Tourist Attractions with Lessons and Laughs : Theme Parks Combine Learning, Fun for Benefit of School, Youth Groups

It’s quiz time and Wild Bill wants to know who discovered America.

“The President,” chimes a wide-eyed little girl between slurps of soda.

Wrong. But it was a trick question anyway, Wild Bill admits before the responses wander further astray. The credit goes to an unknown American Indian, and from there unfolds the story of the frontier.

This is not classroom patter. Wild Bill--or at least singer Jerry Johnson who plays him--is holding cowboy court with 175 children from day camp inside the cavernous dinner theater in Buena Park that bears his name. It is all part of a program to entertain and educate youngsters on field trips during the day, with the hope they will lure their parents back for the main show one night.

Sea World of San Diego, Knott’s Berry Farm and Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum are some of the other tourist destinations in the region that have discovered the benefits of offering educational programs to schools and youth groups.

Typically, the programs boost attractions during the slowest times--mornings in the winter and fall. Prices are usually nominal, intended more to build good will, return visits and favorable word-of-mouth than make a difference at the ticket booth. At Wild Bill’s, for instance, every youngster leaves wearing a promotional American Indian headdress made of paper and discount coupons for future visits.

“This is pretty much a break-even, but it gets the flyers out and gives the kids a good time,” said Vice President Rick Crocker.

Sea World has an extensive education program for kindergarten to college students, including visits to the park and instructors who visit schools. The park served 237,732 students and others last year through its educational programs, bringing in revenue of $597,718, according to a year-end report prepared for management.

“We will take a program out to pretty much any class that will invite us,” said Sea World spokeswoman Corrine Brindley. For park visits, the staff gives instruction on topics such as whales and marine conservation.

One of the largest and most established youth programs belongs to Knott’s Berry Farm, a couple of blocks down Beach Boulevard from Wild Bill’s. The park’s educational programs hark back to the 1950s when Walter Knott built his Ghost Town.

Today, the park is host to 100,000 teachers and students a year who choose from 13 programs ranging from dramatizations of the signing of the Declaration of Independence to taking a spin past the hungry jaws of the park’s animated dinosaurs and a talk by a free-lance paleontologist.

Knott’s attractions are sometimes designed with school groups in mind. In April, the park dedicated a Thomas A. Edison’s Inventors’ Workshop in conjunction with Southern California Edison specifically to teach principles of electricity to pupils. The newest feature in the park, an Indian Trails camp where American Indians from different tribes demonstrate crafts, dances and food preparation, will be developed into a school program for fall.

“We found the best way to educate is to entertain,” said Beverly Mills, Knott’s manager of education and culture. “There is a lot of involvement, a lot of hands-on” interaction between students and the demonstrators.

Mills said the programs draw schools from as far away as Modesto, Palm Springs and Santa Catalina Island. Despite tight school budgets, she said the programs remain popular. But she added that for Knott’s, it’s a break-even proposition.

“It is not considered a commercial venture by the park. Rather, it is considered an outreach and a public service to the community,” Mills said.