While attending a volunteer recognition event at my local high school this week, one of the speakers who volunteered as a docent at the Museum of Science recounted one of his early experiences. He explained that a mother and her son were perusing an exhibit. The mother stopped and asked him a question. Ten minutes later he completed his explanation. The mother politely said thank you and rushed away with her son. He quickly realized that he handled it all wrong. Instead of providing enough information for the mother and son to continue enjoying the exhibit and probing for understanding, the docent poured out all the information he knew, while the mother periodically nodded and the son looked around distractedly.
“I was wrong,” the high school volunteer reported to the audience. “I just gave them all the information. That is what school and textbooks are for.” Some of us in the auditorium laughed in astonishment. The student saw school and textbooks as a means to receive an abundance of information. Museums are places to explore and learn. Unfortunately, I believe this perception is the reality for too many students. Both schools and museums need to be places for exploration, for problem solving, and for risk taking. Perhaps then students won’t look around distractedly during class and rush from the building at the end of the day.
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