I love going to aquariums, they are one of my favourite places to visit and I have no problem going to the same one more than once. Each time I go I learn something new. I get excited about learning, especially when I can then apply the knowledge and share it with others in a relevant setting. I love grabbing my friends hand an dragging them around on a personal tour of the under water realm, it's been my specialty since I was a child.
This particular incident happened while I was on a trip in Minneapolis. My friends and I went to the Mall of America (it's really cool and I suggest checking it out) and went the the Sea Life Aquarium. We're all post grads of a interactive media course so we were taking loads of pics and angling the shots up just right. Normal day for us. We entered this black room with neon lights and tall water pillars filled with floating orbs. They were jellyfish (moon jellies to be exact)! Definitely one of my favourite creatures to watch. They're just so calm and peaceful, its relaxing.
Hidden within the maze of water columns are some with a strange type of jellyfish, they don't really move. Upon closer inspection I realized they were plastic bags. Now the importance of this is realizing how similar the bags resemble jellyfish and how easy it is for turtles and other predators to mistake them and eat garbage instead.
Yes, this is a "trash" talk.
Anyways this 10 year old kid comes up behind me and presses his hands against the glass to get a better look, "This is boring, they're not even moving". I looked at him and replied "They're not supposed to, thats the point", he gazed over and looked me up and down before moving along. Maybe 10 seconds later his father shows up and skeptically looks at the column of trash. "I don't get it" he blatantly stated, even though there was a little write up in front of him. "You have to read the write up" I said with a smile. He looked at me and said "I didn't come here to read" and then walked away.
I stood there horrified. I know to some that this is nothing, and it probably seems silly, but I couldn't believe that this man would not take 10 seconds to read the 4 line explanation. The kid, yea I know reading is a pain if it's not for school. I'm sure he wouldn't have made any life changes after gaining the information (which is fine as that is his choice) but to just say "I don't get it" an walk away without trying...like what?
His wife read the explanation, and I heard her trying to convey it to her husband and uninterested kid.
Why go somewhere educational and choose not to learn even a little bit?
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