The Yogi Berra Museum & Learning Center, in Montclair, New Jersey, offers interactive, sports-based education experiences that explore topics in STEM, history, and language arts. Yogi Berra, who played baseball for 18 seasons with the New York Yankees before retiring in 1963, transcended the world of sports to become an American icon.
Yogi was a child of Italian immigrants, a World War II Navy gunner who served at D-Day, a record-holding athlete, a Major League coach and manager, a husband and father, an engaged community member, a friend to many, and famously a one-of-a-kind master with language who uttered some of the most frequently recalled sayings in American life—for example, “You can observe a lot by watching” and “The future ain’t what it used to be.” His so-called Yogi-isms—the unique and witty observations he became famous for—made him a major contributor to the national repository of wisdom, a source cited more often than Shakespeare!
After a long career, and during a very public retirement in which he remained involved in baseball, Yogi spent many of his days at the Yogi Berra Museum & Learning Center, where his interests in education, sports, and community came together. His legacy is carried on in the museum’s in-person and online exhibitions and programs.
The most pressing issues of today have histories that often intersect with the world of sports. The Yogi Berra Museum & Learning Center gives students the unique experience of examining how sports culture has reflected, shaped, and even altered the course of American life, sometimes leading the way.
Multimedia lesson plans, created in partnership with Teach for America, explore the important topics of Race, Immigration, Gender, and Financial Literacy through the lens of baseball. Interesting readings, offscreen activities, thought-provoking questions, and multimedia tools create an engaging, accessible learning experience for middle school and high school students. The lesson plans and accompanying resources (printouts, videos, images) are freely available on the museum’s website.