[MR] Teenager abuse at Pennsic

[TheWolfhou at aol.com]

Oh, this is a fun activity! 
 
I have 4 kids, though the youngest is exiting the "teen stage", and they  
have introduced many of their friends to the SCA. The youngest set, as they  
separate from their Mother's skirts, get taken to activities like  children's 
corner, pages Academy, retaining, gaming, dancing, bardics,  and A&S things by 
their parents or older responsible  watchers. Parents/watchers/older family 
members involved with the child in an  activity encourages the child's intrests and 
fun as we teach personal  responsibilities along the way. As the parents see 
their child/children mature  in resposibility, the young ones are slightly 
less tightly watched in the above  activities and still has fun, not at the 
expense of other children or  adults. A child 10-14 may ask to try archery, thrown 
weapons, youth combat,  youth rapier or water bear. Depending on the youth's 
exposure, the young  teens choose to go to Children's Corner to help with the 
younger ones,  does water bearing on the sidelines, retains and guards, does 
archery and thrown  weapons, participates in bardics, dances, gaming 
opportunities, and A&S  classes and competitions. Kids like to DO, not just watch. As 
they serve in  younger years, they learn that through service, life is better and 
more fun  when all are pulling weight. As adults, as we know our kids and the 
other  young'uns in our area, we can encourage their participation in 
whatever we are  doing. As they are stepping out of the youth stages into young adult 
stages,  they are confident that they can DO, and are responsible in doing 
what they try  to do. I have seen many a teen teaching dance or games or A&S, 
leading  archery and thrown weapons competitions, planning and running 
activities at  Children's corners, cooking in the feast kitchens, volunteering to 
retain or  guard or serve feast, take a leading roll in autocrating events or doing 
demos,  actively participating in bardic song and story, and encouraging 
their parents  and siblings to go to events so they can have fun doing the above  
activities! As more youth do youth combat and youth rapier, I can see more  
confidently enjoying these disiplines too. As these youth step over the 18 year  
old thresh hold, they are becoming the next wave of marshals, MOLs, 
chirugeons,  archers, heavy fighters, rapier folks, combat archers, siege weapons 
crews,  heralds, autocrats, troll folks, cooks, artisans, dance masters, group 
officers,  and leaders within the SCA and the mundane world...
 
Of the activities for the younger set at Pennsic, there are many  
opportunities. The youngest are involved with their parents and camps. There is  the play 
ground, and the Children's Fete. As the youths grow and are allowed  more 
freedoms by their parents (hopefully they take it respossibly), they may  play 
with friends they have made at other camps, go on ice runs, accompany other  
older teens and adults watching the battles, or shoot archery, or throw weapons,  
or go to A&S classes, or to dances, or participate in the water  battle or 
some of the teen parties hosted by some Kingdoms. They should  be participating 
in some of the camp chores along with the adults.  As the youth are in their 
teens, they may stroll the public areas  like the markets, beggers row, and 
yes, the room at the bath house. They wish to  do things on their own. The bath 
house has become a place of their own where  they organize and play their own 
games of D&D, munchkin, and  Magic. Whenever I dropped in, to say hi to my son, 
they were polite and  laughingly told me who was winning or loosing the game. 
I also saw them out  taking classes, dancing, singing and story telling at 
bardics, on the archery  and thrown ranges, in the gaming tent, and helping 
guard and assisting  with the Children's Fete.They most likely are taking a share 
of camp  responsibilites also. ( I know the "kids" in our camp actively took 
part in  setting up, took  a night to cook for the camp, volunteered to guard 
camp  and do ice runs, and were real helps breaking camp! They also were very 
active  on the archery and thrown weapons ranges, at rapier, at bardics, in 
classes, and  other places helping and DOing)
 
Parents are the support in youngest years, a teacher and guide in middle  
years, the monitor in older years. At some point we have to let them go on to be  
responsible members of society. By the time our kids are off on their own, 
the  "proof is in the pudding" whether we did a good job raising our young'uns! 
May  we each take resposibility for our kids and help those around us in 
raising  excellent adults! The world will be a better place for it...
 
--Blitha of Wolfhou
 
 
In a message dated 8/14/2008 6:19:46 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
luminaebanis at hotmail.com writes:

There  are many sides to the issue about teens, so I dont think we are so 
much off  topic as we are looking at different views of the same issue.  I think  
what we are recognizing is a gap in the options of activities that are 
offered  for teens to choose and get involved in.  

Opening up, in some  way, or even actively inviting/recruiting teens for more 
activities geared for  them is part of the larger answer.  Parent supervision 
and being  resposible parents is another part of the answer.

Generally teens want  something that is "theirs," that permits socializing, 
entertainment,  independence, and worthwhile.  Finding activities that may 
satisfy these  general wants, while still providing adult supervision, is what Im 
interested  in and what I believe is the discussion about this issue.

Lets list the  most common activities at local events and Pennsic.  For 
yourself, list  the ages of participants you envision or have witnessed at each 
event.   See if we can identify the gaps in offered activities to hopefully begin 
 offering more options to keep our teens welcome and  active.

Activity:

Mentally, or on paper, without using any other  resource, apply an age or 
range of ages, you have witnessed or have heard  participants may be for each 
type of activity.  Keep in mind legal  restrictions as they may apply.  Please 
try to answer as things are now,  not how you project they could be in the 
future.

Children's  Corner

Page's Academy

Boffer Weapons

Rapier  Weapons

Archery

Combat Archery

Heavy  Weapons

Water-Bearing

Chiurgeon

Marshalling

Heralding

Retainer

Guard  (Camp)

Guard (Personal)

Kitchen/Cook or  otherwise

Autocrat/Autocrat assistant

Minister of the  List

Games/Games Tournaments (Period  games)

Dance

Bardic/Musician

Troll

Security

Thrown  Weapons

Merchanting

Arts and Sciences


I suppose it is  easy to view service tasks as a chore.  Recently a knight 
and a couiple  of friends visited camp at Pennsic as the group around the fire 
was discussing  the next day's commitment to guarding royal camp.  When asked 
to the  knight about volunteering service to help guard the royal camp, the 
knight  scoffed indignantly, as did his sword brother-friends and the idea of 
such a  lowly service be asked of their higher rank.  However, having been royal  
camp and Her Majesty's guard many, many long hours, I have found the task to  
be very rewarding and an honor to undertake.  I usually take a very  serious 
approach to this task and have been rewarded with getting to know many  of our 
kingdom and witnessing events few of the overall populace ever  see.

What I am getting to here, and I am blessed/cursed with a  long-winded style 
so I beseech forgiveness, is the approach of offering  options regarding 
service is most important.  If offering an opportunity  to a teen is handed as a 
task, like mowing the lawn, then yes, it may very  well be perceived as a chore 
rather than an honor.  If a service task is  offered with careful wording with 
the honor it truly is, few teens would be  refusing so readily.


~Gunther



> Date: Thu, 14 Aug  2008 11:57:10 -0700> From: angellfoxx at yahoo.com> To:  
atlantia at atlantia.sca.org> Subject: Re: [MR] Teenager abuse at Pennsic>  > I 
think we're missing the main point here.. Its the PARENTS responibility  to make 
sure thier kids speak and act with respect no matter where they are be  it an 
SCA event or mundane.If your kids aren't intreasted in sca events leave  them 
to stay with a friend or family at home.What are these children learning  by 
watching video or playing D&D in the activitys room (which is what I'd  heard 
it called)?The whole premise of SCA is to recreate the time period we  play in 
not roll dice to see if your troll kills someones elf... the idea of  getting 
them involed at royal camp is a great idea with one flaw .. most  teenagers 
are not the most reliable.I've had positive and negitive experiances  with teens 
at war but no more then the adults I've been around at war.I seem  to 
remember wars ago there was a teen camp ... and result was that too many  in
cidents happened that they never repeated the idea to my knowledge.I  think 
that it all comes down to parents getting> involved and making real  choices on 
what experiances they expect ...and laying clear rules for the  teens in 
thier charge.> > Medb Ceitinn> > > --- On Thu,  8/14/08, mweymark at carolina.rr.com 
<mweymark at carolina.rr.com> wrote:>  > > From: mweymark at carolina.rr.com 
<mweymark at carolina.rr.com>>  > Subject: Re: [MR] Teenager abuse at Pennsic> > To: 
"Cian Conor  MacQuaid" <Cian at MacQuaid.org>> > Cc: atlantia at atlantia.sca.org>  > 
Date: Thursday, August 14, 2008, 12:05 PM> > Actually you are  correcct, the 
implication that the kids> > likely to cause trouble would  not consider joining 
in was> > wrong to imply. However, we do this  because it is fun for> > us. I 
do service because well, Im a service  junky with a> > high amount of Helium 
in my arm blood (a condition my  laurel> > is trying to cure). I have had the 
good fortune of working>  > along side some like afflicted teens, an
d I have also heard> >  teens protest about doing service because it is like 
a> > chore. >  > > > I think we (as a community) need to come up with social>  
> alternatives for our youth to keep their interest rather> > than  finding 
jobs to keep them busy! Teen gaming is a> > wonderful idea. And  we could even 
take it a step further and> > have it run by older Pages  (over 16 crowd). 
Having the> > pages run the games might make being a  page a little more> > 
appealing as well. I dunno if we could legally do  that but> > I mean if the teens 
are hanging out now without  supervision> > wouldnt this be a step up?> > --> 
> > >  Caterine St. Loe> > "the Good 'Prentice"> > Chateaux  Ferneaux
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