Let me leap to Andy Boddington's defence. My experience has led me to the
rather heretical opinion that a science event for the adult public is easier to
organise, more effective and more enjoyable for the participants if children are
not involved. It seems to me that for a long time there has been an
uncomfortable tension in the BA's work between catering optimally for children
and for adults. This is not, of course, to suggest that working with children
is any less valuable than work with society as a whole: it is just that to
combine them together tends to detract from both.
Of course, the BA did not involve children during its early history, although it
was broadminded enough to include women!
Martin Counihan
Annette Smith wrote:
> Hello all
>
> I'm not quite sure why Andy Boddington thinks that BAYS should be separated
> from the BA. It isn't necessarily going to improve the rest of the Festival
> if we remove the younger children from it - the team running the young
> peoples' event would just be doing it somewhere else, not helping to improve
> the rest of the Festival, so unless you think that the younger ones actually
> detract....
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