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Re: What do you tell a 9-year old?



Out of all of my responsibilities as archivist and records manager
(director, fixer-upper, etc.), at the top of my list of fun is giving tours
or speeches to students (I have often given tours and spoken to groups of
students from as young as nine years old up through high school in my 1 1/2
years here).

I do the same things with students as I do with adults -- age appropiate of
course:  Show and tell, hands on, questions.  In explaining about "history"
to  ten different groups of ten-year olds last year (they came in groups of
forty all day), I had various "stations."  I had a reel-to-reel with an
interview of a nine-year old who had seen a UFO.  Great stuff!  With the
reel-to-reel I got to explain about preservation, obsolescence, etc.  Then
there was the photograph of the "lighthouse" (an actual lighthouse in West
Central Georgia) and the story behind it.

There is nothing more challenging than making history, preservation, and my
job responsibilities FUN to young people.  I love it!  In every case (if at
the archives) the children did not want to leave they were having so much
fun.

When I go to schools, I use a variety of tools:  overheads, hands-on, show
and tell, and I even created an interactive skit.

Just think back (some of us waaay back), to when we were children, or to
what our own children like.  I think gooey, disgusting stories of being in
dark, dank places rescuing records (if told right) is great.

Penny Cliff
Archivist/Director
Thomaston-Upson Archives
-----Original Message-----
From: Kurilecz, Peter <peter.kurilecz@WOODSIDESUMMITGROUP.COM>
To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU <ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU>
Date: Monday, March 12, 2001 11:28 AM
Subject: What do you tell a 9-year old?


>Hopefully the august members of both lists (archivist and recmgmt-l) can
>help me with a dilemma. I  "volunteered" to give a career day speech to my
>9-year old son's school class. I have to give the talk 4 different times
and
>it is to be no longer than 15 minutes. I am gathering together material to
>show the class, but what I really need is information that these kids will
>say "neat stuff" or "gee, I want to be an archivist/records manager when I
>grow up!".
>
>I do plan to provide them information about the neat places we all work in
>-- you know --- barns, attics and other fun places and the neat critters we
>have encountered, bats, pigeons, snakes, etc. Cleaning up after floods,
>fires and waterleaks. You know the drill.
>
>So any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
>
>Peter A. Kurilecz CRM, CA
>Manager, Records Management Group
>Woodside Summit Group Inc
>Midlothian, Virginia
>Office: 804-744-1247 x23
>Fax: 804-744-4947
>mailto:peter.kurilecz@woodsidesummitgroup.com
>
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>Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>
>

A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!

To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to listserv@listserv.muohio.edu
      In body of message:  SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname
                    *or*:  UNSUB ARCHIVES
To post a message, send e-mail to archives@listserv.muohio.edu

Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html

Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>