The role of museums in education

Education does not happen only inside classrooms, and knowledge does not exist only in textbooks. People learn from places, objects, images, conversations, experiences, and the physical evidence of the past and present. Museums are especially valuable in education because they bring many of these forms of learning together. A history textbook may describe an ancient tool, a war uniform, a handwritten letter, or an archaeological object, but seeing the real object can create a very different experience. A science lesson may explain the structure of an animal skeleton, but observing one in a natural history museum can make the idea easier to understand. An art book can reproduce a painting, yet standing in front of the original work allows the viewer to notice scale, texture, colour, and detail that may disappear in a small photograph.…