--- Treden Wagoner <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> The two backgrounds are necessary. You have to have a command of the
> content and methods of art historian and a foundation in educational
> research and theory. To be an effective museum educator you need to be
> able to speak the language of art and know how people learn.

While I agree with the need to have a background in both education and subject
matter in order to be a museum educator, do you have to have an advanced degree
to do it?

For example, if you are mainly doing grade school programs, is an MA in art
history really necessary? Do 10-12 year olds really need to know the minutia of
Renaissance painting or do they need to understand why medieval paintings look
"flat" and why Renaissance paintings look more realistic? The later is
something that anyone with a basic art history background - not necessarily an
art history degree - could explain.

One of my frustrations in the education world is talking to people trying to
hire educators or develop education programs and trying to get around this
notion that people have to be subject matter experts to be educators. For
example, I worked at a major planetarium for 4 years as a part-time educator. I
don't have a degree in astronomy but am a member of a local astro club and
worked in planetariums in high school through college. The majority of people
in my audience didn't need astrophysics explained to them but wanted to know
how the find the north star and the big dipper. I think I did a better job than
some of the physicists on staff because I understood education and how to break
complex concepts down to a public education level. Trying to find an answer for
a 5-year-old who asks "How many stars are there in the sky" is much harder than
it sounds. Young children think 20 is a big number so "billions and billions"
is just not a concept they understand.

So while I agree that the ideal for a museum educator would be to have advanced
degrees in both a subject and education, I don't think it is practical or
necessary.

And on the subject of education, I would also like to stress that if you work
with school groups, which most if not all of us do, you MUST have a background
in classroom education. I've seen too many museum education programs which are
very well written and put together that are impractical for the classroom
teacher. Personally, I think all museum education programs should have a class
on traditional classroom teaching and a practicum/inservice with a local public
school. I think this would give museum people a basic understanding of the
limitations and restrictions of what classroom teachers face which would help
educators better tailor programs to the needs of classroom teachers.

Deb

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