It sounds like a day care facility (as a mall benefit for shopping parents)
with some fun and expensive play areas, not like a museum.  My daughter's
day care center has a pretend kitchen - should they be called a museum now?

Do these "exhibits" have interpretive text or interpreters whose job it is
to transmit information (especially since very little kids can't read yet)
and interpret the objects and activities and place them in an appropriate
context?

Dr. Elizabeth A. Moore, Curator
Virginia Museum of Natural History
1001 Douglas Avenue
Martinsville, VA  24112
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----------
> From: Momto36 <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: goals of so-called children's museum
> Date: Thursday, April 09, 1998 1:05 AM
>
> Education, collection and preservation are the three goals this list
seems to
> be currently accepting as the most common and appropriate goals for
museums.
>
> In our community [a middling-size university town in the U.S. Midwest],
we are
> getting a new 'children's museum.'  This institution will be located in a
new
> shopping mall, where it will receive free rent from the mall developer.
It
> will feature such 'exhibits' as a pretend hospital, a pretend tv station,
and
> a pretend grocery store [to train the little future consumers, no doubt!]
 Its
> planned 'programs' include drop-off programs to 'educate' the kiddies
while
> mom shops the mall; pajama parties; birthday parties; craft classes; and
> school group visits.  The institution is organized as a nonprofit.  Its
> business plan, though,  projects large profits as well as high salaries
for
> managerial staff.  Admission is priced steeply compared to other area
museums.
> The other area museums do exhibits and offer programming based on real
art,
> real historic artifacts and sites; or serious science information and
> experiments.
>
> A number of local educators and children's physicians are touting the so-
> called children's museum as the best thing to happen to childhood since
sliced
> bread.  What do you all think of such an institution?
>
> Questions to provoke thought:
>
> Is this 'children's museum' really a museum? There are no collections, no
> preservation, and the educational programs seem pretty questionable
sometimes.
>
> Should we in the local museum community try to draw them into our
> collaborative networks, such as the state museum association?
>
> The pretend hospital in the children's museum at the mall, by the way,
was
> funded by a $150,000 gift from a local hospital's auxiliary group.
> Interestingly, the local hospital's chief marketing/pr officer and the
> children's museum board president are one and the same
>
> Opinions, please!!