Strange Currencies
I was passing through the Gen. Mitchell airport in Milwaukee the other day and had some time to kill. I noticed a sign for a museum and decided I should check it out. Very small, but still interesting and maybe a good way to occupy young children for a little while. Many exhibits seemed just a bit out of date and gathering dust, but that’s not really the point.
They had the expected exhibits with scale models of planes, a replica cockpit and some information on General George Mitchell. But, next to all of that there was a display case with all different sorts of currencies indexed to a world map next to them. The currencies had been collected through the donation bin for the museum located in the concourse. Often the coins had multiple sides to them, holes in them, different writing, and in very different denominations — all things that might seem strange to some students.
I found this to be an interesting way not just to look at the differences amongst currencies from around the world but it also provided an opportunity for geography and a discussion of how and why people from these far-flung places might be passing through Milwaukee. Sure, it is an international airport, as the display proudly proclaimed, but what reasons might all of these people have in Wisconsin. Some may be passing through, some may be doing business, some may even be moving to the area as refugees.
For all different ages, there are ways to begin discussions with this activity, whether it be on global economy and how markets are connected, the particular attractions to placing Milwaukee as a business and tourism center, more in-depth lessons on each of the nations represented, or even just as story-starters by imagining the lives of the people who left those coins behind. There are lesson opportunities that can be found in strange currencies and unfortunate airport layovers. We just need to look for them, and make them real to our students.
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