- Joined
- Mar 9, 2001
- Messages
- 1,794
Alright my fellow knifeknuts, I can throw you a few tasty scraps from the ivory towers of educationdom today!
I got up at 0530 and arrived at Security Services offices to prepare the show. Showed my set-up to a couple of my bosses, and they were impressed. I used the entire three hours to plan the spread for class, marking book pages and writing info on the large colored sheets of posterboard I used for knife showing. Thanks, Patrick!
I almost didn't have enough time. I had planned to do a lot of labeling, but couldn't. I took the minimalist approach instead.
I arrived on site at Pomerene Hall just before 11am and met my partner in crime Tom Marker, who had brought more goodies.
But when the show started, I forgot to introduce the poor guy!
Sorry Tom! I did call him by name, though, and told the class some of the knives were his... He helped out with the questions and how to unlock lockblades, etc. His Villager khukri, Jot Singh Khalsa, CF Dragonfly, and Endura trainer (plus some others, including some books) really added to my show. I also had six out of seven of the Kershaw "Officers Ranch" series of lockbacks owned by another buddy of mine. Made for a nice "knife family." Thanks, Dale!
My knives ranged from my colorful Spydies to a Busse Basic #7. The Buck Scoutlite which went with me to Saudi Arabia was there in it's own little desert camo hanky display, along with Barbie holding a Blue Native.
(Let's not stress about Barbie now, okay? Remember, this presentation was to reduce any fear of knives, and who could be afraid of a knife that BARBIE likes, huh??)
In short, everything went well. I just checked the tape recorder, and it sounds like I'll be able to do a transcript of my talk.
Most importantly, no one got cut!!
Lots of students handled the knives and asked questions.
My friend Fanny, the teacher, thought I did well, especially the fact that my talk was less than ten minutes (She's seen me talk, and talk, AND TALK...)
I split the students into two groups, and each got about six or seven minutes to look at the knife tables, and the others cut the donuts I provided (with an XL Voyager)
and snacked and looked at the reading/picture material.
No problems of any consequence noted.
One student was impressed with the Cold Steel Ready Edge I had out, and she wants to get one! Another saw a Master Hunter guthook blade in the CS catalog and wants to get it for a hunting relative. (She's definitely a "knife person." I've known her from work.) And still another saw Fanny's Wild Kat keychain plastic self-defense doohicky and was interested in that!
And NO, we weren't "selling" any knives or anything. Just some reactions to note...
From the first surveys turned in, it looks like I'll have a max of 21 respondents to try to measure a change in fear/attitudes of knives. I wonder how that will go? If I get a strong positive reduction in stated fear levels, I will definitely investigate taking this "to the next level." It could possibly be a good way to better prepare today's teachers (many of the students in Fanny's class will be teachers) for classroom "problems," especially if it were conducted with a "blade awareness" component. But a twenty-five or thirty minute presentation isn't much, so I shouldn't get my hopes up.
I hope to post more next Tuesday or Wednesday when I get all the second (post presentation) surveys back. We'll see what I can find out from them--if anything. I'll also see if Tom can post some of the pictures I took.
Or maybe I'll learn to do it myself.
Don't hold yer breaths on that one!
Yers,
Karl
I got up at 0530 and arrived at Security Services offices to prepare the show. Showed my set-up to a couple of my bosses, and they were impressed. I used the entire three hours to plan the spread for class, marking book pages and writing info on the large colored sheets of posterboard I used for knife showing. Thanks, Patrick!
I almost didn't have enough time. I had planned to do a lot of labeling, but couldn't. I took the minimalist approach instead.
I arrived on site at Pomerene Hall just before 11am and met my partner in crime Tom Marker, who had brought more goodies.
But when the show started, I forgot to introduce the poor guy!
Sorry Tom! I did call him by name, though, and told the class some of the knives were his... He helped out with the questions and how to unlock lockblades, etc. His Villager khukri, Jot Singh Khalsa, CF Dragonfly, and Endura trainer (plus some others, including some books) really added to my show. I also had six out of seven of the Kershaw "Officers Ranch" series of lockbacks owned by another buddy of mine. Made for a nice "knife family." Thanks, Dale!
My knives ranged from my colorful Spydies to a Busse Basic #7. The Buck Scoutlite which went with me to Saudi Arabia was there in it's own little desert camo hanky display, along with Barbie holding a Blue Native.
(Let's not stress about Barbie now, okay? Remember, this presentation was to reduce any fear of knives, and who could be afraid of a knife that BARBIE likes, huh??)
In short, everything went well. I just checked the tape recorder, and it sounds like I'll be able to do a transcript of my talk.
Most importantly, no one got cut!!
Lots of students handled the knives and asked questions.
My friend Fanny, the teacher, thought I did well, especially the fact that my talk was less than ten minutes (She's seen me talk, and talk, AND TALK...)
I split the students into two groups, and each got about six or seven minutes to look at the knife tables, and the others cut the donuts I provided (with an XL Voyager)
and snacked and looked at the reading/picture material.No problems of any consequence noted.
One student was impressed with the Cold Steel Ready Edge I had out, and she wants to get one!
Another saw a Master Hunter guthook blade in the CS catalog and wants to get it for a hunting relative. (She's definitely a "knife person." I've known her from work.) And still another saw Fanny's Wild Kat keychain plastic self-defense doohicky and was interested in that!And NO, we weren't "selling" any knives or anything. Just some reactions to note...
From the first surveys turned in, it looks like I'll have a max of 21 respondents to try to measure a change in fear/attitudes of knives. I wonder how that will go? If I get a strong positive reduction in stated fear levels, I will definitely investigate taking this "to the next level." It could possibly be a good way to better prepare today's teachers (many of the students in Fanny's class will be teachers) for classroom "problems," especially if it were conducted with a "blade awareness" component. But a twenty-five or thirty minute presentation isn't much, so I shouldn't get my hopes up.
I hope to post more next Tuesday or Wednesday when I get all the second (post presentation) surveys back. We'll see what I can find out from them--if anything. I'll also see if Tom can post some of the pictures I took.
Or maybe I'll learn to do it myself.
Don't hold yer breaths on that one!
Yers,
Karl
