Slate for beginners/What is slate?

["Ian Marr" <ianmarr@zzzzzzzzzzz>]

Just returning to an earlier conversation .

Perhaps other slates are more difficult for novices. My experience is
that Mintaro slate, from near Adelaide, South Australia, is an excellent
stone for students to start. For teaching school-age students I use
small reject pavers from the quarry (10 x 15 x 5 cm). A Roman letter in
this stone produces immediate achievement and rewards for the student.
The Roman letter isn't for everyone: some Aboriginal students in outback
towns respond to their own tags - e.g. BLB (back lane boys, their gang),
Aboriginal flag motifs, animal shapes.

A thought on conceptualizing slate: would it be reasonable (as an
intuitive/poetic rather than a scientific assertion) to consider some
slates as a natural ceramic - pottery created on a vast scale by heat
and pressure. There is probably a clear refutation of this, but slates
like Mintaro (900 million years) ring like a bell.

Ian Marr
http://www.users.bigpond.com/ianmarr
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