Learning about history in school sometimes feels cumbersome, especially when dealing with facts, dates and other analytical data. Studying and memorizing everything could sometimes take hours, and as a result we often forget why we even learn history and social studies. The whole point of learning history is to make the future better, because by looking at the past we can learn from it. Also, by learning from the past we can feel closer to the whole world and understand why we live in the world we live in. Although social studies is required in school, there are even more opportunities to learn about Canada and other countries that seem like a universe away. One opportunity to take advantage of is attending the Glenbow Museum, to which the admission is a relatively low price, $10 for youth.
Going to the Glenbow Museum lets you discover parts about Canada that you didn’t know or get a deeper look into certain topics like immigration. In one exhibit, you get to learn about the life of an immigrant and how they lived; there are recordings about the life of a Chinese immigrant and how she lived in Canada. In addition, there’s also a gallery on the Blackfoot Tribe. Schools teach us about the First Nations people but going and seeing the real life artifacts is completely different. As well as being able to see the artifacts, there are other parts of the gallery that let you use other senses, for example, smell. When learning about the fur trade there’s a display of the popular trading goods like tobacco and they arranged it so everyone can smell them. Then there are recordings, and fur pellets that can be touched. By using more of our senses we can get more immersed in the exhibit and feel like we’re really a part of it.
Furthermore, by going to the Glenbow Museum there’s a chance to learn about the people who shaped Canada into what it is today, it mentions of figures that are hardly or never talked about. In the exhibit, Mavericks: An Incorrigible History of Alberta , there are so many figures that have been recognized, for example, Dr Helen Belyea. Not only did she work in a field where few women were in at the time, geology, but she also discovered some of Alberta’s most gainful oil reserves. There’s also Melvin Crump, an advocate for equal rights for the black community (he was president for the Alberta Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (AAACP), and a jazz drummer.
Throughout walking through the museum I got to learn about the country and learned about why everything’s the way it is. I also learned about people and how they felt and what they thought about which I never really got from a school. But most importantly, I felt more connected with Canada, and the experience made me appreciate the country that I live in.
