Dear Folks, No doubt some of you think that the premise of the title of the subect is a an interesting one. And frankly as the subject stands, so do I. But here's the story of how that subect was brought up recently regarding to our annual local fourth-grader's tour of our Town of Porter museum and school bus tour of the the Village of Youngstown. Over the past number of years, all four classes of fourth grade have been given the grand tour over a two day period. Two classes the first day, two the next day. Over time we had the whole thing down pat. The first school bus would pull up at our museum in the morning and half of the one class would be led up to our museum while the other half of the class would be driven off on their guided bus trip around the village. Those children up at our museum got to see and experience just about everything we have up there. They delighted and giggled crazily listening to an old high pitched WWI phonograph played on a wind-up Victrola phonograph player; they were amazed at the 1883 newspaper articles they could read on a microfiche reader and they were especially excited when I led them into our "old school room" where we have the old desks with the ink well holes in them. They thought it was so cool when I invited all of them to sit down at the desks, two to a desk. They wer! e shown many more things by other museum volunteers and over the brief twenty minutes we were alotted to half of that one class, we all knew that in that short period of time, they had been filled with wonder and excitement. After the first twenty minutes were up the second half of that class got off the school bus, headed up to the museum while the first half piled onto the bus. Again we went through the same routine. We had only a short break before the second schoolbus load showed up with another class. Again we went through the same routine and frankly, after the last of the second half of that class clamored down the stairs, all of us volunteers were pretty much exhausted. The next morning we started up all over again with the other two fourth grade classes. Over the years we knew that the whole program wasn't picture perfect but, hey, it sure worked and the kids let us know they loved it by the letters their teachers made them write in appreciation for their tour. Well, now we come to the year 2004. Same-o, Same-o! Oh yeh? This year someone who will remain nameless decided that she would talk personally with the fourth grade teachers to ask them their feelings about how we could improve our presentation. One teacher told her that she thought it would be nice if the fourth graders could have a more hands-on experience up at the museum. Right then and there Mrs. Nameless Person agreed that it was such a marvelous idea that she marched up to the museum and demanded of our most valuable and experienced volunteer at the museum, Janet, to immediately come up with a new hands-on program. Janet just stared at her blankly in disbelief, said no, turned her back on her and just walked off. Why was Janet upset? Well, when she told me about the incident and idea later that evening on the phone, the minute the words were out of her mouth I started shouting at Janet with understanding and disbelief and she shouted back at me! What in the ever-lovin'-blue-eyed-world was that woman thinking of? Putting our fragile artifacts in the hands of ten-year-olds????? Even with our most durable artifacts such as cannon balls, by the time we handed them around to the students, our allotted twenty minutes would be up and they wouldn't have learned or appreciated anything. And you can bet your bippy that within seconds, that cannon ball would have been tossed between two boys and it would have eventually crashed into one of our glass display cases that holds our most fragile historic artifacts. Hey our little museum in the Red Brick School House in our little village (population 2,075) and town doesn't even come within a million MILES to what is presented and recreated at Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. Get real, Mrs. Nameless Person!! vee