Message from jwyss

[Anonymous]

In a forum post on the Pacific Asia Museum, I suggested that museums are glass showcases that can be approached in several ways during a field trip but are still quite structural and limited. The Hsi Lai Temple, on the other hand, presents a more open structure and a potentially open field trip experience.

The temple, of course, is a place of worship and designed to fit the activities of the religious institution it is. A field trip project could be based on a plan map of the temple with numbered stops. At teach destination point, students would explain what an object or building was and why it was important. The rubric would specify how many numbered stops had to be addressed for which grade. Again it is important to point out that I think a good rubric/s is a sine qua non for the filed trip experience.

Individual places at the temple could be objects of more intense study. The Bodhisattva Hall, the Main Shrine, the Art Gallery, and the Ashats and Avalokitesvara Gardens would make good objects of study as would the dining experience. Quiet, unobstrusive observation of worship in the Bodhisattva Hall or the Main Shrine might be an appropriate project for some students. With an open area like the temple, I also think of scavenger hunts, which in my mind, are a series of numbered stations with a riddle or problem to solve at each station, while for more highly motivated students the more open and challenging format of diary/journal/photo essay might produce great results. All of these projects could stand alone or be combined with further library and/or internet research.

Now if I can just find the right chaperones, I can give a comradely nod to my old friend Guan Gong, nibble salted fruit in the dining hall, and relax with a few libations in the tea room.