Section 4: Objects of our own time
Preparatory to visiting a museum to see objects of another time and as a class exercise, we will practice describing a typical object of our time, for example, a car. As a class assignment, students can write a description of a television (or a Macdonalds) from the point of view of a cultural outsider.
Furniture, dishes, and housewares may be examined at the Yale Art Gallery. A field trip to the Pardee Morris House will examine interiors as they were “then” lived in. This section will overlap, and continue to make use of “then and now” sheets.
Other objects, which may be common to both cultures, can be examined to see the different role they play in the culture, for example, the changing role of guns, and the necessity and the concept of the hearth. Questions concerning the function of the hearth, for preparing food, for warmth, and as a gathering place, lead to further questions: when do we come together at present, as a class, as a family, as a community?
We will cook and taste typical foods. See resource materials packet for drying foods and recipes. This may be extended to a “then and now” comparison of medicinals.
Additional information (from the educational department of Sturbridge Village) on creating everyday objects is available in the materials packet, and may be used during class or during special workshops on a school-wide culminating day of exhibits and sharing of activities.