In article <[log in to unmask]>, Heleanor Feltham
<[log in to unmask]> writes
>Given that the reading age for adult museum-goers is twelve, and that
>children have as much ability to understand well-expressed concepts in
>simple language as anyone else, writing labels for your actual audience
>rather than as an academic exercise, and explaining the occasional
>technicality or odd word, will allow you to communicate with almost
>everyone.
I find writing labels which use short sentances, few words,  and are
easily understandable to be an 'academic' (mental) exercise in itself.

The one thing which I wish I knew, and haven't had time to research: do
our visitors understand 'Victorian' better than '1800s' or better than
1840-1900?  By 'understand', I mean that, when I say this object is
'Victorian', do they have some idea of the kind of houses in which the
owner lived, of the clothes they wore, of their employment, and so on?

>It's also important, in a multicultural community, not to make
>assumptions about commonly-held ideas, myths, mores and behavioural
>patterns.  This is a lot more difficult than you might think!  Translating
>out of professional jargon is not that easy, either.
I've not thought that much about multicultural issues: maybe that's
because I have a working class upbringing, and am a disabled person, so
all this 'museum stuff' is foreign, anyway.  I drank in the difference
with my mother's milk, so to speak.

Translating out of museum-speak is easy, because museum-speak is my
native tongue, but translating out of smallholder/lace-
maker/brickie/print-maker is more difficult - it's translating out of
one of numerous second languages.  I find it useful to find someone on
the staff who has absolutely _no_ interest in the subject, and ask them,
point blank, what if anything  'beast' or 'broderie anglaise' means.

>
>That aside, there may be occasions when you know you will have a very young
>audience - KIDS interactives, a circus exhibition - where large print, very
>simple statements would be helpful, and give a nice caring, sharing tone to
>the exhibition.  But these are very much an exception.  Generally if they're
>old enough to read, they're old enough not to be patronised.

I disagree about large print: while it is welcomed by children, it is
also welcomed by those who can only read large print.  A suprising
number of visitors find large print labels easy to read, and better than
scrabbling in their bags for their reading glasses.

Simple statements do tend to patronise.  A simple switch from statement
to question can revolutionise the effect: from:
"The clown is happy." to "Is the clown happy?" changes the situation
from pedagogy to androgogy*, from teaching to facilitating learning.  It
is also useful in family visit situation: the adult asks the question,
the whole family responds.

*Androgogy - the teaching/facilitating of learning in Adults (ok, the
word says 'Men') rather than Children.

Best wishes,
--
Pat Reynolds
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at home
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at work
Keeper of Social History, Buckinghamshire County Museum
   "It might look a bit messy now, but just you come back in 500 years time"
   (T. Prattchet)