The Museum of Education serves as a “public square”—a venue for open discussion and the examination of educational issues. Programs and exhibits are oriented for the professional educator-- preservice and inservice teachers. Opened to the public in 1977, our motto, drawn from an important 1930s educational project, is “being with adventurous company.” When patrons walk through the doors or visit websites, the Museum invites them to learn about important people, events, and ideas, and to explore, to engage—to think how this information could make life better for their communities, for their students, and for themselves.
The Museum's Public Square Program serves as an opportunity to engage our preservice teachers and to embrace the power of biography and includes two types of presentation: So Their Voices Will Never be Forgotten and Gallery Talks by visiting scholars.
So Their Voices Will Never be Forgotten motto: “We seek not to honor, nor do we wish merely to remember. The Museum wants never to forget the struggles fought by a group of courageous South Carolina teachers, individuals who have helped in preserving, transmitting, rectifying, and expanding our most fundamental educational beliefs.”
In 2008, the Museum invited Mrs. Fannie Phelps Adams, a colleague of Septima Clark, to speak at the So Their Voices Will Never be Forgotten session.
In 2011, Mr. Stonewall Richburg, principal of Booker T. Washington High School from 1965—1972, discussed the struggle for civil rights and the desegregation of schools in Columbia.
The Museum periodically stages gallery talks and discussions when nationally-renowned educators pass through Columbia.