I work in a childrens museum where you would expect an extremely child-friendly environment, but it's not always the case even here. Some museums are better than others, but this one is the worst I've seen for this.
The staff here is always telling the children 'no' in what seems purely to be for the adults feeling of power over others. While there are many instances of 'no' here the fountain is where I see it at it's worst. (If you know what musuem this is after my story, please don't share it on the board KWIM?)
While many childrens musuems have water that children CAN play with, here we have a fountain where they CAN'T touch the water. This whole concept at a CHILDRENS MUSEUM makes no sense to me - but what's even worse is how most of the staff responds to this arbitrary rule.
When kids go up to the fountain (a trickle of water from a center fountain falling into a small square pool of water about 5 inches deep) they are OF COURSE drawn to it and often will put their hands in. Most of the staff will, at this point, YELL at the child from across the room "Don't touch the fountain!!!!" (even when the parent is right there with them while they explore the fountain). Some kids are scared when this happens, some kids ignore the yeller (good for them) but only once have I seen anyone question the yeller - a kid said to the yeller "Why, I don't see a sign?" (this is just the kind of kid I hope to raise if all this TTC works out).
When I am near the fountain, first I will watch the kids at the fountain and if they are young and with a parent or older and are focused in thier exploration I will leave them be!! If a younger child is there and the parent isn't watching I will go over and be with the child, talk about the fountain or just watch them explore - if they are highly energetic and could fall in or hurt someone else, I try and redirect them to an activity where they can be just as energetic with less chance of injury. Even when older children are highly exubarent with the fountain, I don't say 'no' or 'don't' etc because there is nothing inherently wrong in what they are doing. It is fun to splash water! I just ask them if they could please play gentler because they could get water on the floor an cause someone to slip.
If I'm being watched by someone who insists on slavishly following the rule (who would yell at the kid if I took no action at all and then yell at me for not yelling at the kid), I still try and treat each kid as respsectfully as possible by walking up to them and telling them "hi, did you know that this fountain is for looking and listening and wishing?" which will often lead to good discussion of the fountain.
Fortunately I've worked in museums where the staff is very interested in child development and creating a respectful, individualised learning environment for kids. At this museum the staff is either interested in congratulating themselfs ("we got an award!!", "we've partnered with blah, blah blah organization"), or keeping kids in line ("these kids are so bad", "why do they use the exhibit in ways it's not designed?"). They have moved so far, far, far away from creating a learning environment for kids that I really don't know where they are. I think however that they are creating a great environment for corporations to get thier hooks into kids in ever widening ways. A quote from a staff member here was "Coke is going to partner with us on xyz and they are soooo excited about it!" Well duh - Coke would love to partner up with a Childrens Museum - lets advertise to them everywhere we can. GRRRRRRRRRR
So for those of you who question the people who are not respectful to your children or who start with an assumption that children are 'bad' - keep it up!!!!! Tell them you don't want your child yelled at, tell them you have the situation under control!!!! The people that I work with need to know that parents won't accept thier children treated disrespectfully and as a blanket group. I would be thrilled if a parent told a staff yelling at their kid not to yell at them!!!!!!!
This same child got one of those pretend-baby strollers down at the toy store and got inside it (she's a really big 4 yo.) and a friendly employee came over and asked very nicely if she could put it back. The girl jumped out of her seat, screamed at the man, saying "YOU CAN'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!!!" and her mom said, "Yes, that's right honey, he CAN'T tell you what to do, you don't have to put it back" so she continued to play with the stroller.
Kids are already bombared with marketing, you'd think a children's museum that is (I assume) trying to provide educational experiences would have more of a clue.
