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

[knotwork at juno.com]

Once again, the rare voice of good sense is heard across the land!  The
SCA was so much more fun when it was simpler.  I understand the necessity
of some paperwork, but it is getting ridiculous!  It seems like everyone
wants to leave his "mark" by instituting a new form or regulation or
award or badge or law.  

Remember when:

You could actually get on the field because armor was easy to acquire? 
Carpet, foam, and a freon can and you were in business!

You could enter an A&S competition without writing a thesis, and the
peers gave out largess and pointers?

Serving and clean-up duty was FUN, because everyone was there to help? 
(New people love to get recognition for service.)

You could play "cloved lemon" without having to play "tonsil tennis"?

People appreciated bardic and musical performances, even if the performer
had more enthusiasm than talent?

You could leave your valuables in your tent or even outside it, and have
reasonable expectation that they would be there when you got back?

Households played together and were secondary to the group as a whole?

Anyone could teach, learn. or share their knowledge as they pleased
without embarrassment or negative criticism?

Teaching was a learning experience, too?
  
(You get the idea.)

I don't say we should or even could turn back the clock, but if we want
"newcomers" to become "old timers,"  we need to remember and recreate the
magic that  made us stick around all these years.

If you want to mark territory, pee on a tree.
If you want to have fun, come play with me!

Joanna

(Whose soapbox is due to cave in anytime now!) 




On Fri, 23 Oct 1998 12:51:20 -0500 Russell Kinder <russmax at cowboy.net>
writes:
>To all who are concerned with the idea of somehow "accrediting" 
>teachers in
>the SCA.
>
>To begin with, I find the whole idea vastly offensive. Just what 
>exactly is
>the coin we're paying these people that they should have to submit to 
>such
>scrutiny? What exactly are the students paying that they have a right 
>to
>expect professional quality instructors at every turn. If the student 
>at a
>collegium finds the instructor boring or incompetent, they are free to 
>leave
>at any moment. And what would the criteria for judging a potential 
>instructor
>be? What would you say to an instructor you were rejecting?
>
>My second point would be, I have never, ever seen this to be a problem
>anywhere that I've been in the SCA. If someone cares enough about a 
>topic to
>teach a class, they at least know something about it. Even if it's 
>just "See
>this cool thing I made? I'll teach you how to make it, too." Even if 
>the
>instructor is wrong, we have all learned from the ensuing discourse, 
>and from
>the sources cited. So, it sounds like you're willing to offend 
>teachers, who
>are kind of hard to come by sometimes, to solve a problem that doesn't 
>exist.
>
>Some people aren't good teachers. They are vastly outnumbered by the 
>good
>ones, and almost all of us are smart enough to figure out who is who. 
>I just
>don't see a need to offend people willing to give of their time and 
>skills
>because you once took a badly taught class at an event. And exactly 
>how much
>did that class cost you? This is just a hobby done for fun, folks. 
>Let's not
>take ourselves so seriously.
>
>Lord Guillaume de Troyes
>Mooneschadowe Seneschal
>------------------------
>

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