[MR] Demo any one?

[Peggy Brodie]

We annually do a demo for the fourth grade at one of our local schools.  At
upwards of a hundred kids we don't have the freedom of motion Charles
Fleming describes, but 3-4 garbed demonstrators certainly have no trouble
filling an hour and a half.  We have a long timeline "scroll" that we unroll
and fasten up wherever, and point out on it various events the kids would
recognize.  It starts with the time of Christ for year zero, with the
present at the far end, and then we show them where familiar movies would
fall, and the Pilgrims, and as we speak we point out where our persona or
our discussion falls.  Always have wanted to get it painted on canvas, with
flannelboard type stick-ons.   Whoever has been able to get away for a
midday demo has grabbed whatever they own, so its pretty ad hoc and always
thrills the kids.  Armour makes the biggest hit and we learned to leave it
for last because once started on that, you'll never get the subject changed
again.  Handmade soap is an opening for talking about sanitation and disease
and "no stores" economies.  A horn cup intoduces them to a world without
plastic.  A pile of wool, cotton, and flax fibers and a drop spindle begin
to give some sense of textile manufacture.  I have a poster with a quote
copied from William Horman's "Vulgaria" ("common things"), a 1519
Latin-English phrasebook.  My quote happens to be "Manye a one/ that hath be
gyuen vppe of phyfycions and redy to the pytte: have be rely-ued/ and
restored ageyne to hel- the without any cofte with a fewe herbes."  But any
other phrase would do.  It sparks a discussion of reading, education,
schools, books, paper and parchment, the contributions of Charlemagne to
standarizing text layout, and also health and medicine.  BTW, the kids
invariably read that faster than we adults-- they get past the broken rules
quicker.  A candle or a lantern or particularly a dish-type oil lamp, also
any musical instrument, makes an opening to have them start mentally
imagining away all the electrical things in their lives.  We pass around a
couple chainmaille coifs and let them feel the weight and put them on.  A
demo swordfight at the end if we have two fighters, since we're in a gym,
and then 10-15 minutes of Trying To Get The Teachers To LET The Kids mob the
exhibits and touch and talk.  I've taken my lace pillow, but kept it on my
lap.

Can you tell this is my favorite demo?!  We've even been asked for
autographs, and the "illiterate" among us would make his mark...

Margaret Obrolchan

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Virginia E. Liles" <ladygeva at earthlink.net>
Subject: [MR] Demo any one?

> Greetings to the tavern and the list!!
> I have just been to a demo for 6th graders.  Talking about it later I
> realized that while those with the most knowledge of a subject were either
> unable to attend or unhappy about speaking to groups, etc. Possibly those
> of us willing and able to participate might be guided by the knowledge of
> others?  Some of us are now in the process of putting together Quick and
> Dirty Lesson Plans for future Demos to have available.  Those that would
> assist in this endeavor are welcome to help with suggestions, corrections,
> etc.