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So I'm curious as to how the child attacking the wolf puppet is 
considered to be "flunking"?
My impression is that he got caught up in the story and that it 
became a very immersive experience for him.

Coming from both and art and science background, my view has evolved 
that it is not that the museum "flunks" the visitor, but that the 
museum "flunks" in the mind of the visitor. I believe that if 
something provokes a response in the visitor, either pro or con, then 
that thing has succeeded in some measure. The failure is when the 
response to the object or program is indifference.

>ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
>Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
>*****************************************************************************
>
>I was recently at the Pompidou in Paris, which reminded me of when I first 
>flunked a museum, which was there.  I was in the modern art gallery  when it
>first opened, walking across a room and I stepped on some burlap  randomly
>arranged on the floor.  Aghast, I said, "Oh my God, I stepped on 
>some art."  Well,
>as it turned out, it was just burlap and not some  abstract art using burlap.
>  I should have known.
>
>Another occasion when someone else flunked a museum was when I was director 
>of a children's museum.  We had a puppet theater, which at the time was 
>presenting Peter and the Wolf.  The 5-year old son of the gift shop 
>manager  was
>sitting in the front row.  At the point when the wolf was ready to eat  Peter,
>the boy leaped from his seat and attacked the wolf puppet.  After  the
>pandemonium died down, we eased him out of the theater.  I hope we 
>didn't devastate
>his taste for theater for the rest of his life.
>
>I would enjoy hearing some other stories of when people flunked a  museum.
>
>Bob Russell
>
>Robert L.  Russell, Ph.D.
>Science Advisor, Self-Reliance Foundation
>Project Director,  Celebra la Ciencia & ConCiencia/Hispanic Science Newswire
>(202) 360-4117  (office) (202) 997-5539 (cell)
>[log in to unmask]
>
>Principal,  Learning Experience Design (project development and evaluation 
>services)
>(202) 997-5539
>[log in to unmask]
>
>_www.celebralaciencia.org_ (http://www.celebralaciencia.org/)
>_www.selfreliancefoundation.org_ (http://www.selfreliancefoundation.org/)
>

-- 
Kua Patten MFA
Acting Director
Exploratorium Exhibit Services
3601 Lyon St.
San Francisco, CA 94123
Phone; 415-353-0409
Fax; 415-353-0433
www.exploratorium.edu

"Chaos demands to be recognized and experienced before letting itself 
be converted into a new order"
Hermann Hesse

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