Grumble, Grumble, Grumble

Today a school group from Friendship Children's Center in DC came to the Lego exhibit at the NBM. This school brought a group on Tuesday too. Both days they followed the same routine and it went something like this: Bring the kids upstairs and wait while one of the chaperons goes down to the info desk to buy tickets. Fine? Fine. Chaperon returns with enough tickets for the chaperons only. Fine? Not sure. On Tuesday at least, we were unsure. There were fifteen kids in the group whose age was debateable. At the NBM anyone three and older has to have a ticket. Some of these kids could have been abt 3, but the age range was probably more like 3-6. We figured there was some mistake with the front desk because my co-worker and I had only seen the kids walk by from inside the gallery. We discussed if we should say anything to the chaperons and decided against it, as the fault was probably with us. We noted the name of the school for future reference, let our boss know what we did and then went on with life. (which, now that we're on the subject, this week was crazy, that reminds me of another story).

So anyway, we let Tuesday slide. But today, the school group came back! They followed the same procedure. The chaperons brought the kids upstairs and someone went down to get tickets. Well we were on to them now. We radio'd ahead that a school group had come and that if anyone with the care center t-shirt came to buy tickets they should ask them about children in the group. Chaperons came back and started shuffling kids into the gallery. All the chaperons had tickets but none of the kids. I jumped up and asked the first chaperon 'How old are these kids?' He looked away and mumbled '2' (horrible liar). I looked at him skeptically (thinking to myself, you've got to be kidding me, these kids are as tall as my chest!). They kept shuffling the kids in and I asked all the other leaders how old the kids were, one didn't even look at me or acknowledge the question. Finally one said 'We didn't buy the tickets, you'll have to talk to her' and pointed at the head teacher. Finally my co-worker asked one of the kids in line 'How old are you?' and the kid said boldly 'Four!' (what kid who is four is going to pretend to be 2, I ask you!).

My co-worker pulled the group leader aside and luckily our substitute manager 'happened' to be on the scene, because he had heard our radio call to the ticket desk. So they had a little 'discussion' where the chaperon acted dumb, and I had to chase all the kids around and corral them until everything was sorted.

We looked up the school online later and these kids parents are paying upwards of $1200 a week for tuition. That's about $64,000 a year. It's not like they are scrimping pennies to take the kids out to do nice things... so what is their deal? I really don't get it.

The second story happened on Wednesday. The co-worker who had been with me in the gallery on Tuesday was at the info desk this day. Since the gallery was slow at the time, I had gone back to the Lego build area so start cleaning up. I looked up and saw two women with about 4 kids and two strollers enter the gallery. We have a 'no stroller' policy for the lego exhibit so I hurriedly walked over to the women and explained that they would have to leave their strollers outside. The woman nearest to me didn't seem to understand what I meant, she looked confused and was pointing at her wrist band. The other woman clearly understood and was about to take her stroller out when the other woman started to throw a fit. She threw slanders at me like 'Policy, what is this policy? You don't care about me and my child. I just want to play with my child and I can't (pointing at her child who appeared to be sleeping in the stroller) if I have to hold her, I can't play with my child." blah blah blah. Finally, the woman took her stroller outside.

Later that day, we went back in the play area to tidy some more and there was a huge puddle near where these women had been sitting. The women clearly knew about the puddle b/c they were actively keeping their children from crawling in it, but they didn't inform any of the staff that the puddle was there. I can't promise that the puddle wasn't water, but after what happened with a small "accident" we had in the play area last week, I'm not optimistic.

At any rate what the hell is up with either this woman or this school? What values are they teaching their children about living in a community, about integrity, and about other values that are necessary to get through life successfully? Plenty of kids and parents come through the exhibition every day, they pay their admission fee, they park their strollers outside, they listen politely to the rules, they help their children obey the rules and they don't complain about any of it. They clearly have certain standards that they require themselves and their children to live up to. In fact, the Friendship Children's Center claims its aim is to " instill in its students the values and awareness necessary to build a community of active, aware, and compassionate citizens." So, what are these values they are claiming to espouse? Lying gets you stuff? There's no harm if no one knows? Stealing is ok? What I really had a problem with where this school is concerned is that it wasn't just the boss that was lying and cheating the system, they were expecting it of the other staff, and even the children to some extent. When we asked the first leader in the door how old the kids were, he lied obviously, but in a way, the children lied by not correcting the leader when he said they were two. What the hell is this school doing teaching children and employees to lie? I wish there was a way I could complain without getting the museum in trouble. I'm gonna let my mind tinker about that. What I really want to know is whose idea this was in the first place? The school's? The head leader's? I would want to know if my kids were going to a school like this, that was espousing such LOW, low standards. I'm pretty sure I've seen them come through before this week too. Poop on them and may the culprits be plagued with bad karma and many dirty, explosive diapers.