When I saw this blog, “8 Lessons about Teaching from the Canadian Museum of Human Rights History,” on Art Museum Teaching, it really got me thinking about how our sites themselves can inspire teachers and what happens in the classroom.
The exhibitions and programs at many of our sites strive to incorporate multiple perspectives of events in history. Through our collections we have a multitude of voices that can help personalize and place history in a local context. We often do this through a variety of “ways of knowing,” and I know at my site we use first-person interpretation quite a bit.
Of course, in response to the article I’m thinking about how we can work to help educators use those perspectives and different ways of knowing in their classrooms as they move away from textbook-driven education. But I’m also wondering what “hidden” lessons teachers take from the Indiana History Center. I hope the liveliness of history and curiosity that it can inspire are some, but I look forward to talking with teachers about their insights, too.
What “hidden” lessons do you hope teachers take from your site and use as they are planning instruction?
