the opportunity to participate in the same
program, the Kansas Consortium for Teaching About Asia. The Freeman Foundation
has pledged $387,120 to the Kansas University Endowment Association to continue
the program for two years and establish an exchange program for Kansas and
Chinese teachers. The latest commitments bring the foundation's total support
for KU teacher education programs to $785,430 since 2001.
Coordinated through the KU Center for East Asian Studies, the Kansas
Consortium program prepares elementary- and secondary-school educators from
Kansas and western Missouri to teach the history and cultures of East Asia.
The program includes an eight-week, two-credit course offered at cities including
Manhattan, Overland Park and Lawrence each spring and summer and a three-week
trip to East Asia in the summer.
“
By far, the most important thing I learned in the program was how to
teach about East Asia,” said Ermish, who commuted more than four hours
each way for the program last spring. “The class taught me what was
important out of all that history and how to make connections between the
United States and the cultures and commerce of East Asia.”
Ermish's participation in the program's study trip to China and Japan
in June was his first opportunity to travel outside of the United States.
While he was in China, he and a fellow teacher purchased and shipped to Garden
City two large terra-cotta replicas of warrior sculptures from the second
century B.C. found in the tomb of the first Qin Dynasty emperor, Qin Shihuangdi.
The 3-foot-high kneeling archer is a three-quarter-size reproduction
of one of more than 7,400 figures archaeologists excavated in the 1970s.
Ermish said he wants to build a display case so he can take the archer to
school to use as a teaching device.
“It's something more than a picture,” he said. “Students
can see that the figures are lifelike and individual.”
William Tsutsui, KU professor of history and director of the Kansas
Consortium, said Ermish is one of 150 graduates of the Kansas program, established
five years ago. The program is conducted at 20 universities nationwide under
the umbrella of the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia.
“
The goal of this program is to make a permanent place for East Asia
in schools,” Tsutusi said. “It's a bottom-up approach that goes
right to the teachers to get them excited about the material.”
The Freeman Foundation's funding of an exchange program gives Kansas
teachers the opportunity to work in schools in China, while Chinese teachers
can come to Kansas to teach, Tsutsui said.
“
We're building connections between classrooms and countries,” Tsutsui
said.
Ermish said the experience of going abroad made such an impression
that he is organizing a trip for his own students.
“
This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Ermish said. “Now
I want to take students to China for a cultural and historical trip
to see Beijing, the Great Wall and the warriors.”
The Freeman Foundation is a philanthropic organization that provides
grants to foster connections between the United States and countries in East
Asia. The foundation's contributions, including a previously announced $2
million grant for a undergraduate programs in Asian studies, count toward
the goal of KU First: Invest in Excellence, the largest fund-raising campaign
in KU history. KU Endowment is conducting KU First on behalf of KU through
2004 to raise in excess of $600 million for scholarships, fellowships, professorships,
capital projects and program support. KU Endowment serves as the independent,
nonprofit fund-raising and fund-management organization for KU.
This site is maintained by University Relations, the public relations office for the University of Kansas Lawrence campus. Information may be reused without permission; images may be reused with notice of copyright but not altered.
