>>>From: Martha Hagood [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Well. I've listened (read) this thread, and all I can say is, if you want
competence, pay for it.<<<
That's not the problem at all! Paid docents still want to appear to have
all the answers for their tours, at least as much as volunteer ones (maybe
more so, since their "paid experts"). And folklore is passed among them
just as readily. Remember the game "telephone"? I whisper something to my
neighbor, who whispers what he heard to his neighbor, and down the line--at
the end of the line you compare the result with the original, usually
hilariously changed. Happens all the time when people compare notes on a
tour (or whatever else). If so-and-so says something I didn't know but
sounds like a great sound bite for my tour, I'll use it. Those of us with
little exposure to Judaism can be titillated by the idea of two fireplaces
for the sake of kosher cooking, especially if we didn't know this used to be
two rooms, and start using it in our tours.
This is a human condition, called "culture". It's the source of urban
legends, and it comes from the very-human phenomenon of oral tradition.
It's not a matter of poor quality docents--you don't think curators pass on
cultural tidbits about their fields, learned from their mentors or their
peers? Just because you heard it from your major professor while in grad
school, just because you read it in a textbook, doesn't mean it's correct!
I'm confident I've passed on my share of apocrypha and urban legends, in my
field and outside it. I'm also confident you have, too (all of you reading
this).
So I give our docents training in my field and I hope they all heard me
correctly (another source of tour mis-information) and accept that at some
point, something that they tell their charges will be wrong. If I overhear
incorrect info, I'll pull them aside later and correct them.
just my 3 cents,
Robin
Robin K Panza [log in to unmask]
Collection Manager, Section of Birds ph: 412-622-3255
Carnegie Museum of Natural History fax: 412-622-8837
4400 Forbes Ave.
Pittsburgh PA 15213-4008 USA
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