Cathartic Experience In A Museum Pedagogical Program

PARADOXONS

Is it possible to organize programs that are not boring for the young generations of today, on the contrary, they find them interesting?

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Many people think it is impossible. The two things are working against each other. If a museum program is obligatory for students, it has already determined its outcome. Something that is connected to learning or studying simply cannot give a cathartic experience what is more, in a museum it is also boring.

Looking at the pedagogical offer of most of the museums this opinion seems quite correct. The attention of young people can be drawn to things that are exiting, fast, modern and fashionable; most of our museums don’t even try to adapt to these demands. Several institutions managed to create their own network of young museum fans however, and these networks help students to get acquainted with the museums and after a few years they even go back as volunteers? What is it they do differently and better, how could they find their way to youngsters?

Examining the case studies of several museums abroad it can be stated that the key of success is the attractive museum pedagogical program. The first organized museum visit is the „great divide” for a youngster: this is the time when it is decided if going to museums can be fun or it is something that has to be done and must be suffered. To provide enough fun a museum program has to be adapted to the demands and interests of young visitors of different age groups

It is not easy but can be learned and implemented. The Learning by Having Fun – Having Fun by Learning project is about giving information to museum professionals how to create programs for children and young people in which they really have fun so much so that they will want to return and have more fun in the museum.

The participants of the training get to know the means and methods of expanding the knowledge of different generations based on the collections of the museum in a way that pupils and students don’t think in terms of studying something but having fun.

The „evidence” that theory can actually work in practice is the great number of students who come back again and again and the accounts of the participants of the training who relate how they could successfully use all the knowledge they gained in their own museum programs. Several of these stories can be read on the website www.mokk.skanzen.hu.

For further information click on: http://www.mokk.skanzen.hu/szorakoztatva-tanulni.html