Misunderstood Witches

[meboriqua at aol.com]

A few bad witchy things have gone on recently here in NYC and I 
realized that this is the perfect place to discuss them!  I'm hoping 
you all will get as annoyed and frustrated as I was.

I teach in a school in the Bronx that houses a number of different 
schools (at least five different programs with students ranging in 
grades from 1st through high school).  In the mornings, I often end up 
on the bus with a teacher who teaches 5th grade (I teach in an 
alternative high school on another floor) and we chat.  When I asked 
her what her class was reading, she mentioned the Harry Potter books 
(which are generally too difficult for 5th graders in NYC public 
schools as most of our students are not up to grade level with their 
skills).  Of course, I got excited and asked her if she had read them.  
"I don't really like them," she said (her class, needless to say, did 
not read them).  I asked her, again, if she had actually read them, 
and she said "No, not really."  She then proceeded to tell me that her 
beliefs did not go with the books and she wouldn't feel comfortable 
teaching them.  

Now, that is fine with me.  There are things that I wouldn't feel 
comfortable teaching (can't think of a good example off the top of my 
head), but what she said next was, to me, so ignorant and just, well, 
stupid that I had trouble controlling my temper (which is ugly - trust 
me).  She began to tell me that since the stories were about 
witchcraft, they were bad and preached evil.  She clearly had no idea 
what she was talking about as she hadn't even read so much as the 
first chapter of SS, but she insisted she was right.  I tried to 
explain to her that one of the bigger themes of the stories was the 
struggle of good against evil.  "Well, who is good, then?" she asked.  
"HARRY POTTER is good!" I told her.

Then she told me about how bad witches are and how they all worship 
Satan and blah blah blah.  Nothing I said could convince her that the 
opposite is true (one of my closest friends is a Wiccan, and a nicer 
person you couldn't find).  I wanted to slap her.  It's not worth it 
to repeat the rest of our debate.

Today there is a news story about a teacher who may be fired because 
she is accused of being a witch!  I haven't heard the whole story yet, 
but who cares if she is?  If she worships Satan (which I doubt), then 
she isn't a witch anyway!  If she IS a witch, firing her would be no 
different than firing me because I am Jewish.

I know this is something that has come up before, but it is so sad to 
me that people can close themselves off from history and literature 
like that - all in the name of their "beliefs".  

Sorry for the rant.  I was just curious to know what others thought.  
BTW, I haven't brought up HP with that other teacher.  If it comes up 
again, I'll get too angry so I hope it doesn't.

--jenny from ravenclaw********