Saturday, March 18, 2006

I love stories like this XLVI

Fer cry-yi, hey! We read Arthur Miller's, The Crucible, when I was a junior in high school. What are these people all in an uproar about?
[Fulton, MO, High School teacher Wendy] DeVore's students were to perform Arthur Miller's "The Crucible," a drama set during the 17th Century Salem witch trials.

But after a handful of Callaway Christian Church members complained about scenes in the fall musical "Grease" that showed teens smoking, drinking and kissing, Superintendent Mark Enderle told DeVore to find a more family-friendly substitute.

DeVore chose Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," a classic romantic comedy with its own dicey subject matter, including suicide, rape and losing one's virginity.

DeVore, 31, a six-year veteran teacher, said administrators told her that her annual contract might not be renewed.

"Maybe I need to find a school that's a better match," she said.

...and we performed Midsummer Night's Dream and read The Scarlet Stinking Letter when I was a junior or senior in little old Appleton, WI, fer cry yi! Granted, this was back in the late 60's, when teenagers were different, somehow. That is, they weren't always on the verge of mental breakdowns from the insane over-protectiveness they're smothered with at the government-funded compulsory-attendance schools today. Oh, my goodness! How can we even think about putting on a play that intimates that girls lose their virginity?

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