Children, not seen or heard
Published: Tue, 12/03/13
When I was a child it wasn't uncommon for some parents to send
their children to Sunday School at the local church even though the
parents themselves could not be bothered to go. I remember this
applying to one of my best friends and when he got to fourteen he
decided he was now grown up and going to church wasn't
something grown ups did, at least not the most influential adults
in his life. In my case my parents were actively involved in the
church and so for me there was no problem in seeing Church going as
a grown up activity. Funnily enough the friend mentioned above has
recently become involved in Church going again after about 40
years, but for most of our lives he didn't really want to know.
I know there are lots of reasons why someone will or will not be
involved in a particular activity but one fundamental factor is
whether or not an activity is deemed 'grown up' or not.
I recently discovered that someone I know quite well here in
Crewkerne achieved a 1st Dan in Karate, (Wado Ryu I think) and
taught a class locally for a while. He said he gave it up when he
realised that the class was always going to be mainly children and
the parents gave him a lot of hassle about progress and gradings.
Apparently there is a class in the town now but it is still mainly
children.
Now, I am all in favour of children having activities and doing all
sorts of stuff. Although I sometimes wonder if some children today
have too much of their time managed by their parents and they could
actually do with more time to sort out their own interests and
entertainments. However when children seem to dominate an activity
then sensible adults are going to wonder if they want to be
involved too. This has certainly become a major issue with Martial
Arts which has become all about giving children discipline,
self-confidence and building their self-esteem. All very
worthwhile I am sure but what about adults learning how to deal
with real violence, developing self-knowledge and discovering your
potential as a mature person? This isn't very likely to happen
in a situation where children have to be entertained and
accommodated. I think a large part of he appeal of HEMA training
(Historic European Martial Arts) is that generally classes and
events such as Fightcamp do not involve children, it is still fun
and not usually taken too seriously but in an adult way.
So one of the angles I will be emphasising when I start promoting
Stav much more widely in Crewkerne will be that Stav classes are
for adults. So if anyone is expecting me to provide low cost child
care a couple of evenings a week, tough!
I should know a week on Friday about the planning permission for
the Stav Centre. http://www.somersetstav.co.uk/sc.html But in the
meantime we have been continuing the Monday Evening classes and I
am very pleased with the way it has been going. Last night we
concentrated on developing sensitivity and awareness. Most of the
class was spent receiving a thrust from a staff and seeing if it
were possible to remove the staff from the attacker's hands.
Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. It depends and the point
of the class was to learn to read the moment when you can change
the situation and when you have to work with the status quo. At
the end we practiced applying the same concept to knife defence.
It was great to see six adults going through a process of
exploration and self-discovery, I can't imagine many children
having the patience to do the same thing.
Each week I post a new video clip to the members area and over the
next few weeks I will explore this concept of awareness of the web
for those who live too far away to come to weekly classes. Members
of Ice and Fire get access to the every growing video library as
well as study material on the runes and other more esoteric aspects
of Stav. http://www.iceandfire.org.uk/join.html
regards
Graham