Hello:

As a parent I completely agree with your friends comments.  But not only historic sites but art galleries even more so.  The problem is not with the children but with poor parenting.  How one addresses it....I would suggest for a museum to have posted behavior rules and for them to be enforced.

Museums and historic sites should be for all to appreciate, value and respect.

Noel
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone from Vodafone

-----Original Message-----
From: James Schulte <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2011 23:35:27 
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: [MUSEUM-L] Children in Museums

A close friend of mine (married, childless I should add) brought the following to the attention of another list serve . I thought I would share it and see how others deal with this or don't. Let the controversy begin..
 
My wife and I visit historic sites, museums and events. It seems that the experience is often spoiled by the unruly behavior of children - from babies crying to adolescents being...well...adolescent!
 
The concept of exposing children to historic and cultural things seems wonderful in theory. Indeed, many sources for funding insist institutions include kid-friendly components as a requisite for consideration. But I have to wonder if in practice that the average child - for whatever reasons - doesn't get anything out of the experience and often only ruins it for the adults who actually appreciate the opportunity.
 
I know not every child is like this - I was always a history geek, even when I was little. But several encounters with both individual families and school groups at events and exhibits have made me question how we approach this.
 
Now don't shoot the messenger, I have my thoughts as both an educator and museum professional. I wanted to see what others think or do. Then ill post mine in a few days
Peace
Jim

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).