For most of us, Halloween is a mildly amusing night that means jack-o-lanterns, trick-or-treaters, and children garbed in ridiculous costumes. Fortunately, it comes only once a year, as that is about all most of us can take of witches and other-world monsters.
For some children in the public school classroom, however, Halloween is not just a once a year event. The fearsome characters who possess supernatural powers and prowl in the night are often made larger than life in the classroom; they populate school curricula, supplementary reading books, and films shown in class.
Many parents have been shocked to discover that their children have been subjected to frightening materials as part of their regular school instruction. The children are usually too young or impressionable to deal with such materials. Here are samples of what parents are complaining about.
The Witches by Roald Dahl was read aloud to second graders in a California school in a regular classroom session called “reading aloud time.” The book starts out with the caveat, “This is not a fairy tale. This is about real witches.”
The book then goes on to say that real witches dress in ordinary clothes, look like ordinary women, hate children, and get their pleasure from “doing away with one child a week… 52 a year.” The parents learned about this horrendous instruction only when their second graders had nightmares.
Seventh graders in an Illinois school have for years been assigned to read the guide to the London Dungeon, a British museum where tourists can see frightening displays of wax figures demonstrating hideous torture practices that were used in bygone eras. The guide itself states that the exhibition is not recommended to unaccompanied or young children.
The class assignment instructed the children to “write a paragraph describing your own form of torture.” Now isn’t that a nice lesson to give a seventh grader! One child this year announced that he was going home and try the torture on his little brother.
In a Colorado school this year, eleven-year-olds were given a book called The Headless Cupid, which is about a girl practicing to be a witch. The book graphically describes witchcraft and occult practices, including spirit guides, seances, and initiation rites.
Sixth graders in a Florida school were shown the R-rated movie Dawn of the Dead as a “reward” after they had finished a test. Parents were not informed in advance an, when they finally reviewed the film, were shocked to find that it contained cannibalism, “brutally violent” scenes, and satanic themes.
In a Michigan school the film The Sword and the Sorcerer was shown to sixth graders. Parents complained that it shows a witch calling up a devil from the pit of hell while the walls appear to come alive with humans who are bleeding and screaming in agony. The witch worships the devil by locking and kissing him, calling him “my god” and “my master.”
At another school in the same district, fourth graders were given an instruction sheet about crustal ball reading, palm reading and card reading. They were told, “once you learn how to read the clues you can try to tell a fortune.”
Fourth graders in a Missouri school were required to use a reading book that included stories about self-proclaimed witches, witchcraft and Satanism. The book, Man, Myth and Magic, is part of a Random House reading series called Counterpoint 2 which includes filmstrips and audio cassettes that the publisher claims are “factual” and widely used across the country.
The news media have been reporting in recent weeks that Satanism appears to be gaining popularity among teenagers. A recent television program on Satanism received unusually high audience ratings.
This month’s Woman’s Day said that “suddenly, satanic symbols seem to be as obvious a sign of today’s young generation as bobby sox were of another.” Interspersed with a case study if a satanism-related murder involving several teenage boys in Missouri, the magazine detailed signs of teen occult involvement.
Does Satanism play in Peoria? As many as 500 Peoria, Illinois, teens are reported to be involved in Satanic cults, and a training session has been held for police officers, juvenile workers and counselors in how to deal with such problems and detect the evidences: slaughtered animals, satanic graffiti, handprints in animal blood on walls, cemetery desecration, and apparent satanism-related suicides.
The Satanism fad is not harmless. Concerned parents should check into the reading and visual materials their children are given in school, especially at the elementary grade levels. People for the American Way may label your inquiries “censorship,” but you might save vulnerable children from some unhappy experiences.
