Today I got to do something really cool - talk to the Boy’s kindergarten class about my job. As part of their “community helpers” unit, they have asked some of the parents to talk about what they do. The first dad to come in (Dr. Y.) is a cardiologist, so he brought his stethoscope and talked to them about their hearts. Then Mrs. F. came in and talked to the about being a physical therapist (or “physical ferret” as the Boy recalled) and she taught them about exercise. And then there was me. If I may say so, I have a really cool job that I absolutely love - I get to acquire new collections for a major national museum.
Boy was super excited - he told me that I needed to bring things from the museum’s collection in to class so that we could pass them around for everyone to see. Since I very well couldn’t do that, I brought in pictures of things from the collection - pictures of teddy bears, pretty dresses, children’s drawings and photos of kids celebrating Purim (which the kids are celebrating on Tuesday). After some jumping jacks (random!) the kids all gathered around me on the floor. I started by asking who had been to a museum - Air & Space and the National Gallery were very popular choices. We talked about the what different kinds of museums they were (science, history, art, and even zoos are a kind of museum!) and what they’ve seen in them. Then I got to tell them that my job was to collect all the stuff that people see in when they come to my museum.
We discussed what a collection is (”A group of things that have something in common. But they can be different - they don’t all have to be the same thing.”) and the kids told me what they have collections of (rocks, paperclips, cars) and I told them that since I work in a history museum, I get to collect all sorts of different things. What they have in common is that they are all from the same time in history - back when their grandparents were kids. They of course had lots of questions - in particular how did I know how old their grandparents were. They were very concerned about this. Refocus!
I showed them the pictures that I brought and they passed them around. They were most excited to see the Purim pictures, given that most of them were dressed in baker’s aprons and hats they had decorated that morning for the bake sale that afternoon, and I had purposely picked a photo of kids also dressed up as bakers. I also showed them a teddy bear that I brought in which is a reproduction of one in our collection that they had passing around. Then came out the gloves.
I explained that when we get new things for the collection, we wear special gloves. Even though we wash our hands really well, we still wear the gloves to keep the things super clean. This helps us save the things for a really long time. We also only write with pencils so that we don’t get any magic marker or pen marks on the things by accident - kind of like when they come home from school and have marker on their hands or clothes. The kids passed the gloves around and tried them on - they thought those white cotton gloves were super cool. (who knew?).
Then came the opportunity for them to ask questions. The first boy asked if Boy had ever been to my museum. He excitedly answered yes! and I told them that he had visited my office at the museum, which was cool because in my office I have my own small museum filled with pictures of my family.
The next boy asked how did I find everything for the collection? I explained that people call me and send me lots of emails. Last year I had over 700 people offer me things! And every day we get one more new thing for the collection. I asked them to think about what their most favorite thing is at home, and then think about what it would feel like to give it away to a museum. I don’t know if I could do that, so I really appreciate it when someone gives me their collection.
The last question was how did I decide what to keep for the collection? I have to say, I was impressed with the first question but more impressed with this one. So I explained it this way: Say I only collected teddy bears. And someone called me and said that they wanted to give me a bowl of pineapples. Those would be better at the pineapple museum! So part of my job is too look at the things people are offering and decide if it fits into what we collect. Like teddy bears and pineapples. They got that.
I left them with lots of smiles, the pictures, and a pair of gloves for their “community helpers play box.” I thought it went extremely well and it was super great when four of the kids walked up to me (unsolicited) and thanked me for coming to talk to the class. Boy told me he really liked that he got to hold the teddy bear. I’m glad I could entertain and educate, but I don’t think I can compete with the grandpa who is a retired fighter pilot who is scheduled to come in…