[Sca-cooks] Teaching in the SCA
Terry Decker
t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net
Fri Apr 25 21:42:10 PDT 2008
One of the don'ts that I have is, "Don't throw extraneous tidbits into a
handout that have nothing to do with the subject you are teaching."
I developed this rule during the presentation of a paper on late period
Dutch furniture. While the author lectured, I did a quick read of the
paper. The author had thrown in a comment on potatoes being widely eaten in
the Low Countries in 1586 (IIRC). Since I know from contemporary sources
that Carolus Clusius, who was the curator of the botanical garden in Leyden,
didn't receive his sample until 1587 and that potatoes were mostly a
botanical curiosity in Northern Europe until, at least, the next century,
the cute throw away "fact" made me wonder about the accuracy and
thoroughness of the main work.
Bear
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