Student Museum

          The Student Museum is located in Sanford Florida, off of French Street/ 17-92, between 7th and 8th. The building is beautiful, with brick and iron gates. The museum features a garden that visitors can walk through to access the parking lot. The original purpose of the building was a High School. The original part of the building was constructed in 1902. In 1911, Seminole High School was built, thereby making the old high school a grammar school. When the building became a grammar school, wings were added as well as plumbing and electric. The grammar school was used until 1984, and was then converted into a museum because the building was so beautiful. The museum is now open to the public between 1:30 and 3:00, and in the mornings is used for 4th graders, as that is the year that public school students learn FL history. The interior of the building is like stepping into the past. The dark wood floors creak as visitors walk around to see all that the museum has to offer. The museum is  currently funded by Seminole County Schools.                       
          The first room the tour guide showed our group was the Indian Exhibit. This room featured floor to ceiling murals of what life was like for the original peoples of FL. The exhibit had a canoe, and various stuffed animals. The next exhibit was the pioneer room. This room featured a log cabin that was only shrunk down by 1/4 of the actual size that people would have lived in at that time period. The house was very tiny, and our guide pointed out how people only had one peg to put their clothing on. She remarked that the 4th graders usually have a hard time wrapping their heads around that fact, given they have entire closets. The cabin featured a book that I found amusing. It was entitled, The American Frugal Housewife: Dedicated to those who are not ashamed of economy. The next exhibit was the classroom, which was interesting to me, because that would have been the way my late  great grandmother would have attended school. What I noticed about this room was how tiny everything was. I am a tall person, and I most likely would have been a giant back then. The teachers desk featured old books, and ink quills, which the teacher had to fill every morning. Outside of the classroom was a list of rules that teachers had to obey by. All the rules were humorous and ridiculous, but the one that was most interesting was " a man shall save a quarter of his earnings, so that he does not become a burden to society in his later years." The next room was grandmas attic, which featured relics from the turn of the century, to the 1950's. There was an old wheelchair, a telephone. clothes, dolls an oven, and a washboard among others. The last room was the georoom, which featured a geochron. This room had a model of the state of florida, showing what each piece of the state is used for. By far, the room that I enjoyed the most was the turn of the century classroom. It was so different from classrooms today. It did not seem inviting for the students.