There are religious nuts everywhere, but I think Florida may have the nuttiest.Some paranoid little tattletale complained to the head of substitute teachers at Rushe Middle School in Land O' Lakes, Fla. after substitute teacher Jim Piculas performed a "magic trick" with a toothpick in front of his class earlier this month, Orlando's channel 6 reported.
Saying it was a "huge issue," the supervisor told Piculas he stood accused of "wizardry," and fired him. I suppose if we lived in even darker times, he'd have been burned at the stake.
Come to think of it, that's the original meaning of the word "fired."
Now how would students even know what wizardry was, if they hadn't been indoctrinated by those damnable Harry Potter books?
Burn the books! Burn the witches!
Thanks to Jennifer Emick at altreligion.about.com for digging up this nutty nugget.
Florida | Wizardry | Substitute Teachers | Witch Hunts | Magic | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com
It seems that knee-jerk reactions are substituted for common sense with an ever increasing frequency in American society.
ReplyDeleteTraveling Man
Oh, we all know the toothpick is a tool of the devil!
ReplyDeleteActually, if you follow up this story, it seems that the school board has been unhappy with him for a while. He's been accused of leaving the kids alone, allowing various students to teach classes, and a few other things. The "wizardry" accusations were something that was blown way out of proportion.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that for the last two weeks, we've all been inclined to believe this story without question - perhaps because it happened in Florida? Imagine if it had happened in a more enlightened place, like Salem, Mass., for example.
Okay....then why can him over such a quack charge.
ReplyDeleteIf he was such a foul-up surely all's they had to do was wait until there was someting substantive to fire him for....
Traveling Man
Is that his faculty photo from the yearbook?
ReplyDeleteThat's Moses. Or Merlin. Or Gandalf. Or is it Jehovah?
ReplyDeleteSame archetype, whoever he is.
— W.S.
Whoa Tom. Are you saying these folks were on a witch hunt? : )
ReplyDeleteHe seems like more of a warlock than a wizard. Or, is that just me?
ReplyDeleteThe term "warlock", I believe, is used in the Wiccan and or Pagan community to denote an oathbreaker.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I understand it is not a word to be thrown around casually in some Pagan or Wiccan circles.
Can't see where that would apply to the teacher, or the picture.
But maybe that's just me.
Traveling Man