In regards to state standards my institution's educational programs
coordinator took our school programs' brochure and looked at each program to
see which state standards that a program satisfied.  In our latest printing
of the brochure distributed last year after each program description we
listed the standards met.  We hope this gives the teachers the opportunity
to see what our programs could do for them and their classes. Some teachers
may think better of our programs for knowing that these standards are being
met and other teachers will come because of their own conclusions and
experiences with the program, word of mouth from other teachers who have
seen the program, others for financial reasons, and others for other
reasons.

    We are funded by our county, local donors, and state grants and as such
charge no fees for youth and school groups from our county and are able to
charge only a minimal fee for out of county students. I do recognize that we
are lucky in being able to offer this and not every museum is in the same
boat and must do what is best for them. I do know that the county taxpayers
set our museum up this way and have encouraged us to maintain this
arrangement even in tough financial times. Currently due to the cost of
buses and the largest local school district in financial distress due to
lower than expected property tax revenue(our museum is funded by another
type of tax) that some schools are not able to bus their students to us.
Some have opted to arrive in private cars or asked that we go into the
classroom.  We have also set up a panel of educators to help advise on a
project to develop several "history in a box" traveling trunks and "nature
in a box" traveling trunks that give teachers, home schoolers, scouts, and
other youth groups another opportunity to learn if other opporunities are
not right for them due to time, finances, etc.   Currently we don't plan on
charging for short term loan of the educational traveling trunks.

Brent Wielt
Homestead Prairie Farm
Macon County Conservation District
Decatur, Illinois


----- Original Message -----
From: Elizabeth Laney <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, January 26, 2002 6:34 PM
Subject: Re: State education standards and program offerings


> Hmm... I think that in most cases it is not the
> imposed state standards that keep teachers in their
> classes and away from the museum so much as finances.
> I come from a rather poor town where the school system
> is insufficiently funded. Despite the fact that we
> have a rather nice museum with a wonderful room
> devoted to a nearby Nature Conservatory that kids
> love, we get hardly any classes coming in on field
> trips. I have personally spoken with some of the
> teachers of our schools and their main problem is
> their inability to fund the trips. In fact many of the
> families of the children can't even afford to give
> their children the money to take an "in town" trip.
> Luckily our museum has been recently given a grant
> that allows it to make the trip to the children since
> the children can't come to it. I hope that this will
> allow children to become more involved in our museum
> and possibly encourage visits by families on the
> weekend as children become more excited by the
> programs they recieve in school.
>
> Elizabeth Laney
> Anthropology Senior
> Appalachian State University
>
>
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