Emerson scholar kicks off new speaker series at NPHS

Knight Crier|October 10, 2016

Wendell Refior will be the first in a series of speakers to visit North Penn High School this year, as part of a new speaker series implemented by English teacher Janet Kratz. (Image courtesy of www.newaldo.com).

Wendell Refior will be the first in a series of speakers to visit North Penn High School this year, as part of a new speaker series implemented by English teacher Janet Kratz. (Image courtesy of www.newaldo.com).

TOWAMENCIN- Wendell Refior, an independent Emerson scholar who bears an uncanny resemblance to the father of transcendentalism, will deliver the words and thoughts of Ralph Waldo Emerson to North Penn High School students and community members on Monday, October 24.

Refior, an independent Emerson scholar, re-enacts sermons and orations in period costume. He will present and discuss key passages of Emerson’s classic essay “Self-Reliance” to 11th and 12th grade Advanced Placement students in two in-school assemblies and will deliver Emerson’s “Address on Education” to the community at night.

emsitting15 In Emersonian tradition, both student and community audiences are encouraged to question and react to the philosopher’s ideas.

The program is free and will begin at 7:30 p.m. in seminar room A33 at NPHS.

Refior’s previous engagements include performances at senior centers, Northeastern University teacher workshops and Unitarian Universalist churches. He resides with his wife in Bedford, MA, a town neighboring Emerson’s Concord.

This presentation is the first in a Speakers Series entitled “Celebrate the Arts,” which is funded by the Educational Foundation.  The goal of this series, proposed by Janet Kratz, North Penn High School English teacher, is to highlight the accomplishments of writers, past and present, for students and the community.  Future speakers will include the poet laureate of Philadelphia, Yolanda Wisher, NPHS Class of ’94, and a CBS news anchor.