Burns Day class presentation caught on camera

**Whidbey78** · 3rd February 13, 11:40 PM

This is an article that appeared in last week's campus paper at my school, Chadron State College. There is likely another in the college's magazine next month, and it probably appears on the website as well.

A few weeks ago one of my professors asked me to put together a presentation for a couple of classes. Being that two classes had recently studied Robert Burns, and I have been known to strap tartan about my middle, my presentation was to be on the Bard of Caledonia's birthday. Little did I know that several representatives of the school's journalism department were present. I should have expected them to be lurking about in the English and Literature department!

My presentation to the first class went well, with a short five minute lecture about the history of the kilt (using excerpts from Barb Tewksbury's The Art of Kiltmaking, as well as a handful of other sources) complete with visual aids. Unfortunately, with the second presentation the smartboard and projector both refused to connect to my tablet. Since I was wearing a good visual aid for some parts of the lecture I carried on and all went well. Both classes went well, but in the second class the interest was incredible and I wound up answering questions for a full half hour! While I did get a few “logistical” questions, such as using the restroom in a kilt, most had to do with history, culture, and tradition. I think I succeeded at showing the classes the history of the kilt, as well as debunking many popular myths.

I was wearing my Scruffy Wallace USAK Semitrad that day. I had also been wearing a nice tweed jacket, but since the furnace was cranking out the BTUs in excess it stayed draped over my chair. Unfortunately the reporter who wrote this article missed a few things while taking notes. Obviously, I was talking about Acts of Proscription rather than prescription, and one student who knows me outside class asked about my kiltmaking experience which seems to have lead to the idea that I made this kilt. Rest assured, I gave credit to Rocky and Mac, but at least she got the tartan right. The one quote was actually an excerpt from one of Matt Newsome's articles, and was misquoted. Oh well. Remember, these are journalism students, not journalists. I think a lot of younger students learned something through this: Some things popularly believed are hokum, and some things thought to be malrkey are closer to fact than one would expect. Still, I could not downplay the role of tartan in Scottish culture.

One cultural comparison that was tied into the presentation, by design, was a parallel between the treatment of Scots in the 17th and 18th century and the reservation system here in the US. Since we are on the border of the Pine RIdge Reservation it hit home with the students. The English measures taken to anglicize the Scots are similar to the measures taken to Americanize Native Americans, and it took a concerted effort of educated people with an interest in preserving the languge, arts, dress, and culture to preserve both. Dr. McEwen ran back to his office during the second presentation, which was for his creative writing class, and returned with a couple of CDs to play after my presentation that included tweed walking songs, slave songs, and Lakota songs which futher cemented the connection between art, language, dress, and culture.

Overall, I was pretty happy with how things went despite the technical difficulties. Fortunately, I had a couple of Rocky's cards on hand, so maybe a few new kilties will appear around campus in the future. Dr. McEwen, who asked me to do this, also invited me to a small Burns Supper that night. That was my first one! It was a lot of fun, though it was a small event and mostly populated with professors from the English and History departments and their families. I'm planning on hosting my own next year, with help from Dr. McEwen, if I can secure a location!