Greetings all:

 

I apologize for just getting to these messages now.  I am still catching up with my mail from the weekend away.  Here are some thoughts, comments and corrections.  

I am all for doing what we can to sustain and improve the youth fighting program in the kingdom (and I'm sure His Majesty would agree).  We need to keep kids engaged and interested in the SCA and all of it's activities both for the vitality of the society and because it's better for their brains than Nintendo and Myspace (in my opinion).  When we discussed this issue at Our Curia, there were some concerns that I don't think have been addressed.  One was "do the kids want this?".  I am not sure that has been answered yet.  

I would, with all due respect to His Excellency Sir Tristan, like to clarify that His Majesty and I are not against a youth rattan program in general.  We are against arming up a 16 year old and turning him or her out to fight any and all adult comers.  His Majesty and I have concerns about the potential for harm to still physically and emotionally immature kids.  And here I am talking about biology.  Certainly there are physically large and "mature" kids out there. But size and apparent maturity does not mean that they are actually finished growing or that their brains are like an adult's yet.  To borrow an example, yes we allow kids to drive at 16 but not past midnight and they pay a lot more for insurance (or their parents do) because they are generally easily distracted, more impulsive, and wreck more than adults.  From the adult side, we all know fighters who are either over calibrated, easily pissed off, or just not good teachers.  We all tend to steer even adult novices away from these folks in a subtle, often unspoken way, because we don't want the new folks to get turned off to fighting or the society.  This to me points up the need to make sure that any adults who are part of the youth rattan program are patient, well controlled, and good teachers so that kids aren't at the receiving end of any of that. 

None of this means that We are opposed to youth rattan (or fencing) across the board. We are willing to talk about and probably approve a well-thought-out plan to introduce rattan combat to older kids should we all get this organized before We step down.  Most of you are probably unaware that what brought me into the SCA at the age of 8 or 9 was fencing.  At that time (yes, the earth was still cooling and the written word was new technology) there was no age restriction for fencing so I started my SCA career fencing adults and really enjoyed it. It got me into the society and obviously it has stuck!  So I certainly appreciate what youth rattan and/or fencing programs might bring to us all.  However, they need to be well thought out and well implemented to protect the kids while allowing them to continue to learn and grow in the Society.  

I hope that this conversation will continue both online and in live meetings. I would request that future meetings be scheduled and announced broadly through not only this list but the discussion board and "announce".  I may have overlooked an announcement, but Christopher and I were not aware that a meeting was planned for the Castle event making it difficult to attend.  I look forward to learning what was discussed at that meeting if it occurred.

Thank you all for being so concerned about the youth of the kingdom and about the future of the youth fighting programs.  I feel confident that we will come to a policy that will be good for the kids, good for the adults who are interested, and good for the Kingdom.

Morgen
Regina



 

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