Newark, DE 19711 - University of Delaware Library Institutional ...

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Discuss broad ideas with your guests.
Unless you feel that your visitors can handle it, do
not get too technical. Use the common names for plants
instead of the Latin genus and species. Do not bring up a
specific plant unless you can tell something significant
about its use - medicinal, culinary, industrial, etc.
INVOLVE THE VISITOR. Encourage guests to ask questions,
and do not hesitate to ask them questions about what they
might have learned already. Strive to create a relationship
in which you are talking with your visitors, not - to them.
Your own attitude does much to set the tone of the garden
experience for your visitors. Express your enthusiasm for
Old Salem and your love for the buildings, collections,
and gardens and landscapes.
Personalize your tour by relating the interpretive
material to the interests of the guests when this is known.
You might ask if the visitor is interested in any particular
area associated with the gardens, such as herbs, vegetables,
gardening techniques and tools, etc.
Know your material. Do Not guess. If you do not know
the answer to a question, simply say, "1 don't know, but if
you wish, I will find the answer and have the information
mailed to your home."
Look at your job as an interpreter as a challenging
experience. You are an educator, and because you are
educating visitors, it is your responsibility to continue
to learn. The quality of work you do as an interpreter is
proportional to the knowledge you have of the Moravians
and Salem. A good teacher does not try to teach all that he
or she knows, of course, but can tap th'at reservoir of
knowledge when the need arises an6 feel confident about his
or her work in the process.
Your knowledge can be expanded by reading. Old Salem
and MESDA (Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts) have
good collections which are at your disposal. Books also
can be checked out from the public and university libraries.
C. Suggested Weekly Summer Schedule for Garden Interpreters
This is a flexible schedule for summer garden inter-
pretation. It concentrates on one horticultural topic and
related gardening demonstrations for each day of the week.
The schedule is not set in concrete, but subject to change
depending on weather and availability of plants, supplies,
and labor. For example, if a large tree loses limbs in a
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