3 May 2007
I think the title above is the name of this plant. It began to bloom about a week or so ago, and this is the first I’ve remembered to take its picture. Since I have been on the phone nearly all day today, I just grabbed the camera and played with some night time shots as a way to wind down and think about something other than bills and credit cards and orders and email.
I have continued to give the whole Kids Days-thing a lot of thought. I found out today, that another friend who owns a building at faire has some considerable damages to repair from all the little monsters ravaging the place. There simply has to be a better way. Granted, we cannot control the weather, but even on a sunny day, the trampling affect is huge. And other types of damage–from things being handled in ways they shouldn’t, or shoplifted, happens no matter what the weather.
So, I am going to toss out some ideas—brainstorm, if you will—about options for changing the way in which this event is handled. Some of my ideas will be good, some bad, some great, but completely impractical! But, they’ll all be potentially better than what’s happening, now.
If the visit to the faire were treated with more respect—more control . . .the herds divided into “tour groups” of a sort. A well-costumed festival actor or other pre-qualified volunteer (this could be a responsible, caring teacher or parent) could be responsible for each group, like a docent at a museum or historic home. The entire site could easily be covered in the day. Each show could be seen by each group, each demonstrating artisan observed. On bad weather days, activities and travels through the site could be planned accordingly. The students could be taught what they were seeing and why. Students would be exposed to a huge variety of vocational opportunities, and the focus of each group could be customized according to the subject being studied. For example, an earth science class could focus on studying our rocks, trees, climate, etc. and compare North Texas to England of the 16th century. The French or Spanish classes could focus on the members of our court from those places, and learn how to speak of Maypoles and jousts and potters and glassblowers in their respective languages. Theatre classes could focus on the stage acts, on Shakespeare, on costuming. Or, even better, they could study Scarborough as “living theatre” and compare the work of our performing company with that of a more traditional, indoor theatre company. This just touches the surface of how easy it would be to actually use the opportunity of this event as a teaching tool, not just as a day away from the school building.
More on this later! I ought to start these brainstorming sessions before I get tired!
~MB
