October 2000 Outstanding Educator: Inspiration beyond lesson plans

Who would have thought some Notre Dame High School English students would get a lesson in ballroom and swing dancing rather than grammar?

MARIA STRINNI/Star-Gazette Thomas Hall teaches his freshman English class at Notre Dame High School humorous plays on words last week to help them remember spellings and definitions in preparation for a test.

The desks were spread out, and Hall taught them a couple of basic steps of the fox trot, proper dance frame and leading for the gentlemen. After all, Hall thought, it was just another way to teach his students about culture.

Anna C. Balok, a senior at Notre Dame, wrote a letter nominating Hall for the Outstanding Educator Award. In the nomination letter, she said Hall is an "exceptional dancer." Hall won October's award.

"Mr. Hall said once, 'When you get a chance, dance,'" Balok said. "By the end of the year, his students were on their way to understanding fully what he meant. We were all inspired, and are more interested in the complexities and wonders of our lives."

When former students hear that Hall will retire after this school year they feel bad for those who will never get the chance to learn from the man's gentle wisdom.

"I was ... devastated," said Rebecca O'Connor, one of Hall's students last year. "I thought, no, he can't leave even though I knew I wasn't going to have him (as a teacher) this year."

Hall teaches English most of the time but he doesn't just delve into plots, themes, iambic pentameter and rhymes. The books and poetry he uses are merely springboards to teaching kids about life.

He said he does start with the basics by reviewing all the fundamentals, including note-taking and the importance of listening.

"Everybody can hear but fewer people listen," Hall said. "What I mean by this is hearing what somebody meant, not just what they said."

Once that's out of the way, Hall gets on with the business of teaching such classics as "The Scarlet Letter" and "Huckleberry Finn."

"I'm fortunate to be paid for talking about great literature with interesting young minds," Hall said. "Literature is considered great because it deals with the great questions of life. So it stimulates the imagination, invites critical reflection and helps kids make sense of the reality around them."

When he had his class read "The Scarlet Letter" he wanted to make sure his students learned from the mistake made by the two main characters, Hester and Arthur, who believed they had jeopardized each other's souls because of a selfish act they committed together -- adultery. Hall's lesson in part: "We have to treat one another carefully."

Balok said Hall is genuine in everything he does. For instance, she said Hall is always picking up little pieces of paper in the hallway and tossing them into the trash. She wondered whether he did that just at school but as she was going into a bank one time, she saw someone who looked like Hall bending over to grab a piece of paper from the ground. It was him.

"He's just very real," Balok said.

Hall began his teaching career more than 35 years ago. He was fresh out of the Army National Guard and had several job offers but he took up an invitation to observe a class at Broadway Elementary School in Southport. That's when he fell in love with the craft of teaching.

He had brief stints at George Washington (then an elementary and junior high school) and at Ernie Davis Junior High, both in Elmira, for a couple of years before he left to get his master's degree from Purdue University. He returned to teach English at Southside High School, where he spent most of his career.

He retired from there at the end of the 1997-1998 school year but that rest was short-lived. He went to Notre Dame High School the following school year. He plans to retire for good, however, after this school year so that he and his wife can travel around the United States and Europe.

Notre Dame guidance counselor Bud Hulser, who worked with Hall at Southside High School, said, "Time and again, I see former students stop in just to chat with Mr. Hall, and to let him know what an impact he had on their lives."

Hulser cites the way Hall puts up an inspiring quote on the blackboard each day for his students. Hulser's favorite: "To get people to hear what you say, speak from the head. To get people to feel what you say, speak from the heart."

Hall said he enjoys when former students visit him in his classroom and display a "quiet pride."

"Life's got enough disappointments," Hall said. "It's great to be sustained."

"The kids love him," said Principal Sister Mary Walter Hickey, herself the Outstanding Educator for November 1999. "He makes English come alive and he makes them work hard. They don't mind doing it for him."

Notre Dame senior Scott Behney said Hall taught him to understand and appreciate poetry. The only poetry he used to like was the kind that rhymed but that changed when he took Hall's class.

"Since he recognized I loved rhyming poetry and other unique methods of learning, he made up rhymes to help me connect ideas," Behney said. "He danced to the beat of iambic tetrameter. Mr. Hall helped me to value the many forms of writing, something I know was not a light task for him."

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