[Ansteorra] Fw: Youth Academy and office openings

[iainmacc at juno.com]

On Wed, 13 Nov 2002 23:36:29 -0600 "Paul DeLisle" <ferret at hot.rr.com>
writes:
>
> That is a major concept of *all* Youth activities (SCA, Mundane,
> etc.)...that they are supervised/marshalled by "responsible" (i.e.
> Adult)
> supervision. Let's not get too far into the realm of the
> un-realistic here,
> folks. These are *children*; legally, and (for the most part)
> morally......
> being taught a potentially deadly art... it is incredibly
> unreasonable to
> assume that they can Marshal themselves (...does anyone remember
> "Miri" from
> the old Star Trek?)
>
> They are doing a great job in learning the Artes...let's not screw
> it up by
> assuming they can Marshall themselves, too...
>

        I don't really think such an assumption is being made. I suspect
it's more the assumption that, like any complex skill, it becomes much
more reliable if it's actually practiced instead of the student being
merely told about it. Personally, I think that a list for the youth that
was being run by a List Mistress and a youth List Mistress-in-Training,
Marshalled by pairs of Youth Marshals and youth Marshals-in-Training,
would be a good idea. If it were done, then we could have Marshals and
List Mistresses who were reliable and experienced at eighteen, instead of
limiting that to just the fighters. Why practice the dangerous part and
then fail to practice the parts that make it safe?
        No, of course you don't let them go by themselves. In an amazing
number of ways, the law sees no distinction between someone one day short
of their eighteenth birthday and a newborn infant. In the same way, it
tends to ignore any difference between a person who is eighteen today and
his/her grandfather. But there is a difference, and that experience does
count.
        We who stand in range of a piece of rattan slung into the crowd
because it had no lanyard, we who pay the doctor bills for any injuries,
we who worry about CPS being called because our child goes to school
covered in bruises... we should expect better of ourselves, and how we
teach.


                                      Iain MacCrimmon

                    Cave Tyranniam Timorium Suorum

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