Twelfth International Conference on The Inclusive Museum

Abstract

Two paradoxes challenge museums when they strive to help children learn about the suffering humans inflict upon each other in wartime. The first paradox is that, while we wish to educate children so that they will avoid participating in future atrocities, we also wish to avoid traumatizing them. The second paradox is that while the overarching principle that guides children’s museum programming is that learning should be playful and fun, few adults are comfortable with the idea of playful, fun learning about wartime atrocities. These paradoxes are hard to reconcile. If we effectively communicate to children the real horrors of war, they are almost certainly going to be traumatized. If we avoid upsetting them, we are probably presenting them with a sanitized version that deprives them of an awareness of the true brutality of war. Similarly, by making learning about war fun, we may fail to convey the seriousness of the information, and may even encourage them to respond in ways that other visitors find inappropriate and offensive. In this paper, I discuss some of the ways museums have tried to reconcile these paradoxes. Examples will be drawn from Sarajevo’s War Childhood Museum, Daniel’s Story at the U.S. Holocaust Museum, and Cambodia’s War Museum, among others. Each offers a unique way to engage children with the lived experiences of those who endured war and to reconcile the paradoxes inherent in communicating about wartime atrocities to children.