Take time to stand and stare.

I spent a wonderful couple of hours at the Castle Museum in York this morning. This is one of my favourite museums simply because you are allowed to look, to touch, to wander and take it all in.

One of the first things you notice is the smell. How evocative is that sense and how rarely do we use it when planning our classroom work? The Undertakers smelt of newly cut wood, the stable smelt like horse manure!
If you stand and look you begin to see lots of minor details.

The Bible, the undertakers hat, the empty mug.

The tools of the trade, the rough texture of the walls.

BUT for me the most important thing that this Museum does is that it allows you time, you aren't herded around, you can stand and stare, listen, smell and then move on in your own time.

I do think that in the past I have been guilty of hurrying pupils along when sometimes they wanted to stop and stare...it wasn't an avoidance tactic it was trying to work things out in their heads.

There are nooks and crannies that you will miss if you don't take time to explore. Down a tiny side street, with no signs is this example of a room belonging to a poorer family. It's full of amazing items which would start discussions, the roughly hewn wooden cradle, the portrait, the piece of paper tucked behind the jug on the mantle.

If we'd rushed round we would have missed this, maybe we do need to give our pupils time to stand and stare!

PS What did worry me was finding things I had played with as a child, now in a museum!