Consistency Matters in Education
From the desk of Emily S. Hager, Director of Programming & Education
Last Monday I watched something I won’t forget: my former middle school teacher from Esperero Canyon Middle School (ECMS) arrived with his class to Tucson Jewish Museum & Holocaust Center. Throughout the week other teachers from ECMS arrived with their students, teachers I knew from when I would hang out with my friends in their classrooms. We all reminisced over an old yearbook with a pre-teenage, braces-clad Emily and I told them all I knew about my old friends and their now very grown-up careers. "This one is now a lawyer in Nevada. Did you ever teach her younger brother? He is now working in cybersecurity and married!"
The trip down memory lane was wonderful and nostalgic, as we discussed how times have changed: teachers come and go, kids leave town, and we have all simply grown up in the ever-changing world around us. The world of 2010 looks so different from the world today. But some things are a comforting constant: how much a good teacher will influence you later down the road.
I explained that to the students when they arrived, that I was at their school once upon a time, and that their teachers are setting them up to be investigators in a world that has a lot of information available, be it online or in a museum. At first the students moved with polite curiosity like any school group, but by the end of the visit, their quiet attention had deepened into real engagement with the museum and its lessons. As they worked through their notebook assignment provided by the teachers, I could see their minds start to work into overdrive as they asked questions, made connections, and explored the spaces with a critical lens. Those moments showed me exactly why school visits are so vital to student learning experiences. A museum visit does so much more than follow along in a textbook or timeline. The museum visit supplements and aids those tools like textbooks and lessons. It turns dates and facts into people, voices, and objects that hold memory. Objects in a museum invite questions a lecture can't always convey: Who owned this? What did it feel like to have this object? How did one decision alter a life? Those questions open pathways to empathy and critical thinking— something that is especially important for middle school students who are learning to shape their sense of justice and responsibility in this world.
A school visit also extends classroom learning in lasting ways. One visit can spark projects like research reports, civic-action campaigns, and other creative works, which keep students engaged long after they leave the museum. The visit becomes a catalyst for deeper inquiry and ongoing dialogue long after they have left our campus. A visit to Tucson Jewish Museum & Holocaust Center is more than an outing. It’s an opportunity to transform how students understand the past and their role in the present.
This exploration and curiosity does not— and should not— end just with children in school. We are all learners, even after we have graduated. And a museum is inherently a teacher that guides its visitors through the exhibits to learn about history, art, science, and more. Here at TJMHC, we pride ourselves on making our museum accessible for all types of learners, and we love to see people return to learn more in our museum campus and community.