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152 HISTORY OF EDUCATION JOURNAL
Walter 0. Krumbiegel
and present education, and the teacher education work of the mu-
seum would provide them with better teachers.
A national museum of education would offer further oppor-
tunities for teacher education and training. Certainly a close re-
lationship exists between a course in the history of education and a
museum which presents the visual evidence of that history. Identi-
cal aims exist here. Furthermore, the materials connected with
schools of different cultures would by their very nature under-
score the social relationship of education. Not only would the
historical background of contemporary educational problems be
presented to the critical gaze of teachers new and old, but also the
various solutions, real and hypothical, of those problems, insofar
as those solutions lend themselves to exhibition, would be shown.
Comparative education could help here by presenting displays of
work in other countries. From all of these exhibits, teachers
could learn more about their craft.
The museum considered here would not only encourage gen-
eral educational research, but also point up (the words open up
almost occur to one) research opportunities in the history of edu-
cation dealing with objects. Involved in such research are prob-
lems of locating items, establishing their authenticity, their social
relationship, and their educational significance. Opportunities for
research are obviously connected with the reproductions of the
dioramas mentioned earlier. Such research would naturally call
upon the disciplines developed in other fields such as archeology,
anthropology, and architecture and further our alliance with the
great stream of scholarship. The museum would contain a special-
ized library dealing with the history of education and special works
connected with the exhibits. It would also publish reports of its
researches and services. In connection with teacher education and
research, the museum would, to some extent, supplement the work
of schools of education. The relationship between the museum and
schools of education presumably would be the same as the relation-
ship of the other museums to the schools whose fields they repre-
sent. The larger purpose of the museum would, however, remain
public enlightenment.
Acceptance of the assumption that a museum of education
would benefit the American people leads to problems connected
with founding such an institution. Involved here are the matters of
sponsorship, size, location, organization, administration, and the
crucial matter of finance.6 It would seem wise in this connection
6
Arthur C. Parker, A Manual for History Museums. New York State His-
torical Association Series, edited by Dixon Ryan Fox (New York: Columbia
University Press, 1935), No. III, 23-89.
156 HISTORY OF EDUCATION JOURNAL