PLACE OF MUSEUMS IN EDUCATION

Southland Times, Issue 23346, 2 November 1937, Page 8

PLACE OF MUSEUMS IN EDUCATION

APPOINTMENT OF LIAISON OFFICERS The value of museums as an aid to school work was referred to by Mr R. A. Falla, curator of the Canterbury museum, in an address to the University Association of Southland last evening. The educational efforts made by museums could be linked up more directly with the efforts made by schools, Mr Falla said. Visits might be pretty dull affairs—dull if the children tried to see everything. “The Carnegie Corporation considers that more direct contact can be made,” he added, “and special funds may be made available for paying trained officers in the four centres. The Education Department has decided to adopt the scheme and appointments will be made next year. Their job will be to assist the schools to make the best use of the material.” Mr Falla explained also that arrangements would be made whereby selected exhibits could be sent to the schools. In Auckland they had made 36 cases with glass cabinets and folding doors, displaying the exhibits and descriptive matter, and there would be a linking up of this with the general school curriculum. A rural service throughout the district governed by the four boards

would be established and cases of exhibits would be sent out to country schools where they might be of use. He was quite certain that Invercargill schools could be linked up under such an arrangement;