I am able to create waves of controversy in the damnedest of places, in the damnedest of ways. Even when I am not intending to – or, perhaps, especially when I’m not intending to.
It happened today. I created a controversy. In my heart of hearts, I had only good intentions. I was so excited and passionate about teaching Life Skills at the Open Classroom. I was excited to share the classes that are titled things like Thought, Perception, Gratitude and Abundance, etc. They are a series of seven classes that are simply powerful and I was going to teach it as an elective course to the middle school! Seven classes of that with classes on meditation, journaling and crystals thrown in for entertainment value.
I talked with my daughter’s teacher. She was excited about it. I talked to the Head Teacher. She was excited about it. I talked with the kids about it and they were beyond excited. Everyone was on board.
Everyone but the one mother who stopped me in the busy hallway this morning and yelled at me, saying I was proposing a class that was religious and illegal in the public school system. As the day went on and the drama increased, the friggin’ legal department that heads our school got involved. There were threats to go to the State Education Board, yada yada yada.
I heard words thrown around like “Scientology” and “Wicca” and “Church of Science.” I heard grumblings because I had used the words “Magical, Conscious Life” and “crystals for healing and enhancing your life” and “the magic of using Gratitude to lead your life into Abundance.”
Ye-eah… I’m fuckin’ frustrated right now and very, very sad.
Because, ya know what? They pulled my class from the roster. Now because one woman was queasy and, in her words, doesn’t “believe in the falsehoods that I would be presenting as facts,” there is to be an Inquistion and all those excited children don’t get to have the class they all wanted.
I smell the wood burning now, folks.
What century is this?
I’ll keep you posted.
