Monday, February 21, 2011

Students protest upcoming loss of mineral museum

The Arizona Historical Society executed a hostile takeover of the Arizona mining and Mineral Museum in 2010.  The AHS now announced the mineral museum will be closed June 1st 2010.  According to AHS plans, it will eventually be converted to the 5C Arizona Centennial Museum, which will feature the trivial theme of the 5Cs. Arizona children and teachers will very much miss the top rated mineral museum and its K-12 earth science education programs.  A lifetime learning experience will eliminated.  Even worse, millions of precious dollars will be spent during a financial crisis to down grade education.

Clayton is sad because he enjoys looking at the many beautiful mineral and rock displays. He does not understand why the Governor is not willing to save his mineral museum, especially when doing so would save millions of dollars. He is begging the Governor to reconsider.

Johnny enjoys the historic mining machines, especially the ones that have been restored to the point where they actually work. He learned al lot about mining by watching the old machines operating on Family Day (February 19th). He discovered that Arizona has one of the few operating stamp mills in the county, and he just cannot understand why the Governor and the AHS would scrap it.

Andrew loved learning how to facet gem stones. He cannot believe the Governor and the AHS will actually end important and interesting education programs at the mineral museum. He thinks the Governor should place more importance on education. He also wonders why Arizona would want a centennial museum that can never be open in time for Arizona’s centennial.

1 comment:

  1. Those protesting kids probably outnumbered the total number of kids visiting the AHS Marley Center in Papago Park.

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