Learning is Fun!

 

It’s that time of year when kids are returning to school.  Teachers and parents both look for new and exciting ways to teach various subjects to their students.  This has been the challenge for teachers throughout the ages.  Educational games go over rather well and it was no different in the early days of the state.  Thelma Linam Webber bought a puzzle of the United States in 1933 to help her daughters, Bruce and Alta Faye, learn geography.  Today, we have this puzzle as a part of the Virgil and Thelma Linam Collection at the Western Heritage Museum Complex and Lea County Cowboy Hall of Fame.

Published by Milton Bradley Co., the puzzle is interesting because along with the continental United States it includes Alaska and the Hawaiian Islands neither of which would become states until 1959.  They had been US territories since 1867 and 1898 respectively.  Along with these, the Philippine Islands, Guam, and Porto (sic) Rico are included in the puzzle map having become US territories in 1898 as well.  Today, two of those five territories are states.  On puzzles that you find today, however, most do not contain the US territories.  We know our country to be 50 states as of August 2012, but there are still territories under US control.  Could one of them become state number 51?  We have had 50 stars on our flag since 1960 but that doesn’t mean we can’t add more.

Puzzles are still a great way to get people to learn.  People learn and use skills without even thinking about it; it’s fun.  That’s exactly what a museum experience should be:  fun while learning.  Thelma Linam Webber believed in this concept so much that she created her own museum and walked children through it giving personal tours and the opportunity to learn about this region’s past.  We are proudly keeping her tradition alive with the Virgil and Thelma Linam Collection.  Please stop by the Museum and check out some of the educational material from her collection.  And don’t forget about the Staked Plains Round Up on September 13 and 14 from 9am-2pm on the New Mexico Junior College campus and at the Museum where you can learn about the Old West, see Brice Chapman the trick roper, watch Native American dancers, and see various demonstrations.  We look forward to seeing you!