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As most of us are aware, the Como Planetarium is slated for closure in the current School District budget proposal. This week, my sons class made their annual trip to the facility - so I decided to tag along.
I just though I would report back to this group my own impressions of the facility.
I went on the trip with a fairly open mind, if anything my expectations were relatively low. I did not expect the quality of the equipment and presentation to be as good as they were. I asked one 4th grade student on the way to the planetarium if he had been there before. He said, yes, but it was boring. He said he had to go every year and hoped they closed it, so he would not have to go back.
Once at the planetarium, the presentation was anything but boring. The teacher in charge, has done an excellent job at putting together a presentation which engages, entertains, and educates the students. The students answered questions which demonstrated that they remembered what they had learned in previous visits to the planetarium and they listened and laughed in ways that made clear that they were both paying attention and learning from the presentation.
The equipment was better than I expected and I very much enjoyed the presentation. It got me excited about my next chance, hopefully this weekend, to get out at look at the stars/planets (5 in the sky right now).
On the way back, I asked my 4th grade friend if he still though the Planetarim was boring. He clearly said "no." But, when pressed to take a position on keeping the planetarium open, he declined to take a stance (sound familiar). My own son came home from school that night and asked to write a letter to the district asking to keep the planetarium open.
Now, the mere fact that its a valuable and educational learning tool, does not mean that the district can afford to keep it open. I can think of many potentially luxurious programs or facilities that would be very nice to have, but just aren't financially feasible.
However, the planetarium is already there - we've already made the major part of the investment. Its seems a shame to loose a resource like this, once its already here.
I know that the school district has agreed to look for alternatives sources of funding for the planetarium. I certainly think that this facility is at least a "potential" resource for the entire community and not just the school district. I would look closely at finding community partnerships that might help keep the planetarium open for the district, while making it more accessible to the community at the same time. Of course, this opens up the issue of public access to the school building.
The planetarium DOES offer programs for the general public on Thursday nights. I would recommend taking a look at this resource before we loose it.
Here is a link to the Planetarium web site:
http://tinyurl.com/28j4t
Best wishes,
Tim Erickson Hamline Midway [EMAIL PROTECTED]
-- ================================================= Tim Erickson http://www.politalk.com St. Paul, MN - USA 651-643-0722 [EMAIL PROTECTED] ICQ: 105978430 =================================================
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