LEARNING IS JOB ONE : Free-Form and Interactive, ‘All Work and No Play’ Is Career Day Without the Recruits

Fresh from a turn through “All Work and No Play,” an interactive careers exhibit at the Children’s Museum at La Habra, 7-year-old Amber Smith was approached by a well-meaning but obviously clueless adult. (The exhibit, one of three changing shows in the museum’s gallery each year, began in late September and continues through Jan. 29.)

Expecting to spark a conversation about the joys of monetary rewards for a task well done, the woman crouched to the child’s level and asked earnestly, “Amber, when you grow up and get a job, what do you get?”

“Married!” the Chino Hills girl snapped back. “What else?”

Which only goes to show that, even after viewing this free-form exhibit, career goals will remain subjective.

But if, as they say, play is the work of children, then “All Work and No Play” should be right up kids’ alley. Comprised of about a dozen hands-on stations, the exhibit introduces kids to the working world through role-playing. Kids can minister to ailing dolls in a medical or dental “office,” make the rounds as a mail carrier or announce the news in a mock television studio. Paychecks are nonexistent, and kids can stay on the job for as long or as briefly as they like.

“This show is a little less structured” than past exhibits, explained the museum’s curator of education, Carrie Wictor, in a phone interview from her Whittier home. “The areas don’t lead naturally from one to the next, so kids are free to make their own choices as to what they want to try.

“There are lessons here, but I’m more interested in letting the kids play at their own pace and learn what they can through that.”

On a recent weekday afternoon, 9-year-old Dawnyel Mummert of Whittier spent much of her visit in the exhibit’s dental area tending to a uniquely compliant patient.

Leaning over a rag doll slumped in the examining chair, she peered at an X-ray on a nearby light board and frowned.

“Hmmmm” she said. “You have a cavity. I’ll have to yank it out.”

Without further ado, the junior DDS jammed a metal plate used for taking dental impressions into the doll’s face. “Bite down,” she commanded.

Unconcerned that her patient hadn’t obeyed her instructions, the girl aimed a large syringe in the vicinity of the doll’s left cheek and depressed the plunger.

“Shoooosh . . . there you go. You’re done. Go home.”

After dumping her patient unceremoniously on the floor, Dawnyel jumped into the chair herself, playing patient to her now-dentist-like mother, Judy. A quick exam and a speedy extraction, and the girl was on her way once more.

The health care setups (which also include a mock examining room equipped with table, stethoscope, scale and an assortment of bones) are among the most popular stops in the show, said Wictor.

“Part of the attraction is that they have control over the situation,” observed Wictor. “The kids can be the doctor. When they put on the lab coats, their whole tone of voice changes. Stepping into that role gives them (a feeling of) power and control.” The experience may help a child be less fearful the next time he or she is examined by a health professional, Wictor added.

There are other opportunities in the exhibit for kids to pick up similar positive messages, said Wictor. A firefighting display stocked with firefighters’ coats and boots, a fire hose and extinguishers, sends home a message on fire safety and the importance of smoke alarms. Nearby, a mock grocery store has shelves loaded with empty containers of everything from animal crackers to oat bran to plastic vegetables, inviting children to choose between nutritious and not-so-nutritious foods.

“They shop like crazy,” she said. But, as Wictor notes, even in play, kids are willing to suspend disbelief just so far.

“Everybody stays away from the eggplant,” she said, laughing. “You can just see them thinking: ‘It’s purple, it’s a vegetable, I won’t eat it.’ ”

Vegetables aren’t the only thing that kids here ignore, added Wictor.

“The children don’t seem to recognize any gender stereotypes,” she said. “From what I’ve observed, they don’t (distinguish) between men and women as far as what jobs they may hold.”

“Children don’t think that doctors and firefighters are only men and supermarket checkers are only women,” she added. “It’s every kid for himself out there.”

* What: “All Work and No Play” exhibit.

* When: Through Jan. 29. Museum hours are Monday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday 1 to 5 p.m.

* Where: Children’s Museum at La Habra, 301 S. Euclid St.

* Whereabouts: From the Orange (57) Freeway, exit at Lambert Street and drive west. Turn right on Euclid and park in the lot next to the La Habra Depot Playhouse.

* Wherewithal: Museum admission is $4, kids under age 2 get in free.

* Where to call: (310) 905-9793.

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