Worst Reaction to Re-enactment?

[conal]

Now and again we get abit of jip.

But in the Manawatu, there just ain't the time to hassle folk for being different.

Theys all toooo busy being different their selves.

(is that a banjo I hear...?)

I love this place.

[Callum]

We have had no negative reactions ourselves but Colin McKinstry has an interesting story about the PM's husband

[adrianf]

i got a REALLY random comment from someone at waikato

her "are you guys camping here all weekend?"

me "yes"

her "so is it like the 40 hour famine or something?"

[Chevalier]

[Mad Jim]

when I was more in the Medieval scene, we had the odd snigger, like one dude that started to laugh at me and Red Beard coming out on to the foot path, and he was about to say something when the rest of the Ravens appeared, fully kitted up...lets say he sort of turned and walked away very fast, and then there are those very brave souls that would take you all on, and win but cant because they are traveling past, so can only cat call! In the WW2 field we would always get...look dads army!....as for Rudolph Steiner school, dont send your kids there, they dont learn anything practiable and get behind in all main stream areas, like maths and english...I know my eldest daughter is now behind by a year or two from other state school kids her age, and both my brothers went there but the school work was far to easy for them, as they had come from and went back to state schools...

[ChronicD]

I was rather saddened to see your post - while you are perfectly entitled to your opinion and telling your friends and families story i feel that i must point a few things out so as to put some things in perspective.

If one were to graph the education level of steiner schooled children through the years of their education and compare it to that taken from a state schooled child you would find the steiner educated child lagging behind up until about the age of 17 in 6th form. from then on the steiner school drastically ups the anti and steiner educated adolescent effectively catches up. This is a know and understood pattern.

I must also point out that steiner schools vary greatly and often suffer from not having sufficient checks to make sure that they are doing a good enough job. This is even more so in countries where they are solely private enterprises. Luckily in NZ the schools are semi state funded, forcing them to conform to the NZQA's education requirements. This effectively means that every child has to do there university entrance. On top of this if a school is found to be under performing or come under mis management the ministry of education may be called and a supervisor/assessor be sent in.

Now i am not saying there aren't bad stories about from people who have enrolled only to find it was not for them, but is it then fair to say that the schooling system is at error and should be avoided - for some it is truly amazing and exactly what they needed.

I graduated from the steiner school in wellington and i can say that in my year there were 16 people and i think that almost all of us went on to further education (i cannot be sure because i dont know - i couldn't think of anyone who didn't). Of the 16 i have just counted 12 that i know went to university. Subject wise we were vary diverse, some went into design and architecture, one in law, one is doing a major in psychology, one has just graduated as a teacher and is now teaching at the said school, one did business and now works for IBM in Australia, etc...

So i think it is fair to say that the school system can educate its students to excellent levels. It also always has a good individual education/special needs support so that any students that are struggling can get the help they need, this is one of the reasons for the high university entrance rate.

Steiner schools really emphasise confidence, creativity and individuality. these are typically emphasised differently from subject to subject and from year to year. so that in the younger years it is more on confidence and creativity and later years on individuality for example.

Lastly i want to say that this post was meant to put things in perspective, i am not saying you are wrong in your opinion, rather i just want to say that i am sorry that it did not work for your brothers. As for your daughter, is she happy? does she enjoy it? i imagine she is about 12 as this is normally when students are about a year behind. have you had her do a special needs test? (i had dyslexia and when all the teachers knew i was given assignments that used my flair for maths rather then making me suffer because i struggled with grammer - i say had because i worked hard so as not to be effected by it "edit" - proof reading the post i am not sure about this anymore )). I would say that now (if your daughter is about 12 ) is the time to decide if you want your daughter to stay in the school as later it becomes much harder to move - my brother and i moved at 14 and 12, i struggled to make friends for at least a year where as he had a best friend within 6 months (he was the 12 year old). after 14 it is even harder and you will find that the teenager who moves school will often just keep on seeing their old friends all the time instead of the newer ones. - of course i am generalising!!!

Wow that was more then i wanted it to be - sorry

hope whoever is reading this gets a less biased view on the steiner school - i am not pro rather i am saying it works for some and not others just like any other school

thats all folks
dan

[Mad Jim]

yes the Steiner schools, as it was my daughters mother went there [hasting Steiner] from age 8 till 16 and even still she didnt do well at all and as she put it 'she slipped under the radar with none of the teachers really seeing how she was doing. Thats not to say that there is anything wrong with Steiner, or its puiples and teachers, more my observations, I found that also we would go to parties [Steiner puiple parties] and I would be the only outside person there, and most of the time they all seemed to stay in their little circle and not branch out. Yes my daughter was very happy there but the school wasnt teaching her and she slipped behind, now in a state school she has pretty much caught up agian, she has been there near on a 8 months after 5 odd years at Steiner. My daughters mums parents also did alot for Steiner. As it is from what people said of the school it sounded great except for eurythmy, unfortuniatly it let down my family.

[NigelT]

OK people, stay on topic... this is fairly well into left-field. Start a new thread in 'General Discussion' if you want to have a rant.

[anglosaxonz]

I think the worst thing I have heard, thinking about that ...

First thought when on a display - was look thats Xena! oh and Gabrielle - ok So I have blue eyes brown hair, can use a sword in a display, and sparring match, but that is about where the similarities stop.
It gets quite tiring being called / compared to Xena

My mums reaction when she found out I had become involved in reenactment was - "Why do you want to do that, and where would you get an interest like that from - My father used to make us swords as kids from railway sleepers to play with...." Well that just said it all in my mind


But worst of all is General public comments -Are those really real swords? can we try them, doesn't look like ya need much skills.
these idiots often can't walk in a straight line and are the type that need to learn what a belt is for so their pants stay up (yes I know its a fashion but a terrible one at that)

and last but not least - what a gay thing to be doing - How the hell they arrived at that one I DO NOT KNOW!

I Really do not understand some people and where they get the ideas to what they say!

Karen

[Oskar der Drachen]

[Lezle]

I have had a terrible reaction to Crossbowmanship.

Seeing as I built the thing, I wouldn't mind shooting it.

I have approached every archery club in the greater Auckland area; the reactions have been everything from, "Sorry, but NO!" to "Oh my God! Please don't bring that 'thing' here ever again!" (Yes, that is a quote.) With many, many more in between.

Reasons are usually that the bolts will destroy the targets, and that other "archers" won't like it. Right...

The Mountain Green club on Mount Albert said I could shoot in the middle of the day, in the middle of the week when no-one else was there. I told the man I have a job. I do not swan around in the middle of the day and if I wanted to shoot by myself I'd do it at the park. He seemed a bit offended.

It is most strange.

I now shoot in the various parks by my house and with the good blokes at Bird Wood Estate once a month.

Lezle

[Mad Jim]

in regards to archers and crossbows, maybe the archers that use optic sights,laser pointers and range finders all with compound bows think that the crossbow is to close to a firearm!
Also I have found in regards to hand to hand (sword etc.) that you tell some people what you do and they look at you like your stupid or like your imature because you 'play' with swords...

[Chevalier]

[Robbo]

Personally I'd hope none of us were just playing.

Play is for paper, foam and larp.

[Silver]