Please note that I love the museum of natural history and the title is not criticizing the museum, it is criticizing some people who visit it. Simply going to a museum does not make one more socially conscious or cultured. I was disappointed in the lack of reading and discussing at the exhibits I observed.

At the “Sustaining the Forest” exhibit, I tallied about 24 people who interacted in some way with the exhibit or took a moment to even glance at it. 8 of them just looked at it, another 10 to 11 were doing a project on it and were either silently reading the pictures or talking about something completely different. Occasionally they asked “what’s the answer to number…?” meaning they didn’t really try taking in anything here. However, one student started talking to another student about how her aunt worked in forest recovery or something, I couldn’t hear well. The remaining 5 people were 2 who read most of what was in the exhibit to themselves and the other 3 were a foreign family that started talking to each other and reading. They stayed for a while too. I really wish I could have understood them because if so, that would just strengthen my hypothesis that American children just can’t pay attention to anything for more than a second (Assuming the family didn’t identify as American, which they might have. I don’t want to jump to conclusions about anybody). In the case of this exhibit, the museum might be partially to blame. The lighting wasn’t great and there’s too much mixed media in the room, too many different kinds of exhibits. I read the exhibit afterwards and I don’t think they could have put it together any better, but at the very least the lighting has to change.

I went over to the Coral Reefs exhibit afterwards in the ocean biodiversity room. I found similar results as before. 37 people interacted with it. 4 of them glanced at it and ignored it. 11 interacted in some small way (briefly watching the film above, slowing their walk to look at the picture, or read for a second). Then, again, I found a few more foreign families talking about the exhibit. One child pointed to everything and started talking about it to the parents, who tried hurrying him along, but he wasn’t having it. He was fascinated. Then I saw an American family watching the film for a while, starting and ending their discussion with “pretty!” Lastly there were two women who were about to start talking about it, but I think they noticed me eavesdropping and they got freaked out and walked away. My bad. This room is great, and the exhibit is great, but unfortunately the whale takes precedence in this room. Everybody goes in here for the whale, and everything else kind of just feels small after seeing it.

I want to give some advice. If you’re going to the AMNH to be more cultured and aware, limit yourself to two rooms for your whole visit. You’ll learn a lot more that way, and the feeling of letting the entirety of a world wash over you must feel amazing. Also, if you’re bringing children, put your hand over their heads to keep them from running around. I know they want to see the whale, but lead them up to it, and talk to them about something. Don’t make the trip a chore or a homeschooling adventure, make it fun!