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"The Archives is a big experience for me":
Archives works with Calgary's City Hall School
Glennda Leslie, City of Calgary Archives
"I don't know who could have shown me a better time." How often does an Archivist get a compliment like that? Speculation on the source of this comment could lead to untold scenarios when, in truth, it comes from an elementary school student in Calgary who visited The City of Calgary's Corporate Records, Archives through Campus Calgary's City Hall School program.
The City Hall School program was established in the 1999-2000 school year and since that time, the Archives has been a regular participant. The challenge for the Archivists has been to develop ways and means of explaining why archival work and "old things" are important without causing young eyes to glaze over within the first 15 seconds of their visit. So far, given the very positive response received from teachers, parent volunteers and especially the students, we have been successful. The evaluations from the students are always direct and honest. After a recent fact finding mission to the Archives, one student commented: "That was cool! … I guess that an archivist job isn't so boring after all."
Normally, the school classes come to the Archives with a predetermined topic for study. Some of these are quite straight forward; others, more challenging. Requests for presentations on the 1988 Olympic Winter Games or on the history of street names can be expected, but it is not uncommon for the students to force the Archivists to find creative ways to describe archival work to elementary students as it relates to subjects such as the history of City planning or the changing procedures for municipal elections-during which, in a show of hands, the students indicated their strong support for the significant lowering of the voting age! And a few heads were scratched when we were told that the theme of one class was "Order and Chaos - Systems in Motion." (How much do we really want to confess about our knowledge of chaos?)
As well, the Archives has been able to "go to" City Hall school, if only symbolically. Flat Stanley (for those unfamiliar, a character from a 1964 children's book by Jeff Brown--and a world traveler), spent some time in the Archives learning about our processes and was able to take his knowledge back to City Hall School. The ASA's Archives' Week virtual exhibit, "If These Walls Could Talk" was a useful link for City Hall School students interested in historical buildings. A Hollinger box filled with copies of Olympic-related "documents" was made available for "research" by students visiting the school. And parts of numerous Archives' exhibits (again copies) have been loaned to City Hall School so that students would have easy access to these resources for their projects.
It has been an interesting learning process for the Archivists and we have discovered that young students have very creative ways of translating the information we provide into terms that mean something to them. Yes, historical records were reduced to being "old papers", but other terms developed by the students are now on their way to becoming common colloquialisms use by the Archives' staff. For example, the Archives' records storage room has become "the cold room" while the ceremonial key for the official opening of the Sandstone City Hall in 1911 is now "the fancy, dancy key." Archives is a definite drawing card for many students, including those willing to confess that a visit to the Archives at any time is more interesting than having to return to regular classes! And there are always the follow-up questions: "Who won the 1988 down hill ski race or the speed skating?" "Do the Olympics have cake?"
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