[PRCo] Education/entertainment (changed from Rio)

[Dennis F Cramer]

It is entirely possible to educate without the audience immediately turning 
off.  Teaching is a talent and so is the ability to entertain.  When you 
combine the 2 talents, you have a great learning environment.

We are lucky to have some of the best and brightest students ever going 
through our public & private educational systems.  The problem is the higher 
percentage of students going into higher education who were not going there 
50 to 75 years ago.  They quit school at the end of 8th grade and went to 
work in the mill or mine.  Each succeeding generation has wanted more for 
their children, but at some point the "more" has to reach a limit.

The true tragedy in the United States is we still have a 30% drop out rate 
from high school nationwide.  Out welfare and prison systems cannot continue 
to support these numbers as those aforementioned mill and mine jobs just do 
not exist in great numbers any more.

Museums must put forth an effort to first train their docents before 
expecting them to get the message out.  This is where small museums miss the 
boat as it is hard enough to schedule volunteers to operate the museum, let 
alone bring them all in for training.  Once they are trained they really 
need oversight to make sure they are getting the message out clearly and in 
a painless (to the customer) manner.  This training needs to be ongoing as 
even the best teachers need a shot in the arm to refresh.


          Dennis F. Cramer
http://home.windstream.net/dfc1