Museum comes alive

Angu RAJENDRAN

For most students – history is synonymous with ‘notes’. But forward-thinking history teacher Anthony Chelliah of Gateway College decided to make it different for his students. He wanted them to create a wax museum that would come alive. A clever twist to Madame Tussard’s wax museum in London!

How would you feel if Paris declared his love for Helen of Troy in front of you? Or if Henry the VIII introduced you to his six wives, a few of whom he had beheaded? Or if Florence Nightingale told you that not only did she reduce the mortality rates of soldiers from 70 percent to two percent with her nursing care during the Crimean War but she was also a mathematical genius who was very very bossy.

‘It was like getting a real peak into the past, something that I’ve always wanted to do,’ said one of the student visitors to this Museum of historical statues that came alive and told you their stories when you went near them.

These O level students had captured the glamour and authenticity of different periods in history, making it such a colourful and enjoyable experience. ‘Most children think that history is just notes.

I wanted the O-L students to really understand the how’s and whys of the past.

The mistakes made at different times by different people, the culture and the passions that make our past a forerunner to the present. I want them to love history as I do,’ said History master Anthony Chelliah.

‘History has something for everyone,’ says he. For the horror-movie loving generation of today, the executions of his own wives by Henry the VIII and the human sacrifices by the Aztecs of Mexico are the most interesting exhibits. For the romantic teenagers – Anthony and Cleopatra and their legendary love and passion and ultimate suicide or Paris and Helen of Troy whose’ face launched a thousand ships’ are very beautiful. And of course for the sports loving boys – the Samurai and the Roman soldiers in authentic costume were very exciting.

Not only did the audience learn from a walk through the museum, the student statue-narrators had spent over a month on meticulous research to make authentic costumes, make-up and props.

And of course their narration! Anthony Chelliah and his students had created a most glamorous and attractive museums during their Day In The Museum last week. An audio-visual experience never to be forgotten by both the participants and the visitors!

If all museums were this interesting, they would become places of entertainment and enjoyment as well as learning. Audiences would visit them again and again.

Hats off to Anthony Chelliah and his students of history for coming up with an ingenious idea of presenting the past to the fast-paced rat-race audience of today!