Lessons

Lessons of our grandmothers and grandfathers are living history, where visitors learn how it used to be in school in a playful and educational way. They learn about the teaching aids, vocabulary, school rules and penalties of the time. During the lesson, Miss Teacher, with a rod in her hand, examines the cleanliness of hands and ears. Bad pupils can experience punishment with the methods of the past; however, they can also earn praise. The lesson is mainly aimed at foreign visitors who do not speak Slovenian or whose knowledge is deficient.

Learning Objectives:

– Students are introduced to discipline and cleanliness,
– They learn about the origins of the name Ljubljana,
– They learn about France Prešeren and his poem Zdravljica,
– They earn to count from one to ten in the Slovenian language.

Suitable for:

Foreign visitors who do not speak Slovenian

In the lesson, we will perform physical exercises and games according to the Sokol system: correct body posture and standing in rows – of one, two, three, four. Walking and running in a line. Rotations left and right. Free exercise on the spot. To finish up, we will play various games.

Learning Objectives:

– Students learn to be skilful and confident in their moves,
– They develop determination, self-confidence and maintain mental and physical health,
– They become accustomed to decent and good manners.

Hygiene was first introduced as a subject in the curriculum in the school year 1926/27 under the National Schools Act. The aim of systematic hygiene instruction was to acquaint pupils with all the causes affecting health, with hygiene rules and their implementation (personal hygiene), with the importance of air, water, light and food for health, as well as with infectious (sexual) diseases and the problem of alcoholism and smoking. Re-education through “disseminating hygiene knowledge” was introduced at various levels and in various institutions.

Learning Objectives:

– Students learn the basics of personal hygiene,
– They see a practical demonstration of washing hands and teeth,
– They learn about infectious diseases.

Objects for the hygiene lesson are the property of the Museum of Recent History Celje.

In today’s world, most of our writing is done on the computer, and few people know how to write beautifully. Handwriting used to be one of the most important school subjects, the aim having been to produce clear and pleasing handwriting. In the Museum’s Handwriting lesson, you can acquire the basics of such handwriting.

Learning Objectives:

– Students write with a pen and ink,
– They learn individual calligraphy letters and their elements,
– They join letters into words and sentences.

Handicraft lessons were very important in school, providing pupils with many useful skills for everyday life while also teaching them to be orderly and diligent. The girls learned to sew and mend clothes, to weave, knit and crochet, while the boys learned to weave willow baskets and other useful things. The Sew on a Button! handicraft lesson also provides some useful knowledge on the basics of sewing.

Learning Objectives:

– Students learn to be neat, tidy, and precise,
– Students are introduced to sewing accessories,
– They sew on a button and take the product home.

In a lesson on domestic cat (Felis domestica), students learn about its physical attributes and character, and discover through cat-related proverbs how people and cats are actually similar in character. In a reader by Fran Erjavec, they discover the cat’s habits, its attitude toward its offspring, as well as dogs and people. “A Cat’s walk is almost inaudible and very elegant. It is a nimble and agile animal as if there were no bones in its body. The cat’s agility is especially noticeable when it falls: it always lands on its feet and never hurts itself. Therefore, we say that a cat has nine lives.”

Learning Objectives:

– Students learn about the cat’s physical attributes and character and discover its connection to people’s habits in Slovenian proverbs on cats

Don’t yawn during lessons! Don’t bite your nails! Don’t scratch your head! Don’t spit on the floor! Live in harmony with people of other religions and other nationalities! These are just a few examples of the school law that children learn about in the lesson on good manners. In addition to the basic rules, they also learn to respect their superiors, teachers, parents, elders, and animals. They learn the rules of decorum at school and in everyday life.

Learning Objectives:

– Students learn the basic rules of decorum,
– They learn about the School Law.

Mathematics has always been one of the most important subjects in school and often the most difficult one. The eminent mathematician Franc Močnik wrote many mathematical textbooks. Participants in the arithmetic lesson solve problems from his 100- to 170-year-old textbooks, thereby learning that mathematical problems can also show us how people lived in the past. At the same time, students in the school of the times past encounter a completely different methodology of teaching mathematics.

Learning Objectives:

– Students learn “to tell” up to 100 with an abacus,
– They learn about the old names of the months and the related farm tasks.

“Gott erhalte, Gott beschütze unsern Kaiser, unser Land!” by Johann Gabriel Seidl was made the Imperial anthem in 1854, six years after Francis Joseph became Emperor of the Habsburg monarchy. Several translations of Seidl’s poem into Slovenian appeared shortly after its creation. Set to music by Joseph Haydn, it was sung by pupils before the first lesson or at the opening of a new school building, and it was sung with special solemnity in church and on the Emperor’s birthday and name day.

Learning Objectives:

– Students learn the lyrics to the Imperial song, its content is explained

Various physical laws also determine how we live our lives. The teaching of basic science was laid down in the 1869 Primary Education Act, and it is still useful to learn it today. Physics experiments with old teaching aids are particularly attractive in this context.

Learning Objectives:

– Students learn about the physical characteristics of sound,
– They perform a vacuum pump experiment.

The programme is tailored for young children to learn about the school of the past through play and conversation. While performing in a lesson from a century ago and exploring an old school bag, they get an insight into the everyday life of a pupil in a primary school in the countryside during the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. They learn about the clothes children used to wear to school, the teaching aids hidden in the pupils’ wooden bag, how they learnt to “tell”, and how teachers punished tardiness, chatter, and other offences against the “school law”.

Learning Objectives:

– Pupils are introduced to the appearance of a classroom from the Austro-Hungarian period.
– They perform a short lesson scene,
– They learn about the content of a school bag with old school supplies.

Guided by a teacher – Master, participants learn about teaching and education in ancient Emona. They learn that repetition really is the mother of learning by writing down Latin phrases and numbers. They listen to stories from ancient mythology and write on wax tablets. The students and the teacher are dressed in Roman attire (tunics and togas).

Learning Objectives:

– Students learn to count to ten in Latin,
– They learn Latin names for months
– They write with a stylus on wax tablets,
– They listen to the story of Venus and Mars and discuss Roman gods.

As the Illyrian Provinces were established in 1809, the French promoted the knowledge of the French language but allowed the provincial (Slovenian) language to be used as the language of instruction in primary and lower secondary schools. Valentin Vodnik wrote the first purely Slovenian textbooks for classes in Slovenian. The content of these books is also taught to the participants of the Vodnik’s School lesson. They are thus given a unique opportunity to learn the basics of Bohoričica, which was used as the Slovenian script from the mid-16^th to the mid-19^th century.

Learning Objectives:
– Students learn an old script, Bohoričica,
– They translate some simple words from Slovenian to French and vice-versa.

From the early 19th century onwards, introductory and revision Sunday School courses were organised on Sundays and holidays, as many village children were unable to attend classes during the week due to their preoccupation with other work and their distance from school. In Sunday School, they learned to write, read, and do arithmetic and were also taught about manners, order, and discipline. Blaže and Nežica in Sunday School by Anton Martin Slomšek was an important textbook from the period.

Learning Objectives:

– Students count to ten and solve simple word problems,
– They learn the song Ljuba vigred by A. M. Slomšek.