smith] THE SCHOOL MUSEUM 121 



people concerned with it should be aimed at encouraging in the 

 children purposeful activities which shall contribute in a cumu- 

 lative way to the attitude of mind and skill of hand character- 

 istic of creation rather than of mere action. This attitude is one 

 of delight in solving of problems of increasing complexities from 

 grade to grade, of settling things, of "making knowledge" in a 

 sense, of making it come true for oneself. 



Furthermore, the material gathered into the school museum 

 must be of such a nature and be so arranged or prepared that 

 the pupils may have many and varied experiences with it. The 

 "wonders" and "curiosities" of nature, as well as material which 

 cannot be handled and used, should not be admitted except to serve 

 as a preliminary device for stirring up interest and activity in 

 accordance with some very definite aim of the teacher. Bottled 

 up and otherwise encased material which the children can mere- 

 ly see, but cannot taste, touch, smell, handle, or work upon, or 

 concerning which there is no serious thinking to be done, no 

 more or less sustained problem to be solved, is usually of little 

 value. 



The school museum should be the work of the children as 

 far as possible, not done for the sake of doing it, but in con- 

 nection with some interest on which they are engaged or on 

 which other children are engaged. Exchange of material be- 

 tween different schools of the city and of the country at large 

 for definite purposes is an entirely practicable project to under- 

 take. There is much material of real value for use by children 

 of one age or another which has been prepared for advertising 

 and other purposes and this should be collected. There are con- 

 struction problems of various kinds which may have such a cor- 

 relation with this work as to make them seem of real value to 

 the children. For example, cardboard construction has not been 

 productive of great good, in the opinion of many teachers, for 

 the reason that the work has lacked a convincing motive ; but the 

 preparation of museum material offers many very good prob- 

 lems in this line. Another legitimate way in which the childrens' 

 interest in the museum should be secured is by placing superior 

 examples of their work in the collection. It must not be for- 

 gotten also that the children should have a definite share in the 

 management of the museum. 



The limitations of this occasion prevent extended discus- 

 sion of the specific material which should appear in the school 

 museum. Probably the minds of all the teachers present have 

 run ahead of the speaker long since and created a museum com- 



