Now, as you know, I am *not* a reenactor. I am not that into living history, though I do like a good stage set. I am an old school "SCA hippie" as I learned to be in the West. William the Lucky is my idea of a good SCA roll model.
All that being said I have a bone to pick with the both the idea of classes and the idea of competitions. They are not particularly apropos for what we do. Why, for instance, would you have an "arts" competition at a Crown Tourney? Or classes? Yes, I know, they are SCA, but they are certainly NOT period--at least not in the form we do them in. How often would we gather for a class on spinning at a war? Truthfully: if this were the middle ages people whose station it was to spin would know how to spin from the age of six or eight, and those whose station it was not wouldn't bother to learn it at all.
I really like and support the county fair model for the SCA as a general organizing principle, and events like Collegium and A&S are great and I love to go and learn and teach there. But I do have to ask myself how often you'd find a dance contest at a war or a tournament.
no subject
All that being said I have a bone to pick with the both the idea of classes and the idea of competitions. They are not particularly apropos for what we do. Why, for instance, would you have an "arts" competition at a Crown Tourney? Or classes? Yes, I know, they are SCA, but they are certainly NOT period--at least not in the form we do them in. How often would we gather for a class on spinning at a war? Truthfully: if this were the middle ages people whose station it was to spin would know how to spin from the age of six or eight, and those whose station it was not wouldn't bother to learn it at all.
I really like and support the county fair model for the SCA as a general organizing principle, and events like Collegium and A&S are great and I love to go and learn and teach there. But I do have to ask myself how often you'd find a dance contest at a war or a tournament.
Just random thoughts.