The Children's Hands On Museum

Child’s Play

Remembering the days of childhood can be a glorious feeling to a grown adult. The worry free happy days that used to seem as if they were never ending. The Children 's Hands On Museum is a place where kids may go to enjoy a little bit more of that worry free happy feeling while at the same time being encouraged to actively learn. Due to a large amount of technology and the internet, many children today are not encouraged to actively learn. CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) states that since 1980, obesity prevalence among children and adolescents has almost tripled. Physical activity while learning new things in real world scenarios is the number one priority at The Children 's Hands On Museum of Jacksonville
Florida. Upon arrival I pulled into the parking lot located at 8580 Beach Boulevard. The outside of the building was very colorful and quite catchy to the youngster’s eye. Inside was an amazing collection of exhibits that would excite and arouse the mind of any young child. Every exhibit was extraordinary with interactive, educational, and engaging hands on stations that were based on real world scenarios. The seemingly endless exhibits were anything from a sheriff station fully equipped with a dispatch, to a Winn-Dixie grocery store with pretend groceries. All aspects are meant to help explain to the children how the real world functions. While equipped with many educational exhibits, there are also some standard play areas with a slide and ball pit to also encourage some all natural healthy child 's play.
The museum was packed with children, their parents, chaperones, and finally the museum attendants. My volunteer day at the museum consisted of me acting as an attendant, which included supervising the children and exhibits. My job was to walk around the museum put things back into proper places, assure the children played safely, and correct anything else that may need correcting. There was not one moment the entire time I was there that I was alone. This being a positive aspect, I utilized this advantage to start asking the attendants and some parents a few
questions. Some of my first questions were aimed at one of the head attendants in the museum. I asked, why is active learning encouraged so much in the museum? Also, why is active learning so important to the growth and development of the children? Well I must have hit a nerve because the attendant was more than happy to answer my questions and very passionate in the ways of doing so. It was explained to me that active learning is starting to become a dead education. By saying this, what the attendant meant was that the number of children being exposed and encouraged to actively learn in today’s time is extremely low compared to past-tense times. Educational systems getting lower budgets are being forced to cut things out of the curriculum. Unfortunately most of the time the first thing to go is the physical aspect due to the increased focus on trying to achieve higher test scores. This can be correlated to the No Child Left Behind Act passed by George Bush in 2002. With the addition of newer technologies and parents working all the time or just not caring, the number of in-active children is increasing right along with the childhood obesity rate. In the United States alone it is estimated that as of April 2011 approximately seventeen percent (or 12.5 million) of children and adolescents aged two to nineteen years are obese. ("Overweight and Obesity") This is just the United States statistic. The obesity factor is much worse to low income families who experience a rate of one in every three children becoming obese before their fifth birthday. ("Overweight and Obesity")
After speaking with the attendant I turned to a couple of the parents.
Specifically choosing one male and one female parent and asking them some questions inquiring why they brought their children to the museum and what did they gain from the visit? The parents were more than happy to bring light to this subject. While some parents had different answers to my questions, all the answers were very similar to each other. Parent number one answered stating that she brought her daughter to the museum to let her engage in the experience of playing with other children her age. Not only that, but also to encourage the use of imagination and gain some qualities that otherwise may not be obtained from a television show or video game. The object was to encourage her daughter to stay active while learning which fun is for the child. Parent number two had a similar answer. He was a man named Chris; and he is the father of one boy whose mother had passed away. He states, “I bring my son here to encourage active learning, its fun for both of us and I want him to be the best he can be. Being around other peers his age in these little real world exhibits encourages independence and gives them knowledge of the real world that they may not have had. When my son grows up I want him to know the basics of a grocery store or police station even if he has never been in a real one. On top of that my son will not be inside all day, lots of physical activity and imagination emphasizes a healthy
lifestyle.”
From the parents point of view the encouragement of active learning with your peers will lead to a well-educated individual and not to mention healthy lifestyle.
From the mouths of professionals, factual information, and the shared wisdom of parents both male and female it seems that active learning encouragement can only assist in the leading of a healthy and well-educated lifestyle. Yet with these facts known, the direction that the educational systems are going today seems to be downhill and if not that than well away from the physical aspect of learning. The Children’s Hands On Museum is a one of a kind place in Jacksonville with no other like it. Being a place where imaginations come to life, fun memories can be made, and all at the same time that active learning takes place the museum is a sanctuary for active learners.

Works Cited
- ("Overweight and Obesity.") April 2011. Center for Disease Control and Prevention. 9 March 2012. <http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/childhood/data.html>
- Davidson, Christopher, parent of child at The Children’s Hands On Museum. Personal Interview. 25 Feb 2012.