The management desires to extend the educational influence of the Museum by a plan for systematic participation in the work of the schools of Philadelphia. The first step towards the realization of this plan is an invitation issued, in co-operation with the Board of Education, to the principals and. teachers to bring their classes to the Museum in order that they may use the collections and the lectures that will be provided in connection therewith to illustrate those studies upon which they may be engaged relative to the history of man, and those that are concerned with the various peoples of the world. This invitation is extended in the firm belief that the observations which may be made by children while visiting the museum under competent guidance and good instruction will give them a more faithful notion of the world’s peoples than they can acquire from books alone, and will give greater zest to their reading. The impressions received from such observations are lasting and they serve the purpose of refreshing and stimulating the pupil to further observation and inquiry. The influences thus brought to bear on the young people are of the most humanizing character. The immediate result is to lighten the task of the schoolroom for teachers as well as for pupils and the ultimate result is to broaden the children’s outlook upon the world and its inhabitants.
For the lower grades of the public schools the games and playthings of the American Indians and everything pertaining to the life of Indian children are used purpose of illustration. The higher grades are shown how the different peoples of the world live and how the human race has lived in time past and at different stages of its development.
In case it may be the desire in individual instances to concentrate upon any given group of people or period of history each principal and teacher is asked to specify with regard to the particular phase of culture or the particular people about which the classes should be informed.
The toys, games, pastimes, arts, industries, the occupations in peace and war, the dress, ornaments and dwellings will be illustrated by the actual objects used in these several connections by the world’s peoples, both ancient and living, and by lantern slides.
A special feature of the children’s afternoons in the Museum will be the talk illustrated by means of the lantern, in the auditorium of the Museum. Lecturers specially trained and qualified to address children will be on hand on these occasions and will explain to the classes in the simplest and most direct language the subjects chosen for illustration.