Recently, we had a hearing guest with us. It was a long overdue visit, all around, and we all made the best of it. We decided to play tourist in our own backyard, and I took our guest and my walking partner to Long Beach, to visit the Aquarium of the Pacific. None of us had ever been there, so it would be a treat for all of us.

It was a standard aquarium– we enjoyed our visit, and all of us learned something from the mock-up, on the ground floor, of how “normal” waves and tsunami waves work. The fish were beautiful, and it was generally lovely. I spent quite a bit of time hanging around watching the sea otters and the sea lions. They’re so fascinating. However, if I had to recommend a must-see aquarium, I’d say the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the New England Aquarium are far better, and both are worth a visit [I’ll definitely want to head to Monterey sometime soon; they just opened a new otter exhibit, and I’m looking forward to that!].

But it wasn’t until well into our visit that I learned a little bit about our fellow visitors [courtesy of my guest] at the aquarium that day, and now I’m despairing all over again about the state of education in this country. A parent with a child walked up to the lobster exhibit. The parent points at the tank and says to the kid, “Oh, look, there’s a crab.”

Another family was overheard upstairs, in the exhibit area on Northern Pacific Diving birds. Approaching the exhibit area containing puffins, a father excitedly told his kids, “Penguins!”

A few more comments in this vein were overheard. It was rather frightening: these are the parents that bothered to take their children to the aquarium. These are the parents that try to introduce their children to the natural world. What about the parents who don’t?