{"id":879,"date":"2009-01-28T21:35:14","date_gmt":"2009-01-29T02:35:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=879"},"modified":"2009-02-28T14:06:38","modified_gmt":"2009-02-28T19:06:38","slug":"where-to-draw-the-line-between-reality-and-respect-for-cultural-beliefs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=879","title":{"rendered":"Where to draw the line between reality and respect for cultural beliefs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Maybe this would be a good place<\/a> to draw that line: Was High School Girl Possessed In Class?<\/p>\n

Students at a Mississippi high school said a fellow student spoke in tongues and made grave predictions for her classmates for three days.<\/p>\n

Some of those predictions included when students would die.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n

Clanton said she admits she spoke in tongues and made predictions for her classmates. But she said it was God speaking through her, not the devil.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Checking my calendar I see that, yup, it is 2009. I realize there is a chance this is purely attention-seeking on the part of both the “possessed” and the victims. The TV station mainly talked with the students who had been the ones to reach out to the media. But the “possessed’s” mom seemed to be going right along with this.<\/p>\n

Kylie Sturgess on PodBlack Cat<\/a> has launched a good conversation about how a teacher should approach the subject of skepticism vs. cultural respect in the classroom. Is it OK to base a critical thinking-type lesson on debunking horoscopes, ouija boards or ghosts? Or would such subjects spark too much controversy and thus be off limits? But is marking such lessons as off limits irresponsible and thus promoting the exact opposite of critical thinking, which then perpetuates the goofy “possessed” junk?<\/p>\n

I think Kylie nails it on the head when she says: “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<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

So, how do you handle a situation where a student is acting, in all seriousness, “possessed”? And how do you talk to the other kids who are convinced something is going on and are freaked out about it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maybe this would be a good place to draw that line: Was High School Girl Possessed In Class? Students at a Mississippi high school said a fellow student spoke in tongues and made grave predictions for her classmates for three … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-eb","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":129,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=129","url_meta":{"origin":879,"position":0},"title":"Life in middle school","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 4, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The New York Times has an interesting article up kicking off a series about education in middle school. I agree that there can be very real difficulties in trying to reach these students. I have two kids in middle school and I've noticed a dramatic difference in both of them\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "In the Classroom"","block_context":{"text":"In the Classroom","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":413,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=413","url_meta":{"origin":879,"position":1},"title":"Dropping the curriculum for FCAT","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 30, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"And now for some non-evolution science education news ... the FCAT is so dang important that regular science curriculum is being dropped in some schools in order to do an intense FCAT prep. (The FCAT is the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. It's a high stakes test that determines if kids\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "In the Classroom"","block_context":{"text":"In the Classroom","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":799,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=799","url_meta":{"origin":879,"position":2},"title":"New museum in Daytona","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"November 23, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"A new children's museum opened in Daytona Beach. Sounds cool! Link to museum. DAYTONA BEACH -- After her classmates helped hoist her high above the ground on a seat attached to a series of pulleys, Anna Strong grabbed the rope and sat watching silently as other children squealed with delight\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1171,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1171","url_meta":{"origin":879,"position":3},"title":"Now this is science education!","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 6, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Imposing, smelly Humboldt squids a hit in Wesley Chapel classroom. Ahh, that fishy smell. It wafted through the school's hallways on Friday as marine sciences classes got the opportunity to dissect and examine nearly 5-foot-long Humboldt squids for the end of their invertebrate unit. ... \"You guys, stop,\" Keaundra responded\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1171#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2768,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2768","url_meta":{"origin":879,"position":4},"title":"Give the Devil his Due","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 7, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"All has been very quiet concerning the odious instructional materials bill lately. The bill would allow any resident, not just parents, to protest against what's found in textbooks, including coverage of evolution, climate change, vaccines, etc. On top of that, school districts must appoint a hearing officer to consider such\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Instructional Materials bills '17"","block_context":{"text":"Instructional Materials bills '17","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=32"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":557,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=557","url_meta":{"origin":879,"position":5},"title":"What happened today in the Senate","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"April 23, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is my summary of what happened today in the Senate concerning SB 2692. First of all, there was a last minute strikeall amendment proposed by Senator Storms in an effort to make the senate bill mirror the house bill. There was some brief debate on that amendment, which I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "\"Academic Freedom\" bills '08"","block_context":{"text":"\"Academic Freedom\" bills '08","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=23"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}