Western Australian Museum And Subiaco School Children (1937).
When I was growing up and going to school in Perth, Western Australia we made many visits both as part of a school group and on school holidays with my parents to the Western Australia Museum. This activity has continued as an adult. The Western Australia Museum provided a wonderful combination of using artefacts and interesting talks provided by staff and volunteers for children on all things related to Western Australia and around the world.
However, the benefits of places like museums to engage children in their learning had begun over 30 years ago with State schools like Subiaco making regular visits. In 1937, The West Australian reported State schools including Subiaco were involved in a series of visits and lectures..."The fifth standards of one group of schools would attend for lessons on Western Australia on the aborigines, the discovery and settlement of the State, the development of the State, the State's natural history, and a final lecture on picture study. The sixth standards of another group of schools would also be given lectures on Western Australia on its aborigines, the goldmining industry, natural history, the Perth Public Library, and a final lesson on picture study..."
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West Australian, 11 September 1937.
MUSEUM LECTURES. TALKS TO SCHOOLCHILDREN.
A Successful Innovation.
There have been 9,949 attendances since April this year at lessons in natural history for schoolchildren at the Perth Museum. Since June, 1935, when the courses were inaugurated, there has been a total of 35,208 attendances of primary schoolchildren at the museum for regular instruction.
Questioned
Questioned yesterday concerning the museum lectures, the Director of Education (Mr. J. A. Klein) said that lectures in nature study to metropolitan schoolchildren at the museum commenced in June, 1935. The department had inaugurated such lectures because it believed that the museum could be used far more as an effective teaching device in the education of the young. It was felt that much interest would be aroused because the children would not only be studying the contents of the glass cases while the teacher was lecturing them, but that they would be active handling objects and making drawings.
Further, it was thought that such lectures to schoolchildren inside the museum would give them the opportunity of experiencing the treasures of the present and past that a museum holds, and so arouse greater interest in the institution generally among the children and their parents. The lectures were designed to supplement the nature study taught in the schools and to give it greater breadth by providing additional material for comparison. Mr. J. W. Oates, B.A., B.Sc., Dip. Ed., was selected as the lecturer, and, with the assistance of Messrs. A. Morrison (headmaster of the Subiaco State school) and L. Glauert (curator of the museum), a course of lectures extending over ten weeks was commenced.
The lessons proved to be very popular and successful with the children, and the head teachers concerned were highly satisfied with the results. Consequently, at the close of the first course it was decided to invite other metropolitan schools to participate in the scheme, and a further course of ten lectures was commenced. For the whole period of 20 weeks covered by the two courses in 1935, 1,089 individual children made 9,956 attendances at the museum. Last year considerable extension took place. Whereas in 1935 pupils had attended from the third and fourth classes of nine primary schools, 18 schools sent children to the lectures in 1936, and sixth standard schoolchildren also entered the scheme. Lessons were given from Monday to Thursday, inclusive, each week, and Friday was devoted to follow-up advisory lessons in the schools. Nature Study Clubs Formed.
As a result of the lectures, class museums and nature study clubs had been formed, talks on specimens and natural history topics had been given by pupils, museum and zoological books made, nature study libraries inaugurated and various forms of handwork had been stimulated in the children's experiences at the museum. The junior section of the West Australian Naturalists' Club grew so, rapidly that this year a new club had to be formed.
At the request of teachers from some of the schools, a course of lectures for senior classes had been arranged. This course covered the history of the State and was designed to be in the nature of a refresher course for the sixth standards before they left the primary school The course comprised five weekly illustrated lectures on aborigines, the discovery of the State, the development of the State, and the growth of the goldmining industry, together with a final lecture on "Appreciation of Att." There was a total of 2,783 attendances of children for the course of five lectures, and it was followed by a further course of tour lectures attended by 1,840 pupils. The course of lectures for sixth standard pupils had proved of great interest to both teachers and scholars and attracted wide interest by the general public.
It was felt that lectures on the history of our own State, which could be so well illustrated by actual relics, sketches and by lantern slides, filled a definite need in the educational system and warranted these lectures being made a regular feature of the museum courses of instruction. It was intended next month to commence two series of lectures for the fifth and sixth standards similar to those which were initiated last year. The fifth standards of one group of schools would attend for lessons on Western Australia on the aborigines, the discovery and settlement of the State, the development of the State, the State's natural history, and a final lecture on picture study. The sixth standards of another group of schools would also be given lectures on Western Australia on its aborigines, the goldmining industry, natural history, the Perth Public Library, and a final lesson on picture study.
The lecture on the Perth Public Library was to be given with the object of familiarising the children with its resources and the uses to which the library could be put. The children would be shown how to use the card index system and reference books, and told of the movements of a book or pamphlet from the moment it arrived in the library to the moment it was placed on the shelves by the librarian after having been in the bindery, numbered and catalogued, etc. "When it is considered that attendance on the part of children and teachers at the lectures is quite voluntary, and that the majority of the children coming from schools not in the vicinity of the museum have to pay their own fares, this is surely an indication of the success with which this innovation has met and a guarantee of its value as a permanent part of the educational system of Western Australia," Mr. Klein concluded.
Western Australian Museum and Art Gallery corner of James and Beaufort Streets, Perth and Public Library of Western Australia c 1935 from State Library of Western Australia.
Images from the Public Library, Museum and Art Gallery of Western Australia Photograph 1920-1930?
