Museums and schools have had a long symbiotic relationship that has recently been put on the rocks. Schools these days are severely underfunded when it comes to field trips, making teachers focus on getting the most out of every trip taken in a year. Museums, in turn, have had to move towards a more formal look at their classes and offerings for schools in order to satisfy local and state curriculum and education standards. Thus, we have the subject of today’s post: finding the subject in the material.
What does that even mean? Don’t you usually write the material for the subject? Yes and no. If you go into a museum with the subject in mind, you may not get as full of a field trip or visit as you’d like. But if you go into a museum with the material in mind, the subjects are endless.
Take, for example, a natural history museum. Rocks, minerals, animals, maybe even dinosaurs (anyone that says they don’t like dinosaurs is probably lying, FYI). If you look at it as just a chance to study fossils or the natural environment, you may miss out on the opportunity to discuss texture, history, human impact, or mathematics (think word problems). If you go into an art museum expecting to only discuss art, you’re missing out on mathematics, politics, world cultures, literature, mythology, world religions, history, and science, as well as psychology and personal development (to name a few).
All museums offer something beyond what’s described or pictured on the surface. And visitors from different backgrounds will take away different meanings and relationships from the same objects. Teachers have a hard enough time teaching in a classroom; museums give them a chance to teach a bunch of subjects to a bunch of individuals who may not always feel a personal connection to a subject in school. Suddenly that student may have the chance to create a potentially lasting relationship with a subject because they now see it in a different light. You never know what will be the initial spark to someone’s fire.
In grad school, we were required to write lesson plans for potential activities that fit state educational and learning objectives. Our professor told us to write the activities and lesson plans and then find the objectives that met them, rather than read the objectives and write plans that fit them. So now I offer that challenge to you, readers.
This post isn’t just for teachers or parents. This is your personal challenge this weekend to visit a museum you’ve never been to before with no pre-conceived subject in mind, and see what the material presents to you. Find the subject in the material.
fun with museums 