By Scott Edger
The Little Apple Post
The ringing of a school bell is a sonorous allegory of a simpler past and an iconic signal to mark the day’s beginning.
In the not too distant past, the echo of a clanging school bell resounded across the plains, a common call to come together.
A few years ago, students from the College of Education at Kansas State University started ringing the Bluemont Bell to begin each school year.
At the end of the year, the bell is then rung by each graduating student to symbolize the end of their academic journey. Friends, family, and mentors join with each student in the bell ringing to celebrate their commencement.
The bell-ringing quickly became a cherished tradition for education students, but when COVID-19 hit the campus, however, no crowded bell-ringing ceremonies were permitted. Two semesters went by without a sound.
Tradition took on significant meaning following COVID. The pandemic took away so much of our normal lives, and especially took away those little moments that injected a touch of humanity meaning.
As restrictions eased, students and faculty alike pressed to bring back the ceremony – not only for the tradition, but for the spirit it fosters.
Last spring KSU students once again rang the bell following graduation. This fall, more than 200 students attended the bell-ringing ceremony to start the school year.
"The bell has been an iconic symbol of a call to education,” Mercer said. “Now it has taken on new meaning for our education students as they step out of their role as student and into role as a classroom teacher.
“It’s a wonderful bookend to symbolize the culmination of their academic journey,” Mercer said.
The Bell originally hung in Anderson Hall, for decades chiming at the top of every hour; signaling the time to the community and beckoning K-State students to class. Prior to that, the bell hung on the campus of Blue Mont Central College, the private Methodist institution that was the forerunner to K-State.
Over the years, the bell fell victim to numerous pranks. Historical publications repeatedly report about nighttime pranksters wrapping the clapper in rags or wired the bell into place so it wouldn’t ring - one time even stealing the bell’s 80-pound clapper in hopes that perhaps they would not have to attend class if the chimes did not sound off.
In 1965, the University replaced the bell with electronic chimes, the same ones in use today. The bell was unceremoniously stuffed into a corner, all but forgotten.
Hause was legendary for his encouragement of the incorporation of artistic creativity in educational pedagogy. Art faculty and students gave input and the idea of installing the bell as a memorial and a symbol was born.
Then Nancy Hause, a longtime instructor in the K-State School of Journalism wanted to honor her husband Richard Hause, who taught at KSU for nearly 30 years in the College of Education.
The idea was met with resounding approval. There was, however, the matter of getting the half-ton bell down from the Anderson Hall spire.
A construction crane had to be brought in to hoist the Falstaffian chime from the Anderson Hall belfry.
“That was no small feat,” Mercer said.
A handful of repairs and restorations were performed on the bell before it was anchored in its grassy new location outside the College of Education’s headquarters at Bluemont Hall.
Mercer said the bell serves as a reminder of Hause’s philosophy as a staunch supporter of creativity in learning. Much in the same way that the bell’s function changed as its milieu has changed, so has education transformed and adapted.
“Education should be fun, with exploration and project learning and engagement,” Mercer said. “That was his foundation for every course that he taught, and it’s a reminder that education and people continue to evolve. We navigated in and out of a pandemic. It's a continual renewal.”