Burn the witch!
Feb. 3rd, 2006 10:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ebonlockSome days I weep for my country more than others:
'Faust' Opera Video Stirs Angry Parents
BENNETT, Colo. - Some parents in this prairie town are angry with an elementary school music teacher for showing pupils a video about the opera "Faust," whose title character sells his soul to the devil in exchange for being young again.
"Any adult with common sense would not think that video was appropriate for a young person to see. I'm not sure it's appropriate for a high school student," Robby Warner said after two of her children saw the video.
Ah, but here's the money quote:
Another parent, Casey Goodwin, said, "I think it glorifies Satan in some way."
Tresa Waggoner showed approximately 250 first-, second- and third-graders at Bennett Elementary portions of a 33-year-old series titled "Who's Afraid of Opera" a few weeks ago.
The video features the soprano Dame Joan Sutherland and three puppet friends discussing Gounod's "Faust." Waggoner thought it would be a good introduction to opera.
Her critics questioned the decision to show children a portrayal of the devil, Mephistopheles, along with a scene showing a man being killed by a sword and a reference to suicide.
Because, as we know, everything goes splendidly for Faust, and the moral of this particular opera is that selling your soul to the devil is a fine idea that everyone should do. Of course Dame Joan Sutherland was a well known satanist, and it's common knowledge that her three "puppet friends" were actually her familiars. Puppets are the preferred toy of Satan, after all.
School Superintendent George Sauter said the teacher should not have shown the video to children below the fourth grade but will not lose her job. She has sent letter of apology to all elementary school parents in Bennett, population 2,400 and about 25 miles east of Denver on Colorado's eastern plains.
"I was definitely not sensitive to the conservative nature of the community, and I've learned that," Waggoner said in Sunday's editions of The Denver Post. "However, from what has been said about me, that I'm a Satan worshipper, my character, I can't believe all of this. My intention was just to expose the kids to opera."
Waggoner, who is in her first year teaching vocal music in Bennett, said she doesn't expect to stay in town.
"I know I'm not accepted here, that I'm not welcome here by the parents," she said. "It's a very uncomfortable position."
Moral of this story: Bennett, Colorado is a pretty fucking messed up place to live.
'Faust' Opera Video Stirs Angry Parents
BENNETT, Colo. - Some parents in this prairie town are angry with an elementary school music teacher for showing pupils a video about the opera "Faust," whose title character sells his soul to the devil in exchange for being young again.
"Any adult with common sense would not think that video was appropriate for a young person to see. I'm not sure it's appropriate for a high school student," Robby Warner said after two of her children saw the video.
Ah, but here's the money quote:
Another parent, Casey Goodwin, said, "I think it glorifies Satan in some way."
Tresa Waggoner showed approximately 250 first-, second- and third-graders at Bennett Elementary portions of a 33-year-old series titled "Who's Afraid of Opera" a few weeks ago.
The video features the soprano Dame Joan Sutherland and three puppet friends discussing Gounod's "Faust." Waggoner thought it would be a good introduction to opera.
Her critics questioned the decision to show children a portrayal of the devil, Mephistopheles, along with a scene showing a man being killed by a sword and a reference to suicide.
Because, as we know, everything goes splendidly for Faust, and the moral of this particular opera is that selling your soul to the devil is a fine idea that everyone should do. Of course Dame Joan Sutherland was a well known satanist, and it's common knowledge that her three "puppet friends" were actually her familiars. Puppets are the preferred toy of Satan, after all.
School Superintendent George Sauter said the teacher should not have shown the video to children below the fourth grade but will not lose her job. She has sent letter of apology to all elementary school parents in Bennett, population 2,400 and about 25 miles east of Denver on Colorado's eastern plains.
"I was definitely not sensitive to the conservative nature of the community, and I've learned that," Waggoner said in Sunday's editions of The Denver Post. "However, from what has been said about me, that I'm a Satan worshipper, my character, I can't believe all of this. My intention was just to expose the kids to opera."
Waggoner, who is in her first year teaching vocal music in Bennett, said she doesn't expect to stay in town.
"I know I'm not accepted here, that I'm not welcome here by the parents," she said. "It's a very uncomfortable position."
Moral of this story: Bennett, Colorado is a pretty fucking messed up place to live.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-02-03 06:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-03 07:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-03 07:35 pm (UTC)"I think it glorifies Satan in some way."
I just doesn't get old, you know? I stand in perpetual awe of the utter closed-minded idiocy. It's so pure, like the essential essence of fundamentalism in one brief, perfect soundbyte.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-03 07:53 pm (UTC)I know I shouldn't indulge in stereotypes, but this just proves that the whole image of the uneducated, willfully stupid, proudly uncultured fundamentalist is way too close to the truth. These people not only don't know anything about opera, they're afraid of it because it's outside their frame of reference.
I feel sorry for the teacher, and hope she isn't permanently soured on teaching. And I feel so sorry for the children who will not learn anything beyond what their parents tell them.
No wonder Jesus wept.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-03 08:16 pm (UTC)(although in the week I spent in Colorado, other than Fort Collins it struck me as Alabama with mountains, so who knows...)
no subject
Date: 2006-02-03 08:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-03 08:31 pm (UTC)It all goes back to that nefarious Goethe guy...you know, the guys who basically invented the modern celibration of Christmas that fundies soil their knickers over. He was totally glorifying Satan, don't you know.
I also hear that at the end of Dante's Inferno it shows Satan to be having a big ol' party down in Caina. Clearly, all literature and music glorifies Deviltry.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-03 08:32 pm (UTC)I also hear that at the end of Dante's Inferno it shows Satan to be having a big ol' party down in Caina. Clearly, all literature and music glorifies Deviltry.
Well it is made by the liberal elite, you know.
no fun to be a fundy (not much, anyway)
Date: 2006-02-03 11:36 pm (UTC)Well it is made by the liberal elite, you know.
My sister will not listen to "worldly" music because "if it isn't glorifying God, then what is it glorifying?" To her, all literature and music is worldly and therefore glorifies Satan - unless it's specifically praise-n-worship music. (I'm not sure where she stands with classical and other (instrumental) forms of music, but I rather think she'd be suspicious.)
However, I think she has a certain respect for "Weird Al" Yankovic ...
no subject
Date: 2006-02-04 05:52 am (UTC)Well, that certainly explains the hinges on the side of Bu$h's mouth and why Dick has his hand up his butt all the time...
There is a saying in Arizona: Arizona is the poor man's Texas, Utah is the religious man's Texas, New Mexico is the lazy man's Texas, and Colorado is the yuppie man's Texas. Together, they make up the Four Corners of northwest Texas territory.