ANST - Big fish/small ponds, classes, and disgusted newcomers

[Sp1ke]

Well, I agree with Gilli.  A certification board would not help any.

A person can usually find acceptable documentation, but in some circumstances, when there are not a lot of others who are well versed in the subject, it is not hard to make themselves seem knowledgeable on a subject without actually knowing a whole lot.

A point which I always remember involved a rather heated argument which ended up taking place last year when I was working on a master's level thesis involving the Japanese.  I had just completed my 400 plus page thesis, and received a 4.0 for it from a board of professors, and when I answered a newcomers request for information regarding Japanese influences during the SCA period, an SCA "Peer" proceeded to tell me I did not know what I was talking about because she had read a single book by some obscure author during her preparations to teach a class in the SCA.  It did not matter that she was wrong, that her information was faulty, or that professors from Tokyo and the University of Washington offered to verify my information and teach classes on the subject for free at other SCA events.  All that mattered was that I, a non-peer, had dared to offend a Peer by putting out information which was different from what she had been teaching for several years, and not taking my scolding in the properly subservient manner that she required of a non-peer.

The fact is that most Peers do take the time and put forth the effort to provide good information, but there is absolutely no viable method to verify instructors information and certify them to teach in the SCA.  Not without making another whole new set of rules to add to the already growing number taking up volumes of space now.

Spyke

P.S.  The newcomer kept coming to me for more and more information, is still playing in the SCA, and is now one of only 3 authorized two-handed fencers in the Known World.
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