Laura A Dell 6/26/98 4:23 PM [log in to unmask]

>  Most of the people concerned about
>accreditation seem to only view it in context of a collecting museum.  Am
>I less of a professional because I work for a hands-on institution
>without permanent collections?  Are science and industry museums not
>"real" museums?  Are live theatre directors in museums not museum
>professionals?  If we do consider accreditation we must look at the broad
>scope of museums and museum professionals that AAM now serves.


Laura hits on on of the many schisms within the Museum community that
will make any certification program for the whole profession difficult at
best.  I said in my last note that I think the idea has merit, and I do,
but it seems to me the smaller organizations AASLH, ARM, MAAM or whatever
acronym suits your nook and/or cranny of the profession would the more
appropriate place for such an initiative.  AAM already has an
accreditation program that looks at an institution as a whole, which I
think serves the commuity far better than putting individuals through a
series of tests.

Allison Weiss wrote:
>As for salaries and the above, school teachers take classes that keep
>them abreast of trends in education and those classes also serve the
>purpose of raising a teacher's salary.

And few of those classes are actually worth while.  Ask any teacher how
many of these classes were worth the time and money spent.  While I
cannot speak for all of them, the many I talk to get tired of listening
to one expert after another drone on and on trying to convince teachers
that the latest education fad is going to save the country from drugs and
illiteracy.  Pointing to this very phenomenon a local teacher, in an
editorial he wrote for the Baltimore Sun to mark his retirement after
thirty years, wrote   "I learned long ago to be suspicious of any expert
who begins a speech 'The research has shown...' "  Given the low level of
teacher morale in this coutry, the  sad state of public school education
in general, teh vice-like control some teacher's organizations can have,
and the political football that teacher accreditation can become around
election time convinces me that this is not exactly a system I would like
to emulate.

An, interestingly, the best education you can get in this part of the
country is ussually at Catholic, Quaker, or other parochial schools where
the teachers average a  lower salary.  The reason most stay, judging from
the multitude of studies and reports in local media is class size,
parental involvement, the lack of burdensome paperwork, quality of
student , lack of superfluous accreditation requirements, and other
"quality of work" issues.

Matthew White
Director of Education
B&O Railroad Museum
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