Slovene School Museum

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Slovenski šolski muzej

Plečnikov trg 1, SI-1000 Ljubljana

http://www.ssolski-muzej.si

solski.muzej@guest.arnes.si

Phone386 (0) 1 251 3127, 386 (0) 31 299 676

Founded byGovernment of the Republic of Slovenia

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Founded in 1898, the Slovene School Museum is the oldest specialised museum in Slovenia. It contains a permanent display on the development of the educational systems and training processes in Slovenia as well as among Slovene emigrants up to 1991. Visitors can attend "class lessons" in calligraphy, good behaviour, or arithmetic from around 1900. The museum also prepares thematic temporary exhibitions.

Background

The museum was opened largely due to teachers' increasing awareness of their profession and national background by the initiative of Jakob Dimnik. On the 50th anniversary of Emperor Franz Joseph's reign, 2 August 1898, the Slovene Teachers' Association held its annual general meeting at which the Slovene School Museum was established. The museum changed its location several times and was dissolved in 1912 due to irregular funding.

In 1938, it was re-established as the Museum of Slovene Education in order to collect materials on the history of primary and secondary schools operating within the Slovene territory. This basic concept was revised in 1951, dividing the museum into three separate units, the collection of exhibits, a library, and archives and documentation. At that time, the museum also began to undertake research into those institutions dealing with education. In 1960, the museum was renamed as the Documentation Centre for the History of Schooling. At the same time, the documentation unit was separated from the archives.

Collections

The museum library manages a library collection of more than 60,000 units, with some precious antiquarian educational books from the 18th and 19th centuries, and even a few incunabula, such as Rudimenta grammatices. The archives and documentation department manages a collection of old documents, photographs, slides, audio and video material.

Especially interesting among the museum's exhibits and materials are the collections of "black and golden books", including notebooks, certificates, teaching aids, annual school reports, stereoscopic pictures, photographs of school buildings and classrooms, school equipment (desks, chairs, blackboards), and stationery.

Exhibitions

The museum houses a permanent exhibition on Education in Slovenia over the Centuries until 1991. Literature, models, maps, tables, and different teaching items are on display, as well as a slide show presenting different school buildings, a video projection of school motives, and live presentations of various school lessons from the times of our (great-)grandparents. There is also a lesson taught in English.

Several thematic (usually travelling) exhibitions on school and the history of education are prepared every year, among them, Accessible and Noble – 200 Years of Public Music Schooling in Slovenia, The Periodic System in School, Protestant Education in the Slovene Territory, School Radio through the Time, School Fashion in Photos, Schooling in the Illyrian Provinces, and How Shall I Dress for School? on past clothing habits and regulations.

Publications

Since 1992, the Slovene School Museum publishes School Chronicle (Šolska kronika), the only Slovene periodical dealing with the history and traditions of Slovene teachers, teacher associations, and the Slovene school system (in Slovenian and English). The temporary exhibitions are accompanied by rich and informative catalogues. In addition, the museum's website includes many relevant links to related museums and associations to help gain a grasp of (the history of) schooling in the wider region.

Symposium 2013

The 15th International Symposium on School Life and School History Museums & Collections was organised in Ljubljana in June 2013 by the Slovene School Museum, the Union of Historical Societies of Slovenia and International Council of Museums (ICOM), Slovenia. Around a hundred presenters and participants tackled the theme of "Creating links in education: how teachers and their associations promote pedagogic development, with historical and museum aspects under scrutiny".

See also

• Slovene School Museum Library
• Ministry of Education, Science and Sport

External links

• Slovene School Museum website (in English, German and Slovenian)
• Presentation of the School Chronicle past issues
• Symposium 2013 book of abstracts (PDF)
• Slovene School Museum on Virtual Guide to Slovene Museums and Galleries
• Slovene School Museum featured in Adria Airways In-flight Magazine