Museum so Small but Big on Literary works of Poe

Here is one bit of news were you would be surprised to find that a Math teacher has a big heart and passion towards literature too. Tommy Flowers a 6^th grade Math teacher   has taken effort to put together   the   rich literary work  of Edgar Allen Poe into a 22 square ft closet  at the University Place Middle School.  The museum in its present form is a collection of photos and objects related to Poe, a Boston native who died in 1849 at age 40, and his literary legacy. Some of the items have been donated while others Flowers obtained from places like eBay, the online auction site. Plastic hearts, skulls and even a real skeleton crowd the confines of Edgar's Closet, while dozens of photos line its walls. The museum recognized previously as the world's smallest is a roadside attraction in Arizona, a 134-square-foot facility that bills itself as showcasing 'artifacts of ordinary life.

Mr. Flowers has put his 25 years teaching experience to creative use. His Poe museum has been inspiring his young students to take keen interest in literature. The museum has sparked a big passion for books among the children. As he puts it well that the he himself and the kids  would enjoy reading them in the class. He created the museum to inculcate the kids to read classics which otherwise the children would have not been interested to read them. In fact, many students enjoyed reading Poe so much that they began putting together projects based on the stories and poems they had read. Many of these projects now form the foundation of Edgar's Closet. Although Flowers teaches math, he encourages his students to explore literature. His use of Poe demonstrates the modern classroom, he said, where teaching requires divergent subject matters to be tied together. Flower jokingly commented that he   made use of his being a  math teacher too. He questioned his students to calculate the square footage of the museum thus giving them some math booster and brushing their numerical skills along with pushing up their interest in literature. The overall activity has been very satisfying and fun for the children.

Flowers  hopes that the museum garners more attention from all and especially from the teaching fraternity   so that they are also inspired by his idea and adopt the same in their respective schools.

The smallest museum measured a 22 square ft   which has   been dedicated to Edgar Allen Poe and named as Edgar’s Closet Museum  was set by Tommy Flowers  at University Place Middle School at Tuscaloosa,  Alabama , United States of America on October 10,2008.