Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Children in the sca
Date: Mon, 04 Jan 1993 20:08:17

A node called Diane Pilkington coded to node Longshot,
on 08 Dec 92  16:20:14, about Children in the sca;

lo'
 
 Lo> Again, I fail to see the problem here.   The children are the
 Lo> future. The SCA is a family organization.

 DP> If the children are the future of the SCA, then it'll be dead
 DP> and gone in two generations. Far less than half of the members
 DP> of the society have children. Many of those children will not
 DP> choose to continue to be active in the SCA once they have
 DP> "flown the nest". We recruit far more adult members every 
 DP> month than we recruit children and than our members have
 DP> babies.

   I did not say that they were the ONLY future, but they are _part_ of the 
future.   As for the SCA being dead & gone in two generations, if the future
is our children, I'll pass that on to our Calon Prince, Christofer Kensor,
a child of the SCA.   You see, in Calontir, we as well have our share of
children that leave the SCA, but we also try to see that anyone, not just our
children are encouraged in what ever they want to do.

 DP> The future of the SCA is in the new members that we recruit.
 
   I don't dispute that this is part of the case.   I do suspect that before I
am done, I will grow tired of this phrase.

 Lo> I don't think that you would be much impressed if events were held 
 Lo> exclusively "male".

 DP> This is a non-issue. No one is saying that children should 
 DP> not be allowed to attend events. What some of us are 
 DP> saying is that we are disgusted with people bending over
 DP> backwards to do things oriented towards children. What I
 DP> personally am disgusted with is that we provide far more
 DP> nurturing care for children at events than for new members.

   Then the issue is being approached wrong.   Children are people, too.   In
some cases they require a bit more explanation, guidance, or patience, but
usually no more than any person showing interest in a topic, many times less 
because they are less likely to bring preconceptions to the matter.   I feel
that I know a little bit of what I speak from my work with the Calon Ministry
of Children and the Calon Bardic College.   To be quite honest, I feel Prince
Kensor will be a LOT better prepared to be king BECAUSE he grew up in the SCA.

 DP> The future of the SCA is in the new members that we recruit.
 
   This makes me think of something.   What is the percentage of children who
leave the SCA and what is the percentage of new members that leave the SCA?

 Lo> Sure ladies are going to be expected to be there in attendance,
 Lo> wives,  fiancees, girlfriends, significant others, etc...   Now why
 Lo> should you expect a child to happily put up with a situation that you
 Lo> would not? 

 DP> This hysterical demand that we all go through hoops for
 DP> children at events is personally irritating. When I was a child,
 DP> I sat quietly and read books, and I don't see why that isn't
 DP> good enough for children today.

   Perhaps hysterical from your point of view or in your area.   Rather than
destroy what is an effort intended to do a good thing with your belittling,
try to expand the effort into the areas that you feel are lacking.   Teach &
encourage beginners classes that will help everyone, be it lady in waiting who
wants to learn to fight, child who wants to learn heraldry, or stickjock who
wants to learn drop spindle weaving.
   Further, because either no one made a significant effort to encourage you,
or you chose to not seek out activities other than books, I don't think that 
we need to shut the whole program down on the basis of "It was good enough for
me, so it should be good enough for you."

 DP> The future of the SCA is in the new members that we recruit.

   "Well, the lyrics have a good rhythm, Dick, but I can't dance to it."
   "I give it 38."

                                                 ~ Aindries


... Have you oppressed your peasants/children today?
 * Origin: Calontir -- We Deliver. (1:291/19.0)