Regia Goes to School
Back home safely in late afternoon. A wonderful day at Monroe Elementary in Hinsdale. Kids were great, and their questions--to the amazement of teachers--were all on topic and not digressions from private life ("I went to a ballgame." "I just got back from the bathroom.") like so many other demos of this type have have engendered. Everyone seemed to think that our showing up in costume really helped.
There were three of us there. Me, Julie and Mike Kinney, our AO. That seemed to be a proper number, and we all got to strut our stuff at each show. We did three shows today, answering questions, showing and explaining artifacts, demonstrating things like shield walls (the kids loved it), finger looping, story telling, tug of war and much more. They loved to lift the sword, although one girl asked why you always saw pictures of Vikings with swords. I laughed and grabbed my spade, put it over my shoulder and ask4ed her, "Isn't it lot more romantic to see me with a sword over my shoulder than with a shovel over it?" She agreed. Another kid insisted that what I had was not a shovel because he knew what shovels looked like, and they didn't have a wooden offset blade. I pity his teachers :)
A lot of very good questions. I pared down the introduction and went directly to the questions, and there were still more than enough questions. They have a question box at the school and students who had questions that weren't answered would write them down, and they'd get hold of us to see if we can answer any they can't answer themselves.
There were some funny questions. Someone asking why everyone of that time seemed to have weapons. I quoted the Havamal and then compared the Viking Age to 1920s Chicago. The kids were from the Chicago area and knew about the mobs and lawlessness of the time, so they understood immediately. Another kid wanted to know whether the Vikings were black or white. Another wanted to know who were the bad guys. Another wanted to know Viking military tactics but phrased it really strangely ("What if they met people who didn't want them there?") and it took a while to figure out what he wanted to know. The questions were damn good!
At each of the two earlier shows, someone asked why our helms had no horns. At the third, someone asked why everyone seemed to believe Viking helms had horns. I told the questioner that I loved her :) A teacher told me later that "How to Train Your Dragon" seemed very popular with the kids; after it's released, she expects that more kids will think Vikings had horned helmets more than ever. Ah, sigh. But at least if it gets them interested in the era, and they can be corrected, that's a good thing.
As we were packing to leave, a teacher commented on how great the presentation was and noted that the kids seemed to enjoy it. She said, "I don't know of any other group that the kids waved and yelled good-bye to." Makes me remember why I do this stuff instead of fantasy bufu!
There were three of us there. Me, Julie and Mike Kinney, our AO. That seemed to be a proper number, and we all got to strut our stuff at each show. We did three shows today, answering questions, showing and explaining artifacts, demonstrating things like shield walls (the kids loved it), finger looping, story telling, tug of war and much more. They loved to lift the sword, although one girl asked why you always saw pictures of Vikings with swords. I laughed and grabbed my spade, put it over my shoulder and ask4ed her, "Isn't it lot more romantic to see me with a sword over my shoulder than with a shovel over it?" She agreed. Another kid insisted that what I had was not a shovel because he knew what shovels looked like, and they didn't have a wooden offset blade. I pity his teachers :)
A lot of very good questions. I pared down the introduction and went directly to the questions, and there were still more than enough questions. They have a question box at the school and students who had questions that weren't answered would write them down, and they'd get hold of us to see if we can answer any they can't answer themselves.
There were some funny questions. Someone asking why everyone of that time seemed to have weapons. I quoted the Havamal and then compared the Viking Age to 1920s Chicago. The kids were from the Chicago area and knew about the mobs and lawlessness of the time, so they understood immediately. Another kid wanted to know whether the Vikings were black or white. Another wanted to know who were the bad guys. Another wanted to know Viking military tactics but phrased it really strangely ("What if they met people who didn't want them there?") and it took a while to figure out what he wanted to know. The questions were damn good!
At each of the two earlier shows, someone asked why our helms had no horns. At the third, someone asked why everyone seemed to believe Viking helms had horns. I told the questioner that I loved her :) A teacher told me later that "How to Train Your Dragon" seemed very popular with the kids; after it's released, she expects that more kids will think Vikings had horned helmets more than ever. Ah, sigh. But at least if it gets them interested in the era, and they can be corrected, that's a good thing.
As we were packing to leave, a teacher commented on how great the presentation was and noted that the kids seemed to enjoy it. She said, "I don't know of any other group that the kids waved and yelled good-bye to." Makes me remember why I do this stuff instead of fantasy bufu!