Clipping

[Dennis F. Cramer]

Fred & the group:
    To correct the lack of knowledge at any museum is going to require a new
paradigm.  Most museums have existed off the memories of riding streetcars
and sharing it with your children/grandchildren.  These folks are rapidly
diminishing in numbers.
    I am a perfect example.  My family left McKeesport when I was 9 and my
parents made sure to take me on a streetcar ride as they had heard they were
being phased out.  (My father came home from W.W.II on the Washington
Interurban)  We moved to Armstrong County and I did not ride another
streetcar until I was over 40.  I have learned about them by studying and
listening, not many others want to do that.
    We need to assume the visitor knows nothing and take them to where we
want them to be in a very non-threatening manner.  The technologies impact
on society is the easiest for people to grasp as long as the presenter
(docent) has a grasp of late nineteenth/early twentieth century history &
lifestyles.
    People actually do like history if it is presented with enthusiasm and
lots of visual aids.  I have students get quite enthused when we discuss the
popular music of the 20th century and I tie in major events of the century.
They get more and more vocal and then I remind them of how much they hate
history.
    Education often fails to see the trees for the forest.  "We have always
done it this way and why change?
    We must continue to teach our patrons the impact on society.  It is
"His-story" (and Her-story)  not "Its'-story"

Dennis F. Cramer--Teacher-Trombonist-Historian-Conductor
www.geocities.com/armconband