--- Tammy Espaillat <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Children should be dragged to anything that will help them learn.

Children "dragged" anywhere will not learn. This isn't the same as "obligatory"
activities like "you have to sit nicely while we are having tea at grandma's."
Museums are "optional" activities and if children have bad memories of museums
as children, they aren't going to want to go to them as adults.

I was dragged to many exhibits as a child before the age of kid's guides and
hated it. I appreciate it now as I have vague memories of seeing prints by
Escher, artifacts from Alexander the Great or other great art treasures but I
didn't really "learn" from it or understand what I was looking at. Fortunately,
there were plenty of rocket ships and dinosaurs to keep me coming back to
museums.

The Hirshhorn museum published the *best* family guide I have ever seen. It was
a series of cards that each had a picture of an object, a color-coded guide to
its location and facts about the object and the artist written on about a 2nd
grade level. The idea was that parents could come in with their children and do
a few cards together. The writers stressed that children can't handle hours of
looking at static objects and that parents should make several small trips to
see a few pieces rather than trying to take in the whole museum at once.

If children are exposed to museums this way, they won't feel like they are
getting "dragged" around, even if they don't really like the art. And they can
be encouraged to find something about the museum they like or find interesting
so the trip is a bit more fun than just a "learning experience". I remember I
used to play on a Calder "stabile" of a rocket as a kid visiting the National
Gallery East Wing and watched the water cascading down the window in the
underground cafe which was my "treat" for having been dragged through yet
another boring exhibit. (I'll also note that the "stabile" which I think every
kid that visited the museum has crawled through at least once is strictly off
limits now. How sad.) I think I would have enjoyed things a lot better with a
good kid guide and parents who were willing to talk me through the exhibit
instead of "drag" me through it like most parents do

Deb

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