My son's homework offended me

[Faery-Wings]

I had his conference yesterday (which went great!) and came home with a stack of papers, including some writing samples of poems he copied off the board. This one got to me a bit:

Witches

Witches are ugly
Witches are mean
If I were a witch
I'd hate to be seen.

In all fairness, he came home with lots of poems about Halloween. And I have always made a distinction in my own mind about Halloween witches and Spiritual/Magical witches. To me they are completely separate entities that share the same word, that is it.

But at the same time, it really bothered me.

I am quite in the closet, especially in respect to the school district. I hope to substitute there one day, and I don't want any problems for my kids at this stage. So it isn't in my best interests to complain. It just startled me and made me think a bit more on how to keep the differences in my kids' minds as well as in mine.

How do you keep the two ideas separarte in your mind? Do you teach your children the same?

[Gwion]

and you can hear quite vividly how bigoted that rhyme is. You have every right to be offended.

[Faery-Wings]

Gwion, I did that. It gave me shivers. :(

[Djiril]

It was probably written by someone who doesn't think of Witches as real. Even then it's not very nice though.:(

[shnen]

yeah, probably someone who only thinks of them as a hallowe'en character...

[MammaStar]

This may sound really cheezy, but why don't you try using Glinda the Good Witch from the Wizard of Oz. Forget the "only bad witches are ugly" thing. Use her alone as an example. Saying something like well, she's a witch and she's pretty.

It's hard, cause your munchkins are so young and I can understand about wanting to keep in the closet. Especially if you want to teach there one day.

[Kilia]

LdyStarlite,
I have a question...do your own children know you are a witch?

[Jax]

Originally posted by LdyStarlite
This may sound really cheezy, but why don't you try using Glinda the Good Witch from the Wizard of Oz. Forget the "only bad witches are ugly" thing. Use her alone as an example. Saying something like well, she's a witch and she's pretty.

It's hard, cause your munchkins are so young and I can understand about wanting to keep in the closet. Especially if you want to teach there one day.

I use similar examples, but also tell them that me, their Aunt and a fair few of our family friends are 'witches' and can't they see that I'm the most beautiful person they've ever seen???!!!:D :rolleyes: . I try and show them that it's wrong to call people names whatever and whoever they are, be they white, black, green, pagan, christian, able-bodied, disabled, etc. My most used sentance to them is 'treat others how you want to be treated' and it seems to be working (ish!)
My children go to a church of england school and are constantly bombarded with negative views of 'witches'. My blood was boiling at Samhaim, but that's slightly going off of a tangent and could be here for hours ranting about pagan imagery etc!:flamer:!LOL!!
:rolleyes: (but i'll spare you!LOL!!)
BB!
)0(

[MammaStar]

Originally posted by Kilia
LdyStarlite,
I have a question...do your own children know you are a witch?

Yes he does. He's 10 now. I explained it to him last year (he was in 4th grade then). It's gone over really great with him. He understands that we can't shout it from the rooftops, but he has a giggle or 2 when people talk about witches and such. He thinks some of his friends are really close minded.

I have a thread around here, I'll bump it up, about how he tried to write about Yule last year as a winter holiday and was told Solstice wasn't a real holiday.

[Chibi-Fallon]

I doubt the teacher meant to offend anyone. Chances are she/he just didn't know, probably the same with the kid. And frankly it's not their fault no one ever told them. It's our jobs as the Pagans to do that. If we want people educated, chances are we have to educate them. No one else is going to, and they shouldn’t have to.

[Gwion]

In High School I was cast in a Children's Theater production of Hansel and Gretel. Our first performance, for 300 grade school kids had to be canceled right before curtain because our Gretel's parents decided at the last minute that since there was a Witch in the play it was against God.

:Prays: Goddess, I'm praying with my palms together like this not because I'm turning christian, but because it keeps them from strangling others.

[Witchy Cowgirl]

((((Chryssi))))
I understand why you'd be upset, but think about it like this and maybe you'll take a different view - a prouder view.
Somewhere, there is a thread talking about the Halloween "physical" view of Witches....green, warty, bent, hargard. I did a search, but couldn't find it.:(
In that thread, someone is explaining why we have that view. Many of the people who were arrested as Witches were held in dungeons and tortured. Jaundice, broken bones, diesease, malnutrition....all of these things would have been caused by the ill-treatment of these people. This would have been the physical view of these people as they were marched in public on their way to be hung.
If it weren't for these people enduring what they did and walking this path before us - I'm sure things would be MUCH harder for us today.
On Samhain we should remember these people for enduring what they did and honor the image they left for us to remember.:)

[Witchy Cowgirl]

I searched a little harder and found that thread. I forgot there is more than one page on some things! *smacks self in forehead*!8O

Here ya go!

http://www.mysticwicks.com/showthread.php?threadid=20938&highlight=witch

[Faery-Wings]

Thanks for finding the thread. I must have missed it the fist time around.

Sad isn't it, what people do in the name of religion and politics.

[Amethyst Rose]

When I was student teaching 3rd graders, a student was reading a book about the typical "halloween" witches, and I said "all witches aren't like that you know, I have friends that are witches" and she said, "yeah, but they're good witches, right?"

I was stunned that a 9 year old would even think that there's such a thing as "good witches"!! I said, "yeah, they are" and she said, "well there ya' go".

Anyway, just goes to show that kids can be a lot smarter, and a lot more tolerant, than we give them credit for.