Perhaps you could explain that museums don’t exist in an ethical vacuum –
that they have an ethical commitment to the honest representation of their
subject matter.  She seems to be a woman of some ethical conviction herself,
so this should strike a chord with her.
At the same time (or, if absolutely necessary, instead [but surely it won’t
come to that]), you could explain that the tour is not a tour of an exhibit
but of a subject, and that the elements of exhibits are integrated.
Supposing that your exhibit includes a section on human influences on the
Chesapeake’s biological health, I imagine that agricultural pollution would
be an important element – and can you really discuss agriculture and its
consequences around the Chesapeake without discussing tobacco?  Museums make
an investment in developing exhibits and training tour-givers, and people
often don’t realize that it’s no simple matter just to excise part of an
integrated whole.
For what it’s worth, I asked my father, who’s a Protestant clergyman, what
he thought of this situation.  His response was that the “Christian school”
rationale is a smokescreen of questionable ethicality for an unprofessional
request.
This made me realize that, in essence, the teacher is asking for the museum
to engage in voluntary situational censorship.  Perhaps some learnin’ is
better than none.  But as a teacher myself, I can tell you that there’s not
much point in presenting material if students don’t respect the medium and
the teacher.  A half-truth is also a half-lie, and kids aren’t born stupid –
there’s a reason they learn to hate history and to find museums boring.

R. Johnson

-----Original Message-----
I have a question to ask of the group - I'm interested to hear what others
think.  I had a teacher come in and inquire about tours of our exhibit for
her second graders at a Christian school.  Our exhibit examines man's
relationship with the Chesapeake Bay over time and how that relationship as
impacted on the cultural and environmental heritage of the Bay.  As I showed
the teacher through the exhibit, we came to our section on the tobacco
economy, which of course had a huge impact on life on the Eastern Shore.
The teacher indicated that she would prefer to not have that section be part
of the tour, because they are a Christian school.  I'm just interested to
know if others have ever faced this type of request, and what their thoughts
are on the notion of skipping over parts of history to suit the visitor,
specifically in a docent-lend tour situation.

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