Back in my days interpreting exhibitions about non-Western cultures to
school groups (at the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History) I found
high school groups at least as interesting and fun (the key here is fun) as
younger and older aged groups.  If you are just running through a script,
you inevitably loose people; if you interact with them by asking them
questions and responding to their experience in the moment, people stay with
you.  Of course, this means planning for interpretive tours a little
differently--docents need to be well versed in the subject matter so that
they can ad lib, and the interpretive goals spelled out clearly enough for
the docent to know if their ad libbing is in line with them.
 
I'd like to hear more on this from others!
 
-Richard Chute
 RSABG
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