[Sca-cooks] Teaching in the SCA

[Sharron Albert]

Greetings!

I teach all the time, sometimes formally in a 'class' situation, and 
sometimes because someone comes over and asks a question about what 
I'm doing, or what someone else is doing.

That said, it should be noted --

I live in an extremely isolated area (Fairbanks, Alaska), so the 
farthest away I've taught a class has been in Anchorage (about 400 
miles away).

I usually teach beginning topics because we have what we refer to as 
an "incubator" barony. We get lots of new people, coming and then 
going, year after year, including a lot of military and students. We 
have 1-3 years to draw them in, cloth them, name them, armor them, 
herald them, and generally give them a good grounding and send them 
on their way once they graduate or get transferred.

Although I cook, I actually prefer to teach the needle arts, which is 
hands on. But I also teach heraldry, SCA 101, and this fall I'm doing 
an introduction to 'period' spices, again. I'm not much on handouts, 
but will have the spices themselves available at that class.

Our group plans 1-3 classes at every event (to give people and 
children things to do), and has a monthly A&S evening at which 
another class is taught/discussion held.

We have few fighters (again, very small and isolated), hence the 
focus on the arts and services. I don't think I've ever had more than 
8 students, and usually it's less.

But I especially like to just teach what I'm doing. If someone comes 
over when I'm working on my bobbin lace, as soon as I reach a break 
point, I try to get them to try it themselves. If they come into the 
kitchen when we're working on a feast, not only will we put them to 
work, but we'll carry on a general discussion of what we're cooking, 
where we found it, the ingredients used, etc.

The most fun we had at one of our annual feasts, was a few years ago, 
when a young, green, college student came in and announced there were 
three spices in medieval cooking: salt, pepper and dirt! He got quite 
an education that evening, as he paid penance in scullery work (quite 
cheerfully), as we explained to him just how wrong he was, dragging 
out our supply of spices and herbs, and books.

Morgana, the informal teacher...
-- 
Wit is educated insolence. -Aristotle, philosopher (384-322 BCE)