It was an All-American day. The great American pastime, American art, and American farms were on the menu today. We spent the day in Cooperstown, New York; the center of the baseball universe. A visit to the Baseball Hall of Fame was our first stop. It was everything I expected it to be. Before I get ahead of myself, the Hall of Fame has a great educational program. Our guide, Anna, demonstrated the program for us. The online resource is free to teachers, unless you want a video conference. The lessons looked fantastic. They covered a variety of topics including several social studies areas, using baseball as the hook. I think they would be high interest to kids. The lessons are available at baseballhall.org. After answering a few questions (questions from teachers signify interest), Anna turned us loose in the Hall. I am sure we acted like kids in a candy store.
The Baseball Hall if Fame is an exceptional museum. There are displays from the beginnings of baseball all the way through things that happened just a few weeks ago. Any fan of the game should make the pilgrimage to Cooperstown. You will find your favorite player and team somewhere. Personally, I migrated toward the Cardinals. From an educational standpoint, the Hall has all the attributes of any museum, with the aura of America’s pastime thrown in. The history of baseball is history. A nice assignment for students would be to study baseball throughout the different eras in American history. I would think an obvious one would be the Civil Rights Movement, using Jackie Robinson, or labor relations using Curt Flood as the subject (anti-trust laws). One could show the video clip of Rick Monday rescuing an American flag from two guys trying to set it on fire during a game to launch a discussion on patriotism, freedom of speech, or protest movements. Using baseball as a hook can be very effective.
Following the Hall were visited the Fenimore Art Museum. It is another impressive art museum. They had some great displays. Among my favorite were the American Indian Art and the Magnum Photos. The magnum photos display was a great display of what have become historical photos take by Magnum photographers. A good message for students is the value of photographs as a way to study history. The display of fashion was also neat. It would help students understand corsets, hoop skirts, and bustles. I have tried to explain the concept, but the pictures will help. The museum contains artifacts pertaining to James Fenimore Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales. I use these stories by J.F. Cooper to talk about American culture and how it becomes unique. This was a nice stop.
The Farmers Museum was similar to Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts. It was much more than I thought it would be. I was expecting a building full of farm implements, but it is more of a living experience. The employees dressed in costume and portraying characters of the period is a nice feature. I think this helps students (and teachers) get a better perspective on the time period. As I have states in previous posts, this type of hands-on approach takes history off of the pages of a book and puts it into a much more personal context.
PS Great Lake and nice dinner.
