Jennifer, thanks for your response but I'm sorry you disagree with me
because I'm right! I KNOW students who do not value public education,
and it's not because they have to deal with guns and leaks; I'm talking
about relatively safe, suburban, middle-class areas. I don't mean to
oversimplify or overgeneralize, but it is human nature to take things
for granted which you don't have to pay for directly. Concepts of
monetary value do influence attitudes. I didn't know there was any
question of "buying into" negative connotations about free or cheap
commodities and services; "free" and "cheap" can be negative, positive,
or neutral, depending upon context, viewpoint, and other variables. I
never said EVERYONE thinks EVERYTHING free is worthless, I'm just
pointing out that concepts of monetary value need to be factored into
any discussion about admission fees for museums. The relative value of
time is an interrelated factor. I know a teenager who would never
willingly spend his allowance on a museum admission fee. If someone else
pays his way, he immediately heads for the gift shop, where he spends
all his time and all his money on REPRODUCTIONS of the very objects that
he wouldn't pause for 10 seconds to study in the exhibition areas. I
find this phenomenon highly significant--I could write an essay about
such "values."

I work in a "free" museum, but seldom see young local visitors who have
freely chosen to come on their own; they're usually part of a school
field trip. Most of them would rather be someplace else. Many value
entertainment, not education, and they would rather pay for something
they enjoy than spend time engaged in something free that they don't
consider relevant to their lives. It's not just fear of violence and
annoyance with crumbling buildings that makes kids "shun" education:
some of them are actively resisting it and are never going to embrace
museums as an alternative form of education, whether they have admission
fees or not. Most of my high school class, back in the dark ages when we
had virtually NO violence, NO drugs, NO leaky ceilings, NO poverty, and
very few problems (but hey, it was hell, let me tell you) would have had
to be dragged kicking and screaming into a free museum.

--David Haberstich