America: Welcome to the dark ages (RL)

[thistlechaser]

Excuse my language, but what the god damned fuck, America? A teacher did a magic trick in front of his class, and he was fired for wizardry. Excuse me a moment while I try to find all the pieces of my broken brain. (Link one, link two.)

My fucking god. Wizardry. My god. How in the world do adults... God. I just have no words for this. Reality is reality! You do not get to pick and choose what 'reality' is! Sorry, people, but magic is not real. There is no such thing as 'wizardry'. There are not witches and wizards out there just waiting to snatch up your little children and boil them up to make spells out of them!

What the god damned fuck, people? Dammit, reality is not a Chinese menu! You don't get to pick one from section A and two from section B. "Yes, I'll take a belief in wizardry, but hold the belief in evolution please. And, hm, can I have wonton soup with that? Great, thank you."

&#$&$&&$$~ Grrrrrrrrr.

Comments

[tacrozar.livejournal.com]

Wow... He needs to file an Unlawful termination suit. If there were no warning for his previous actions, then being terminated for doing a magic trick for the kids is hardly justifiable.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I really, really hope he does.

[jakflak.livejournal.com]

Well, he was a substitute teacher, so he technically wasn't terminated. They just said they're not going to give him any more assignments.

[naikitty.livejournal.com]

Well, in reading the articles, this popped out at me: other performance issues like not following lesson plans and allowing students to play on unapproved computers.

I think they were more looking for a reason to smack him, and a complaint, as idiotic as it was, provided the scapegoat they needed. :3

Edit: Err, which still isn't right, by the way, but makes more logical sense. XD

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

other performance issues like not following lesson plans and allowing students to play on unapproved computers.

I don't care if he was killing kittens in front of the classroom -- fire him for that, sure! But to even bring up, to even speak that there was some kind of charge of "wizardry" against him? Unacceptable.

I think they were more looking for a reason to smack him, and a complaint, as idiotic as it was, provided the scapegoat they needed. :3

And made the school officials look as utterly stupid as the person making the charges.

If he's not doing his job, they're totally right to fire him. But to bring "wizardry" into it? How would this be any different than them firing him for riding a pink unicorn around the classroom?

[quistie.livejournal.com]

To be fair, the guy allegedly wasn't following lesson plans, and he was busy performing magic tricks in front of the class. I'd say those two things are related, unless the magic tricks are part of the lesson plans somehow.

And I am not completely convinced that "wizardry" was the reason for his firing. Neither of the links cited anything resembling an official statement.

That being said, the school officials are handling this...poorly, to say the least. If they had just came out and said "Hey, you were performing magic tricks instead of following the lesson plans!" there would've been no issue at all.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

That being said, the school officials are handling this...poorly, to say the least. If they had just came out and said "Hey, you were performing magic tricks instead of following the lesson plans!" there would've been no issue at all.

That would have been fine with me. If he's not doing his job, please do fire him! But the word "wizardry" should never be brought into this, not in any kind of a serious way.

[pomr.livejournal.com]

The willful ignorance of this blows my mind. :)

Lets form a posse and hunt down Penn & Teller! They're wizards too! Clearly the mauling in the Sigfried & Roy show was just the universe crying out in abhorrance of sorcery!

*froth*froth*

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Clearly the mauling in the Sigfried & Roy show was just the universe crying out in abhorrance of sorcery!

God was showing His displeasure not just of their "wizardry", but the fact that they're gay. We should be pleased how badly Roy was hurt! Quite clearly he deserved it.

[xvolph.livejournal.com]

I lol'd. I shouldn't, but I did. Just because it's that idiotic.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I know I shouldn't get as mad as I do, but people are so stupid! Gah!

[wanderingscribe.livejournal.com]

Why, oh why, am I not surprised this happened in Florida?

Nothing personal to the few sane Floridians that live there, but really, Florida is where common sense and reality go to die.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah... Ugh.

[firebyrd.livejournal.com]

No kidding. Whenever I read a seriously crazy news story these days, I check to see if it's from Florida. Most of the time, it is.

[razyk.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean. There are a couple news websites I tend to visit that added in a special 'Florida' tag on stories because the 'Stupid' tag just didn't seem to describe them adequatly enough anymore.

[barahir-ffxi.livejournal.com]

Out of curiosity... and you don't have to answer... why was the title of your post "America: Welcome to the dark ages (RL)" I'm not quite sure how the "America" fits in.. sounds to me like some stupid public school officials in Florida... a far cry from "America" firing up the bonfires...

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Two reasons: First is that that Flordia is in America. If not for the second reason I could have done 'Florida: Welcome to the dark ages'. Number two is that this isn't the first time we've seen this kind of "reasoning" from Americans. Every time a new Harry Potter book was released, there were groups of parents protesting that their children would be turned into witches or some such crap, and people refusing to read them because they were "evil". Number two is from various parts of the country, not just Florida, so 'America' fit in my subject line.

[barahir-ffxi.livejournal.com]

I mean look.. this story is retarded.. any way you look at it. These people overreacted and made themselves look like idiots... that's a given... But I'm I person who believes that societal double standards are out of control. So...

What about Wiccans? I mean after all, they actually do believe they are witches and wizards who cast spells...

I'm not trying to knock Wicca... in fact I think it's kind of cool... but if it's rediculous for someone to be fired in modern society for being a wizard.. isn't it just as silly for people to live in modern society as if they actaully were one? What if this teacher was a Wiccan? I'm sure the story then would not have been about how "Dark Ages" rediculous the school officials acted believing in wizardry, it would be about how in today's society they oppressed his religious freedom.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I'm not totally comfortable commenting on this, since I really know next to nothing about Wicca. If Wiccan people really do think they can cast spells and do magic, then I'll have to think they're very silly. However, people of all religions are very silly in my opinion (no offense, but to me believing in any god is about the same as believing in Santa or the Easter Bunny), so I guess Wiccans are about the same level of silliness as all other religions.

isn't it just as silly for people to live in modern society as if they actaully were one?

If they think they could do spells and stuff, then I agree. There's no more magic in the world than there are unicorns and werewolves. It'd be cool if those things existed (and god too... probably... depending on what kind of god it was), but none of them do (in my opinion).