Today a news item popped up, which didn’t really surprise me. I’d heard of accounts of similar sorts of behaviour as ‘warnings’ to me, when I tried talking about how interesting and educational it would be to talk about the paranormal and pseudoscientific topics in the high school classroom. What should a teacher do in these circumstances, skeptic or otherwise?
From Ten News.com: Was High School Girl Possessed In Class? Girl Spoke In Tongues, Made Predictions For Future.
PELAHATCHIE, Miss. — Students at a Mississippi high school said a fellow student spoke in tongues and made grave predictions for her classmates for three days. Some of those predictions included when students would die.
…Sparks said Clanton told students about little-known facts in their past and made predictions on how some of them would die.
“It made some students cry and leave school,” Sparks said. “Some have not returned yet.” Sparks and his classmates said they think an evil spirit possessed the girl. They were so convinced that Sparks and his friends brought Bibles to school and had a devotional. “Some believe, some don’t.” Clanton said. “They say it was the devil, but the devil only tells lies. Everything I said was the truth.”
See, this was the sort of thing that was being used as good reasons not to talk to young people about psychics, questioning psychics or even basic psychology techniques. ‘The kids will use it to manipulate people’.
This doesn’t seem to be something that seems to be discussed amongst skeptics often. I understand that a local skeptics group can eagerly suggest that testing an ouija board is a great experiment to do -
Ouija board test: Have a group seek answers from a Ouija board in the normal way, then hang a cloth or place a piece of cardboard between the board and the participants’ eyes, so they can freely move their hands but can’t see the board. See how clear the messages are then.
It may seem simple to suggest an Ouija board test – quite another to get it publicly accepted due to popular beliefs and inherent controversy! I had to be aware that people’s preconceptions (not just the students, but parents and fellow teachers and members of the school community) and related strong emotions may make it completely out of the question to bring up such experiments. They do, after all, deal with challenging predominant quasi-religious beliefs – or just plain make people uncomfortable with the implications. So, how do you strike a balance?
For example – when I took such experiments into schools, not only did I make sure that I had the full support of the science department (the fact-checkers and necessary experts for the methodology) – but I informed all necessary stakeholders in case anyone was challenged for what critics could easily label as ‘promoting witchcraft’. Talking to counselors, deputy principals and certainly my Head of Department – and being prepared to compromise if need be for what is still more about a method – rather than a particular topic.
I could hardly, for example, encourage older students to ‘investigate the rumored ghost in the boarding house’ without thinking about the effect on the school community. For a start, like the film ‘Gossip’, there might be absolutely no history of any such ghost – but discussing it might well ‘create one’. I’ve even had a friend ‘create’ a superstition about Ginko leaves, demonstrating the power of folklore.
I consider it irresponsible to not put in some groundwork and consider what may very well be instilled cultural beliefs (in my case, Chinese and Indigenious Aboriginal students), and how it might be turned into ‘calling up evil spirits’ by excited younger kids who weren’t in the class.
This story also brings up the point about informing parents about what is happening too. I had one person tell me about how the mother of a student in fact made her living as a psychic and what happened when her son decided to do some amateur readings in the playground. Whilst apparently in that case, she disciplined her son for ‘messing with things he didn’t understand’, it also brings up the question how might it end up with a young person being very upset about their parents’ profession, if they happen to be involved in paranormal or pseudoscientific businesses.
…Sparks’ father said he’s unsure what to believe about Clanton’s experience. But he said that school officials should have told parents about what happened. Instead, they heard it from their children.
“It disrupted class, and I think they could have done a little bit better,” Clint Sparks said. Clanton continues to go to class. She said God hasn’t spoken through her since Wednesday. Her mother said the school didn’t punish her daughter, though officials warned her that if she disrupts class, they will send her home.
In the end, it appears that this is being treated as a straight-forward case of bullying. Yet the lack of discussion about what was happening with parents is certainly a concern. This could have been a good chance for a skeptic’s group to help out the school and certainly respond to the news – I hope that will happen in the future.
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While I understand your point here I am a tad concerned that this might be taken too far. I am losing respect for the idea of multiculturalism when mythology and pseudoscience are taught as fact (usually to people who lack the critical thinking skills needed to counter them).
For instance a colleague of mine commented on how progressive it was to allow aboriginal kids to answer that land formations were created by mythological entities (in this case a giant snake) in a geography class. Now my impulse at first (being a raging liberal, or green as the case may be) was to agree with him. Yet in spite of this clear sensitivity towards this person’s culture, the answer is never the less wrong. Nothing changes this, the teacher was being dishonest not to disavow this piece of mythology for what it was.
Is it really so wrong to stand up for reality even in the face of multiculturalism (and I use this word loosely to encapsulate religion, ethnic beliefs, personal philosophy, etc) . Can we not simply say that an individual’s cultural beliefs are simply factually wrong. That their views really don’t marry up with reality.
I wonder if Douglas Adams had it right (if I’m horribly misrepresenting him I throw myself on the mercy of his fans, please don’t kill me). That while people often do deserve respect, ideas never do.
I’m happy to be told I’m wrong, I’d just like to know why?
Or is this simply a point on pragmatism, so that we don’t get run out of town by people with pitch forks
HA!
Thor’Ungal
btw, is it possible to subscribe to the comments on these articles? I know I can on my church blog.
See, this is my stance:
“For instance a colleague of mine commented on how progressive it was to allow aboriginal kids to answer that land formations were created by mythological entities (in this case a giant snake) in a geography class. Now my impulse at first (being a raging liberal, or green as the case may be) was to agree with him. Yet in spite of this clear sensitivity towards this person’s culture, the answer is never the less wrong. Nothing changes this, the teacher was being dishonest not to disavow this piece of mythology for what it was.”
My response would not to be to agree – but if the student wanted to include that as an additional item on their test, along with the answer, then that’s up to them. But it’s not the correct answer as we know it and you can’t give marks to something not in the answer key. Sure, be inclusive, but you can’t ignore the fact that students are being taught the Geology course and that’s what they’re meant to be tested upon.
I’m all for pragmatism and there are ways we can be sensitive and inclusive – and choose a different kind of project to demonstrate the same point. I could easily talk about Ideomotor effect using lots of different things. We don’t have to use an Ouija board. I had students, rather than doing actual voodoo (!!) on campus, simply do a survey on how many knew what it was and whether they believed in it. The rest was simple book and internet research.
Yes, I choose my battles – but I do like people to be well-rounded in ‘this is why’ as well. That includes me being well-rounded in ‘how could I teach the same lesson with less hassle and more inclusiveness’.
OH! Regarding comments, I’m sorting out an upgrade! But here’s the RSS feed for comments, which you can see in the ‘META’ box:
http://podblack.com/?feed=comments-rss2
I always did Friday the 13th experiments on myself (simultaneously breaking a mirror while walking under a ladder, indoors with an open umbrella and knocking over some salt – could never find a black cat…). Funnily, it never worried most students (or maybe they were hoping for schadenfreude). But it did worry many teachers, that I was “tempting fate”. I assured them that by doing all the superstitions at once, the bad luck would cancel out… Came to school one time, on the following Monday with my arm bandaged up – gold. Was tempted to chuck a sick day on a following Monday but I’m too much of a professional
I think I see. I suspect though I would be tempted in this case to bring out two points.
- Firstly that real witchcraft (as in the one that cannot be done as opposed to the one that really is done, with trickery and such
) does not exist. Also that proposing an opposition to it reflects a misunderstanding of reality that is in itself telling.
- Secondly that celebrating a persons culture need never rely on capitulating to it’s irrational beliefs. Celebrate it as history, mythology, imagination of generations past, even our best attempts at the time to understand what we observe. Note the beneficial ways in which it’s structure promotes cohesion, learn from it’s mistakes, etc. This kind of anthropology would be (an I suspect is) a great source of insight into human psychology and community. Just not necessarily into facts about the universe.
Having said all this, I’ve never managed to make friends this way and I’d probably adopt your methods (if I had the presence of mind to think of them). I just sometimes wish we could call a spade a spade and to hell with sensitivity to their irrational ideas on the subject.
Incident;y I think the expression “call a spade a spade” is misused here. I think the expression suggests that instead of calling a shovel a shovel, we should call it a spade (along with an actual spade). This of course is wrong since they are two different things. The usage here though is not one of subtle difference as much as regretting having to pussyfoot around issues. Perhaps the better expression would be that I regret having to ignore the elephant in the room in polite society.
I might also be the kind of fool that would get chased by pitchfork wielding types. One can only wonder how my Genes got this far, especially though pre-Renaissance Europe. Must be cultural
.
^_^
Thor’Ungal
“I just sometimes wish we could call a spade a spade and to hell with sensitivity to their irrational ideas on the subject.”
Then you end up risking insulting someone who might not hold as fast to those beliefs as you might think, too… And might close down lines of communication. I must admit, my first response always seems to be ‘really, why?’ rather than ‘really, what a @*#*@&#^*!!
I think, first you treat this like a discipline problem. Tell the girl to knock it off, she’s disrupting the class. If she won’t, then you get her out of there, and if she persists in her behavior, you maybe get her some medical attention.
To explain the prophecies, you tell the kids that there are fewer secrets about them than they might prefer to believe, and that it’s fairly easy to make guesses about people even if you don’t know the facts. They shouldn’t lend much credence to the things she said.
Sigh,
Of course you are right but I must admit hearing someone justify something based of nothing more significant that superstition still makes me flinch.
Also, why would someone respond “‘really, what a “. Unless you dealing with the purposely dishonest isn’t this just blaming the victim? I tend to respond “really…what, could you repeat that, I think I misheard you”. But then I’m still sometimes surprised by what some people come up with
.
I do give ideas short shrift but still try to respect the person.
meh, this is academic. As I said I’d still follow your advice purely on pragmatic grounds (even if I would tell them what I think of their “reasons” at times).
Ta for the chat, and the advise.
Thor’Ungal.
Growing up, I’d always been interested in all this paranormal, pseudoscience stuff. I read about crop circles, UFOs, telekinesis, etc. Heck! I was a geek and loved stuff like Star Trek. Secretly, I hoped it was all real because it seemed pretty cool if it was.
Now I get pretty skeptical whenever someone tells me they can feel spirits in the room, etc. I know a number of people who are “in touch” with the spirit world. When they tell me stuff, I just go, “Oh really?” And think to myself, “Yeah, ok. Whatever.”
Maybe I’m skeptical because I can’t feel any of these things. Maybe I don’t feel any of these things because I’m skeptical? (Some people believe that being skeptical closes your mind to being able to experience these things).
Personally, I don’t see the harm in discussing such topics in school, but I think teachers, regardless of what their stance is on such topics, should present it factually. E.g. The evidence is inconclusive but this is what some people believe, etc.
In the case of the girl’s experience, I tend to agree that it was a classical case of bullying. The girl was probably being traumatised by specific individuals in the class and she was just responding to her “bulliers”. Looks like it worked pretty well, too, since some of those kids didn’t return to school.
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