WE RECENTLY broke ground on the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of African American History and Culture, scheduled to open in early 2004 at Pratt and President streets in Baltimore.

Teacher and historian Carter G. Woodson said that truth comes to us from the past, like gold washed down from the mountains. So it is fitting that this museum, dedicated to the African-American experience, will preserve that past, protect that truth, and prepare us for a future made better because of it - a future without race-based achievement gaps.

Even as exhibits are being designed and artifacts collected, a task force of educators, historians and museum staff is writing a K-12 curriculum that borrows the museum's themes and materials. The point is to make the museum more than just a field trip.

The curriculum - dealing with work, family and community, arts and entertainment, facing oppression and facing the future - will link the museum to the classroom in a way that provides for multiyear, multicourse study.

The curriculum will require that students intensively prepare for their trip to the museum (or for the museum's trip to them - traveling exhibits are one of the museum's features), reflect upon it afterward and use its lessons to guide future learning.

Training teachers well in the curriculum will be key to its success.

In addition to district- and school-based workshops on incorporating the museum's themes into instruction, Maryland teachers will be given lectures and tours by museum staff so they can prepare lessons. They'll also be able to tap a cadre of experts in African-American art, culture, history and contemporary life so they can make those lessons more interesting to students.

George L. Russell Jr., a Baltimore lawyer and chair of the museum's board of directors, says the partnership with Maryland's Department of Education is about "planting a seed" among African-American youths, helping them see their past and their future, their tragedies and triumphs, through new eyes.

For many African-American children and teens, he says, "yesterday is today and tomorrow is today."

The museum, he hopes, will pull these children out of themselves and into the larger African-American experience. He hopes, too, that seeing the accomplishments of others, against daunting odds, will spark recognition in students that they are capable of the same. This he calls "inspiration and aspiration."

But, of course, the museum isn't only for African-American students, and neither are the heroes it celebrates. These are the stories of democracy, and their lessons apply to all. This is why the curricular connection is so important: It ensures that every Maryland child will understand the role African-Americans played in our past and appreciate its implications for our future.

With this museum, Maryland and the city of Baltimore are setting the stage for an important dialogue with and for all children.

Nancy S. Grasmick is state superintendent of schools.