TM 011 Transcript

 

[00:00:00] Today, we’re going to be talking about something that’s a little sensitive, especially right now.

[00:00:20] There’s a part of me that wishes I had recorded this podcast months ago. Because I’ve had some experiences in the last few weeks that have made me question. [00:00:30] Myself. So.

[00:00:32] Today, we’re going to be asking the question. Should we censor the myths? And this comes from a conversation that I had with a friend of mine who was listening to my podcast and she teaches fourth grade. And she said, Leslie, I’m loving your podcast, but I don’t know if I could teach the myths the way you teach the myths

[00:00:49] to my students. And it was just after the creation story where I tell the creation story as it really is. And. Talk [00:01:00] about Uranus getting his penis cut off by Kronos. And she said, there’s no way I could teach this. Well, yeah, she teaches fourth grade and I get that, but it made me think. Should we censor the myths? What should we do in this situation?

[00:01:16] And I think a lot of people who know mythology know. The.

[00:01:21] Children’s story versions of mythology. They don’t know the real myths, so they don’t know. Just how serious some of these [00:01:30] myths are.

[00:01:30] So first I want to talk about censorship in general. I’m not a fan of censorship. But we do it all the time. You do it when you choose to read something or when you choose not to read something.

[00:01:44] Currently in my state, we have parents who are actively.

[00:01:49] Opposing educators and education. And. I have heard. The word or the phrase that we are indoctrinating students so [00:02:00] many times in the last month. That it almost makes me sick.

[00:02:04] And just while we’re on this topic. Sister, if I want to do indoctrinate your kid. I would indoctrinate them to turn in their work on time and to not be tardy to my class. I certainly wouldn’t be indoctrinating them with. All the other things that you’re accusing us of. So. This podcast is different because the current political climate that we’re in.

[00:02:26] And if you’re listening to this later on, if you found , this [00:02:30] podcast later on. It is currently September of 2021. And we are in the middle of. Critical race theory and.

[00:02:40] Parents opposing mask mandates and. Just a lot of upheaval in our political world. This week, I had to write basically a memo for human resources. Defending why a 12th grade English teacher would refer to mythology in her class. [00:03:00] And why she would call the myth of Noah. A myth. And they asked me to do it because I taught mythology and it, it just brought me back to my first day lesson plan.

[00:03:12] Because I teach a mythology course. I get to build deep relationships with students about these myths. And I get to start my course by defining what mythology is. It is so important to define it as a belief system. And not right or wrong or true or [00:03:30] false. And. And I, this year, it hit me so hard because.

[00:03:34] This teacher was basically just comparing. A symbol in one story. To a symbol in Noah’s story. And because she said the myth of Noah. She, she got attacked by these parents and they said that she was bullying their child for their Christian beliefs. And it just makes me really sad. So I had to write a memo [00:04:00] about.

[00:04:00] What myths are defined as in literary tradition. And. I felt like I was writing my first day lesson plan. In memo form. For HR. So I don’t know who it was. It was just a teacher in my district. They wouldn’t tell me the name. They wouldn’t tell me the school. So I don’t know who it was or what it was, but.

[00:04:22] That’s kind of the environment that we’re in right now. So. I am not a fan of censorship. I am not a fan. [00:04:30] Of what’s happening. But. Before all of this. I still recognized that. Mythology is not. Roses and daisies. There are a lot of questionable stories in the myths and. There are things that I, I didn’t teach and I didn’t teach them on purpose. So.

[00:04:51] Here are kind of my top.

[00:04:53] Considerations, and I think you should. Think about when you’re deciding. If you’re going to teach [00:05:00] mythology or. What stories from mythology, you’re going to teach.

[00:05:03] So the first thing I think you need to consider is, is it appropriate for the age group that you’re teaching?

[00:05:09] I teach mostly seniors. I also teach an elective course. So this is a course that students are taking on purpose because they want to learn about mythology. Which means my audience is very different. If you’re teaching fourth grade Greek mythology, because you’re working on Greek history in your social studies [00:05:30] curriculum.

[00:05:31] Then you’re going to choose myths accordingly. If I was teaching to fourth graders, I wouldn’t be teaching. About Uranus, getting his penis cut off.

[00:05:40] Mostly because I just don’t want to have to deal with all the giggles I have to deal with giggles. With that story and I teach seniors. So, you know, so think about what’s appropriate for your students for their age, for what. You think that they can. Handle.

[00:05:56] The second thing you need to consider when you’re teaching mythology is [00:06:00] trauma.

[00:06:00] I think mythology has a lot of triggers in it. And can be quite difficult for some students.

[00:06:07] There’s actually quite a lot of rape. In mythology. Unfortunately. Immediately, I think of Medusa. And I think of Apollo because I mean, especially the story of Apollo and Daphne. But Apollo is always chasing after women. We have things like orgies. If you talk about Dionysus or [00:06:30] if you’re doing the Roman version Bacchus at all.

[00:06:33] And so you just, you have to be really careful with those sorts of things.

[00:06:37] There’s also a lot of, I think, abuse. And we just sort of shrug it off as it’s just in the myths. But when I think about. Hephaestus. I mean, Hera literally kicked him off of Mount Olympus as a baby. And you don’t know if in your room, you have a child who was suffering from abuse from his family [00:07:00] or her family and how that story is going to affect them.

[00:07:04] So you need to be aware.

[00:07:06] If you decide to teach. Those stories. The other thing. That happens a lot in mythology is incest. And. A lot of my students struggle. With that concept. Just that, for example, the Olympian gods Hera and Zeus are brother and sister. And it happens in. Every mythology, because in the beginning, there are [00:07:30] only so many gods, right?

[00:07:32] And even in Christianity, you have Adam and Eve and their children and their children obviously were with each other. Right. So. It’s something to be aware of. And then there are other things like beastiality.

[00:07:46] Whenever I teach the story of Theseus and the Minotaur. I sort of.

[00:07:51] Passover. How the Minotaur is created and how. Pacify was tricked. Or punished by Zeus [00:08:00] and the whole creation of the Minotaur. So.

[00:08:02] We skipped over that.

[00:08:03] So just, just be aware of the trauma. And that you might have students who are triggered because. The the myths are violent. And they’re not always peaceful and they’re not always rosy. It doesn’t mean that we don’t teach them. It just means that we need to be aware.

[00:08:22] So at the end of the day, Do I censor the myths that I teach. No, I don’t. I tell them. [00:08:30] Fully and truthfully.

[00:08:32] But if there is something that I’m uncomfortable with. Then I don’t, I don’t teach it. So. We pick up the story of Theseus and the Minotaur after the Minotaur is created. And I focus on thesis as a hero. I think if you’re really uncomfortable, you just shouldn’t teach it. Rather than changing the story. Just skip over it. You definitely need to take your class into consideration. There are some years that I have been totally fine. And [00:09:00] other years where I just knew that it was a class that. Would take it too far or be too inappropriate.

[00:09:06] And there were years quite honestly, with some of the boys in the class that I knew I had to change the myths that we read because of them. Because.

[00:09:15] Of the jokes that they would tell and the things that they would say under their breath. And they kind of ruined the semester for me, quite honestly. But because I knew that I changed my lesson plans to fit that. I wasn’t going. To [00:09:30] have an another girl in my class. Sit there and listen to boys say things under their breaths, because I didn’t want to change my lesson plan.

[00:09:38] So I changed my lesson plan. And at the end of the day, you know, it’s your decision, you know, your students, you know, your community, you know, Your admin. And if they have your back, or if they’re going to support you. I’ve always had administrators who have supported me. But not everybody’s as lucky.

[00:09:55] I once had a student, I had a parent meeting. Because a [00:10:00] student was starting to question his parents’ religious beliefs. And this parent blamed me. I believe in this parent meeting, she said that I was turning her son into a pagan. Which was uncomfortable. It wasn’t fun and it was really ridiculous.

[00:10:16] So.

[00:10:17] Take all of that into consideration. But I don’t believe in censorship.

[00:10:23] The sad thing is, is that the way things are going this year? More and more of us as teachers are.[00:10:30]

[00:10:30] Questioning what we’re teaching. And these are things that we’ve taught for years and years and years. I don’t know where it’s like, where you live. That. We have. Local school board members and state school board members who. Use social media as a way of attacking students. Seems like every week we’re getting new. Policies enacted. We now have restrictions of what we can put up in our classroom.

[00:10:59] The clothings we [00:11:00] wear the pins we have on our lanyards. And it makes me really. Sad. And it makes me really scared.

[00:11:09] So if there was any year that you were going to question what you teach in mythology. This might be the year. It might be the year to stick to the safe stories. And.

[00:11:21] Live to fight another day.

[00:11:23] And that makes me. Really sad.

[00:11:26] And. It makes me worry for the future of education, [00:11:30] where. As a teacher and as an educator and as someone who has given 15 years of my life to this profession,

[00:11:36] I’m called under question.

[00:11:38] And I’m not trusted.

[00:11:40] We keep we, as in teachers, we keep talking about. That this is a fad that. This will blow over. The things will change. And I hope we’re right. I hope we’re right.

[00:11:55] Because

[00:11:56] I don’t know how much longer some of my colleagues and I are going to be [00:12:00] able to. Thrive in this kind of environment. And it affects our students. It affects their education. It affects their growth, their learning. And.

[00:12:10] We put our whole heart and souls into our teaching. I know that there are some bad teachers out there. We’ve all had bad teachers. But I’m here to tell you. 95% of your kids, teachers, especially in secondary. Are there because they love kids. They love [00:12:30] teenagers. Nobody. Loves their content. More than they loved kids.

[00:12:36] Because teenagers are hard, they push back. There. Moody and they’re going through hard times. But. We love kids and that’s why we do it every single day. So just remember that. And. From my teachers out there.

[00:12:54] If you’re feeling it this year. If you’re having a hard time this year. I [00:13:00] want you to know you’re not alone. And. We do amazing things every single day, even if they’re not appreciated, or even if they’re not recognized.

[00:13:09] I feel like we’re builders of the nation.

[00:13:12] And we’re builders of the future generations. And I think it’s a very thankless position.

[00:13:17] But.

[00:13:18] We can still. Teach and help our students.

[00:13:23] And do the best that we can.

[00:13:25] Because I really fear for this country. If our. Teaching [00:13:30] workforce. Is diminished any more than it already is.

[00:13:33] I hate to leave on such a depressing note. It’s, it’s a serious episode. I’m so sorry about that. In the coming weeks, we’re going to be talking about. The story of Sisyphus and trying to cheat death. And coming up, I think it’s September 22nd. It’s the fall Equinox. And I’m going to be telling the story of.

[00:13:55] Hades and Persephone, Annie. And why we have seasons [00:14:00] according to the myths. So. I’ll see you in the next few weeks.