Posted by Jock on July 04, 2006 at 14:05:00 from 87.105.81.146 user Jock.
In Reply to: Crumbs! posted by Joe Windsor on July 04, 2006 at 13:07:08:
Well, that told me! I'll keep my enthusiasms to myself in future.
Please don't! Contrary to appearances most of us Tarboarders are enthusiasts. We all have our private passions. It's worth sitting alongside us as an observer for a couple of weeks and getting to know us a little better. You might even find some resemblance to a AR's characters! John N for example is our 'Professor'. He can always be relied upon to post a message about a subject on the boundary of scientific knowledge. Peter H is keen on fair play and reminds me a little of Susan. Prue can be quite piratical and is Tarboard's own terror of the seas and I'm undoubtedly Captain Flint alternately firing broadsides and being a harmless figure of fun.
I agree in principle with the spirit of Mike Dennis's posting. However, I believe that we need to resort to a little subterfuge if we wish our youngsters to enjoy a Ransome like adventures "on their own". Did AR intended intend us to believe that it was purely by coincidence that Commander Walker's children found themselves staying in a Lake District farmhouse and having the use of a sailing dinghy? After all, he had taught John and Susan to sail a year earlier in Falmouth Harbour.
In a similar manner I taught my children to row on the Thames and then left them to organise their own "Three Men in a Boat" camping holidays on the river. I took them to sail on the Norfolk Broads, hiring one of the vintage sailing yachts from Hunter's Yard. But, I always ensured that we took little sailing tender in tow and it gave me great pleasure in watching them going off on expeditions and teaching themselves to sail in this little boat.
I was involved once in a company training exercise which involved providing a mild form of "Outward Bound" experience for youngsters and adults from deprived backgrounds. It was an immensenly rewarding exercise for all.