Back to Blogging: “Wizard” fired from teaching gig in Florida.

Well, term is done, the conference I organize is finished for the year, and I’M ON STUDY LEAVE UNTIL SEPT 2009!

So, in between gardening, fishing and stuff like that (and working on the book I’m supposed to write on myth in the biblical prophetic literature), I can do a bit of blogging.

And since SHUFFL likes to take religious fuckwits to task, there is no time like now to get back to our roots:

From the Holy Harry Potter file…

From Pharyngula, a link to a Tampa news source story over the firing of a teacher FOR DOING MAGIC TRICKS!

That’s right, substitute teacher Jim Piculas got fired from Rusche Middle School in Land ‘OLakes for a 30 second magic trick (he made a toothpick appear and reappear) after someone complained that he was practicing “wizardry”, although school officials also say he wasn’t following lesson plans.

Well, alright. If there were reasonable grounds for terminating his temporary employment, fine. But if that was the case, then why the hell bring up “wizardry” accusations? It makes a mockery of any serious objections the school may have had with Mr. Piculas. How can you even begin to defend yourself against complaints that really do strike at the questions of whether you are doing a good job when you have to also address an accusation so bizarre and so stupid it probably does not matter if you can successfully refute the objections to your performance?

Sadly, the article does not give a lot of information about who made the accusation or other details. Still, who the hell in the school system would take such accusations seriously? If the complaint originated from a student, the stupid twerp should be made to apologize to the instructor. Even if a parent complained, so what? When are schools supposed to be projections of parents’ own paranoias and/or religious bullshit? Schools should have the right to tell parents to grow up. If the objection came from the school itself, then Florida really does have problems!