THE NATIONAL EDUCATION MUSEUM

There was a time, not so long ago, when many people thought of museums simply as repositories, places to learn about the past from artefacts and stories, places to explore the evolution and development of a culture and a way of life but nonetheless essentially for entertainment and amusement.

Museums are still fun but things aren’t quite as they used to be. More of us have come to appreciate that what we learn from the past enlightens the present and the future. The museum of the 21st century is a centre of study accessible to all. From what we learn of how things have been done by our predecessors, the successes they have achieved and the errors they have made, we can make better decisions to respond to the demands of our own times and better plans for our successors. Our museum will extend that learning opportunity to every visitor and participant 

We have a record of remarkable achievements in education. A commitment to teaching and learning has been a significant part of our culture over many centuries. Long before the state began to take responsibility for children’s education, generous benefactors worked to extend that commitment to the children of poor families with a conviction that education offered the chance to escape from deprivation. That same motivation amongst legislators in the second half of the 19th century gave us a statutory publicly funded system of education for all .

And yet we have no national education museum, no centre for the celebration of these achievements, no easily accessible place, no online facility readily available to anyone who cares to enquire into the successes and the mistakes of the past and contribute to present and future development.

There is no lack of study nor any deficiency of opinion about education in England and Wales. Far from it. It is one of the most intensely researched subjects amongst academics in our universities. They have their own descriptive language familiar only to those who share it. Despite the excellence of our record in educational provision, much the same debates about the purpose of education and the structures appropriate to secure its objectives seem to be repeated in every generation. The teaching profession seems consistently at odds with those who design legislation to satisfy politically motivated aims. An innocent observer may wonder “Will they ever be satisfied that they have got something right ?” We intend that the museum should help to enable an answer to that question.

This is the time and these are the circumstances in which a national museum of education should be, must be, established.  It will inform and fascinate and it will entertain. It will provide its visitors, in person and online, with fond memories and with some amusement about long abandoned practices. Then, there will be so much more. Adopting the exciting ideas of a 21st century museum, we will also aim to educate, to add to understanding of purpose and by doing so to stimulate a new consensus about the values of education for our children and of lifelong learning.

Supporting this project will ensure that it happens. Please register your support with an email to [email protected]. Help us, if you can, with a donation or become one of our 100 Founder Patrons.