Aren’t Real Artifacts of History Good Enough for Our Kids?

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art recently hosted one of several “family days.” As advertised, the museum provided arts and crafts activities that tied into the current exhibition on Pompeii. The activities were free of charge. All in all, it sounded like a wonderful way to spend a breezy Sunday afternoon.

My family had participated in these special days before. My husband and I found the days to be wonderful opportunities to introduce our children to the treasures that lie within the museum’s walls, as well as to the experience of museum-going itself. These days provided a way to bring the often-lofty world of art down to the level a child could appreciate.

We just didn’t know that level was so low.

We arrived at the booth where children were offered the opportunity to make Romanesque medallions out of supple metal. But rather than encourage the children to create designs of their own invention, or even offer them templates of designs particular to ancient Rome, the children were given pictures of Pikachu, the Lion King and a host of other popular characters to trace on to their sheets of metal. Far from encouraging the children’s interest in the exhibit they might later tour, the children were being encouraged to think about, yet again, Pokemon.

And this, at the major art museum of a major city.

What struck me, as I watched the children work, was how cynical we have all become about our children’s capacity for learning. Do we really believe that the only way to capture their attention is to entice them with more, more and still more of the pop culture they are surrounded by?

Yes, Pokemon is the fad of the moment. Yes, most children (including my own) are happy to spend hours debating the relative merits of Charmillian and Squirtle. But, when given the chance, are they not equally as engaged by the Greek and Roman myths or by the story of an exploding volcano that buried a city alive?

A few weeks ago, my sons and their friends were riveted as they walked through the exhibition on Pompeii--not by everything, to be sure, but with careful editing, I was able to direct their attention to the displays that I thought might engage them--statues of the gods and goddesses they had heard stories about, an ancient water mill powered by men, a 2,000-year-old frying pan that looked exactly like the one we had at home! A cast of a crouching man trapped by volcanic ash? The children were spellbound. They wanted to know more.

We need not all be purists to believe that there is a time and place for our children to indulge in popular culture but that there is also a time and a place (and not simply during school hours) for them to expand their knowledge and appreciation for our higher culture. How disheartening it is to go in search of an alternative experience at a museum and find it to be one more place where our children’s imaginations are closed down.

Sure, we want to find ways to get kids involved, to meet them at their level, but have we lost so much faith in our children that we don’t imagine they can rise to new levels of awareness and curiosity?

Many parents I know struggle with the issues of how much to limit their children’s participation in popular interests. We draw fine lines: They can have the cards but not watch the videos. They can have the videos but not play Gameboy. We are searching for a balance, but that balance is difficult to maintain in a world where, every place we look, our children are unwitting victims of our own cynicism. Everywhere. Even at the museum.