07.09.2012
Minister to Open Schooling in the Nineteenth Century Exhibition
A fascinating exhibition featuring items used in education in the 1800s will open in the National Museum of Ireland Collins Barracks on Thursday September 20. Entitled ‘The Kildare Place Society and Schooling in the Nineteenth Century’, all the exhibits are taken from the Church of Ireland College of Education’s Plunket Museum and the college’s archives. The star exhibit will be the Darton Scroll –an early visual teaching aid consisting of a long strip of calico carrying written text and visual hand–painted images. The scroll was gradually unrolled to the excitement of the watching pupils as a lesson progressed.
Most of the items on show relate to the Kildare Place Society which was founded in Dublin in 1811 by a group of philanthropic Dublin citizens with the aim of providing non–denominational education for the poor in Ireland. The Society’s pioneering work included the building of schools, teacher training, the publication of an extensive library of reading books and the establishment of an inspectorate to monitor schools. The Society received a parliamentary grant until 1831 but this ceased with the advent of the Irish National School system. The Society’s influence on teaching was significant and many of its innovations influenced the National School system.
Among the other exhibits will be beautiful books of needlework, meticulously hand–stitched by school mistresses who had come to the Kildare Place Society for teacher training in 1824. There will also be school slates, bells, benches, inkwells and quills. There are a number of books which were published by the Kildare Place Society including the Dublin Reading and Spelling Book.
The exhibition is being launched by the Church of Ireland College of Education (CICE) in conjunction with the National Museum of Ireland Collins Barracks at 6.00 pm on Thursday September 20. The exhibition, which will run until June 2013, will be opened by the Minister for Education and Skills Ruairi Quinn T.D.