musings | in the halls and beyond the walls

Located less than three miles from the World Trade Center, in the wake of the attacks, the New York City Museum School immediately prepared to receive students from lower Manhattan schools displaced by the attacks for classes. While young children made welcome banners, high-school teachers worked to organize a teach-in to address student concerns that ranged from "Are we at war?" to "Am I going to be drafted?" and on to "How does this square with our understanding of the world?" A school administrator summed up the goal of the session by saying: "It's important for us to continue to seek knowledge: to synthesize information, present it, reflect on it, and repeat the cycle."

Museums as Resources, Models, and Classrooms

Sonnet Takahisa, Co-Director, New York City Museum School
© AMNH

That's what her school is all about, says Sonnet Takahisa, Co-Director with Ron Chalusian of the Museum School. "We hope the kind of learning that our students practice here will equip them to be lifelong problem solvers. We want them to understand that instead of a knee-jerk response, they have to look at what's going on in a very layered way, and that the more they look and question, the more they'll understand."

The approach of the Museum School, which opened eight years ago and serves a diverse population of students from sixth to 12th grade, is to take full advantage of museums. [The American Museum of Natural History is a partner of the school.] "Museums as repositories of both the natural world and of the history of humanity are incredible resources," Sonnet explains. Her students spend two to three afternoons a week at exhibitions around the city that relate to what they're studying. The museums become their classrooms. The school also uses museums as models. "As places of scholarship with high standards of excellence and accountability, museums and museum staff serve as models of passionate learners and places where learning is incredibly valued," says Sonnet. Both institutions benefit. "The partnership with the Museum School is a rich experience for us as well as for the school," says Maritza Macdonald, Director of Professional Development at the American Museum of Natural History. "It allows kids to see objects in context and scientists at work, and to envision careers in these areas. And it gives us a closer look at what schools need so we can develop appropriate materials."

Commitments to Collaboration and Diversity

Jody Madell, Global Studies Teacher, New York City Museum School
© AMNH

Collaboration is central to the Museum School's mission. "Teachers and museum educators work together and share their expertise. The learning and professional development that result from this collaboration are important for our teachers as well," Sonnet points out. Students witness the back-and-forth between teachers and museum staff during museum-based activities, and collaborate with their peers on many projects. A commitment to recognizing the diversity of its student body is another tenet of the school, and is one of the reasons Jody Madell loves teaching Global Studies to ninth graders there. "It's really challenging for kids to get along with people of disparate backgrounds. It provides a really democratic opportunity to understand different perspectives," Jody says.

Exposing Kids to Historical Themes
The Global Studies curriculum at the Museum School is a two-year course. Jody teaches the first year, which traces the beginnings of civilization up to the Renaissance and the Age of Exploration. "I dwell on historical themes. I tell the kids they're going to be immersed in the most enduring and influential ideas of that time period," Jody explains. The class takes one issue and comes at it from various perspectives. For example, in considering the question, "What makes an ideal society?," "the kids are exposed to notions such as Taoism, Confucianism, and Greek philosophy, the development of democracy, and how Rome absorbed Greek ideas and had to adapt to becoming an empire," she explains.

Using a Museum Exhibit to Teach About Hinduism
Museums are ideally suited to expose students to different cultures with the artifacts that each culture uses. "In a museum, the kids become fascinated in a way that wouldn't happen unless they had the objects to connect with, especially when it comes to a very abstract topic like religion," Jody points out. She recently took her class to the current American Museum of Natural History exhibition, "Meeting God: Elements of Hindu Devotion." "In Hinduism, the objects are supposed to draw you in: they're beautiful, brightly colored, and they really attracts the kids," she observes. During the Hinduism unit, each group studies a particular god and ritual, then presents its interpretation to the entire class. (This activity was developed by Jody's colleague, Rebecca Krucoff, at the Brooklyn Museum of Art.) The group also visits temples and other places of worship in local neighborhoods. After Jody's students have studied all of the major religions, they create their own museum tours for family members, and use objects to teach about the religions during the tour. "We really like this project because it gets families talking about the curriculum, and we've found that the parents really like coming in to see their kid's work," Jody observes.

Left: Students from the New York City Museum School work on a group project together in one of the halls of the American Museum of Natural History. Right: A student from the New York City Museum School takes time to reflect on her observations.

Left: Students from the New York City Museum School work on a group project together in one of the halls of the American Museum of Natural History. Right: A student from the New York City Museum School takes time to reflect on her observations.
© Jody Madell

Another basic teaching tool is the extended observation. When the class studies the Hindu god Ganesh, they describe him in words or pictures, both subjectively and objectively. "He has the head of an elephant; he has four arms; he's holding a little ball." Next they ask questions: "Why is he fat? Why is he part human, part animal?" Then they do research, analyze, and synthesize what they find out, present their findings in some way, and reflect further. In the same way, students can use a stained-glass window or a mihrab, the object Muslims face when they pray, as a starting point for inquiry.

Lessons Play Out in the Real World
The inquiry process is the core of the Museum School pedagogy, and it serves the students well when it comes to real-life interactions with other cultures and religions. "For example, when a kid looks at an Orthodox Jew, she may think he looks very unusual, which is a subjective observation, but she can also ask questions—'Why the forelock, the big hat, the tassels?'—to move beyond judgment and find some answers," Jody points out. These are the tools the students develop.

And what they do not know becomes a catalyst to find out more. After the attack on the World Trade Center, Jody reminded her students that they had visited a mosque, talked with the Imam, observed Muslim worship, and studied the fundamentals of Islam. "We know it's [Islam] not about violence," they concurred. Of course the students had many questions about the attacks. But they also knew how to begin to pursue and analyze answers, and had an exceptional foundation of knowledge on which to build.

For teachers interested in learning more about global studies topics, including Islamic and Medieval history, Jody Madell recommends:

Books:

Andrea, Alfred J., Overfield, James H. (2000) The Human Record: Sources of Global History: To 1700, Vol. 1, Houghton Mifflin Company.

Andrea, Alfred J., Overfield, James H. (2000) The Human Record: Sources of Global History, Vol. 2, Houghton Mifflin Company.

Reilly, Kevin. (1999) Worlds of History: A Comparative Reader (Vol. 1: To 1550), Vol. 1, St. Martin's Press, Inc.

Wiesner, Merry E., Wheeler, W. B., Doeringer, F. M., and Page M. E. (1998) Discovering the Global Past: A Look at the Evidence, Vol. 2, Houghton Mifflin Company.

Web sites:

The Islamic Sourcebook

The Medieval Sourcebook