About Clifford
One of the most fortuitous moments in Clifford Wagner’s life was when he got hired at the Franklin Institute Science Museum in Philadelphia as a cabinetmaker. With his mother being a teacher, his father an engineer, and a degree in art and design, he was immediately put to use creating hands on exhibits, first for a physics exhibit and then for whatever topic the Institute was covering as it remade most all of its exhibits. He took to it like a duck to water.
After 11 years there, constantly learning new stuff and creating a lot of interactive exhibits he jumped across the street to Please Touch Children’s Museum, saying to himself “OK, the topic is now Childhood Development. What a wonderful topic to learn!”
He went into business of creating his own exhibits, which he is still doing to this day. His present mix of available traveling exhibits reflects this Science and Children’s Museum background: engaging for kids from 2 to 102.
Two things he has loved most about his career is the learning about the topics being covered and then, along with all his colleagues, figuring out what we can effectively teach. Through all this learning and teaching he came up with his favorite statement: “No matter who you are, every single person on this planet, you spend half your life as a teacher and half your life as a student. But the trick is to know which to be when, and to always seek opportunities for both. I never want to stop learning new stuff for that’s what makes life interesting. But in this continuum of human existence, what do you teach? What is most important to pass on to all those that come after us?”