The generation behind the museum!

There are no places for children and teenagers in museums; Most of them do not show interest in visiting museums, the atmosphere of the museum is boring for some of them, on the other hand, it seems that families, schools and museum trustees do not make an effort to create interest and motivation in them; So that among the visitors of the museums, a handful of children and teenagers can be seen.
Perhaps, if you have spent your academic career free of problems such as the spread of the Corona virus, you have had the chance to go to a museum during school camps and during that time you have become familiar with museums and their impact on the knowledge of history and cultural heritage, and perhaps this is the spark. to become more interested in museums and the historical identity of Iran, but if you ask these questions to an eight or nine-year-old child today, what do you think his answer will be? Has he ever been to the museum or does he have a correct understanding of the museum? Or does he even know where the museum is?

According to Isna, in the last three years, with the closure of schools due to the spread of the corona virus, there are fewer children who have gotten to know museums through school camps. On the other hand, after the reopening of schools, there has been little opportunity to hold such camps.

In the meantime, visiting a museum is not so attractive for families to take their children to the museum for fun and leisure time, but what is the root of this issue? Why is visiting a museum not a priority among Iranian families? And the preference is for children to have fun in amusement parks, parks, zoos, etc.?

One of the parents who is interested in visiting museums, but prefers to go to the museum alone and when his child is not there, says about this: the environment of the museum and historical places is not fun for children and the child gets bored in these environments. And this issue causes the child to be bothered.

This parent believes that the environments of some museums should be designed for children and teenagers in such a way that they are attractive for this age group of the society, and that guides specific to them should be present in the museums to introduce the museum and its works and history in simple language and by telling stories. to pay

This is not only a parent’s point of view, but also children who have experience visiting a museum, do not enjoy the museum environment very much and find this entertainment boring.

8-year-old Maysa says about her experience visiting the museum: “I went to the coin museum once, there were old coins there, but I didn’t like it very much and I would like to go to the zoo instead of the museum.”

Ali, 10 years old, once when he was in the first grade of elementary school, he went to the museum with a school camp, but he does not remember a clear memory of that time and only this image remains in his mind: “The place we went was like a palace. It was very big and beautiful.”

These two; There are only children in a group of 12 who are classmates in the English language class, who have experience visiting a museum, and the rest of the children in this group have not only not been to a museum, but they do not know exactly where the museum is and what its importance is.

I ask these children between the ages of 8 and 10, are they interested in going to the museum once? The answers are sobering: “If it has toys, yes!”, “I never thought of that before.” “I’d like to go to the places I always go for fun.”, “I don’t think I’ll like it.”, “Maybe I’ll go once but I don’t know when?”

For further evaluation, I decide to go to Golestan Palace to ask the museum guides about children’s visits to this historical site. I pass through the entrance and enter the courtyard. Near the main part of the palace, I see a boy skating. I approach him and tell about the palace. I ask Golestan and why he came to this museum.

Is this the first time you came to Golestan Palace?

+ “I come here a lot with the public, the yard is big and it’s perfect for skating.”

Did you see inside the palace?

+ “Yes, I saw it once, but I don’t like the interior very much.” “The outside is good for playing.”

Do you know who this was for?

+ “Naseruddin Shah”

Did you go to any other museum besides this one?

+ “I also went to Abgineh Museum, but I like this place more.”

how old are you? Have you ever been to a museum from school?

+ “I’m 10 years old, no, we haven’t been to the museum yet.”

He says goodbye and skates around the palace grounds. I enter the main section, I see some other children, I enjoy seeing them in the museum and I watch them for a few minutes, they run here and there, without paying any attention to the museum and its works. Of course, in the meantime, a 10-11-year-old boy watches the works with all his attention and reads all the explanations related to them.

I will accompany one of the families who came to Golestan Palace with their three children. Parents are busy taking pictures and children are running here and there. I ask their mother if visiting museums is one of your hobbies. “Not! We come here for the first time. I came to take photos for my Instagram page. Now photography is very fashionable in these places” he laughs and poses again. They are so focused on photography that they are oblivious to children and their mischief. These three children easily pass through the protection bands that surround the historical artifacts of the museum and try to touch everything they can.

This time I go to the same interested boy, his mother says that they came from West Azarbaijan and intended to buy from Tehran market, and at the insistence of her children, they came to Golestan Palace before shopping. The boy says about his museum tour experience: “When we travel, we also visit museums, but this is the first time I come to Golestan Palace. I like it here. More interesting and beautiful than other museums. “I am interested in history, that’s why I like going to museums.”

I ask, has he ever been to the museum on behalf of the school? “Not! “Our school does not conduct camps at all.”

Among the visitors, there are two teenage girls around 15-16 years old, they obsessively and carefully take photos of the museum’s works, but it seems that only photographing the works is important to them and not the age and characteristics of the works they are photographing.

Then I visit different parts of the museum to talk with the museum guides about the presence of children and school camps held in Golestan Palace. One of them says: “Before Corona, many groups came from schools, but with the closure of schools and Corona, few children come to visit the museum with their families. Many children don’t even come inside the palace and prefer to play outside.”

Another guide stated that museums do not have specialized guides for children, saying: “The museum environment is not fun for children, and when they come to the museum, they either make excuses or want to touch all the works.”

Golestan Palace guides are of the opinion that the percentage of children and teenagers who visit this complex is much less than adults and students, and the atmosphere of this historical place does not attract their attention except for its large area. Just as parents, children and museum guides believe that the atmosphere of museums is not attractive for children and does not encourage them to spend their free time, school officials also agree on this issue, but another issue that prohibits schools from organizing museum tours is the issue of budget and The non-cooperation of museums is to discount museum tickets.

Samiyeh Yeganeh, the head of one of Tehran’s schools, told ISNA about this: Museum tours are also one of the options for recreational school camps that we plan for children throughout the year, but they are less popular. On the other hand, places such as cinemas, parks and amusement parks cooperate with us more for school camps and give discounts for tickets, but museums do not cooperate with us much and do not give us any discounts for museum tickets. On the other hand, we don’t have a budget in the Ministry of Education to organize camps, and we provide all the cost of the camp from the parents and the school aid fund, which the children prefer to pay for somewhere like a cinema or a park.

Talking about the non-cooperation of museums with schools is brought up while according to the government’s decree in 2015 regarding the determination of ticket prices for places, historical monuments and museums, the visits of students in groups with teachers and supervisors by presenting an identification card or a letter of introduction from Related authorities are calculated as “half price”. Now this question arises, do schools do less to take students to museums, or is the lack of interest of students to museums the cause of this lack of work? Because currently, museum tickets are half price for this group and even free for children under seven years old.

We are following up on this matter from the officials of the school camp registration in the Department of Education in one of the regions of Tehran province; He says: The camp sites are chosen by a council held in schools, which may be a cinema, a museum, or a traffic town, etc. Also, the camp program must be set in advance and registered in the system of the monitoring and camps. Usually, 99% of the cost of the camps is provided by the students. On the other hand, the camp that is defined must have a purpose.

One of the public relations experts of the Supreme Council of the Ministry of Education told Isna about the organization of school camps and museum tours for students: Education does not have a budget for school camps including museum tours, and this budget must be provided through cooperation with the Ministry of Cultural Heritage. This issue also depends on the interest of school administrators to hold their camps in museums.

At the same time, he states: Museums are not willing to cooperate with schools most of the time.

According to the information and explanations of this expert of the Ministry of Education, in general, the holding of camps in schools depends on the decisions of the school principal, and the Ministry of Education has given full authority in this regard to school principals. Of course, the statutes of student camps mention visiting museums, and based on this, interested managers can benefit from museum discounts and organize school camps in museums at a lower cost, but unfortunately, many managers do not follow up.

According to the statutes of student camps, the choice of the places where school camps are held is the responsibility of school administrators and councils, and although visiting museums and historical places is included in the statutes of student camps, there is no official order from the Ministry of Education to visit. It is not communicated to schools from these places. Perhaps, if changes are made in the policy and decision-making process and every school is obliged to take its students to a museum trip once a year, the motivation to visit the museum will be formed among children and teenagers.

Creating an interest in museum tourism among children and teenagers also requires the creation of infrastructure to adapt the museum space for this age group. In addition, the presence of special guides for children and teenagers can be effective in this matter to familiarize them with the atmosphere of the museum and its works through storytelling.