I got to visit the Alamo twice while I was in San Antonio. The first time we didn't go inside as the Apple Distinguished Educators group were putting on an Improv stunt outside and we all participated in "ADEs Frozen in Texas". Video of this should be available soon.
We decided to return later in the week to spend time there and have a good look inside. The significance of this site in Texan history was pretty apparent from the sign at the door to the repeated signs inside requesting silence as this is a shrine.
We were rather surprised at how little attention was paid by the many tourists to this request and I couldn't resist pressing the record button on my camera to capture the 'silence' - which you can hear below. It reminded me of an occasion when I overheard a teacher in a library informing the class that this was to be a time of silent reading. This was followed up with the following statement, "This means that your voice shouldn't be heard more than 3 people away". What is the definition of silence in the 21st century? Has it evolved from the dictionary meaning? How many of us can operate effectively anymore in the absence of sound? Perhaps I should be conducting a poll here.
I guess the silence would be modelled by the people there. If you saw the signs but other people are talking you'd probably ignore it. I guess the other thing would be when you have a striking image or display people would respect it - if there were other comparable places around the world would tourists act the same way? Hmmm... Great to see this blog updated cant wait for the information on the google site. Have been working a sausage sizzle all week for basketball. Sold 270 in three hours today. Some holiday! Looking forward to additional posts!
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@Myles Good point there. We have had more interesting experiences like that in our tourist wanderings. Once in France we went to a Sunday morning mass at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. It was a moving service with a very large congregation in attendance. It was most disconcerting though to have crowds of tourists walking around the edges of the pews taking photos and carrying on their conversations as if it was an interactive exhibit at a science museum.
ReplyDeleteI think Google sites has a lot of potential for your class.
Tourists taking photos during a church service? That's unbelievable. My parents visited Europe last year and said the same sorts of things. Crowds and pushy tourists who were 'loud'. Sausage total for five days was 1300! I am now a vegetarian for the foreseeable future. I've joined up with a couple of English Schools one from Coventry and one from London and were going to be exchanging videos in September when the term starts. Were in the process of setting up joint edublog pages for each other. Enjoy the rest of your travels will you be sharing this at the EHSAS conference in Wellington?
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