When I saw this story coming over the wires, I had to check my calendar to make sure that it really is 2008 and not somewhere in the Middle Ages.
A substitute teacher in Land O' Lakes, Florida (whose Wikipedia entry calls it the "Nudist Resort Capital of the World") named Jim Piculas needed to get his students' attention, so he did a little magic trick and made a toothpick disappear. (It's done with a piece of tape, and instructions on how to do the trick are freely available online.) The kids loved it and did a better job of paying attention to the lesson.
So what's the problem? The school district's substitute-teacher supervisor called Piculas and told him, "You've been accused of wizardry." A student was apparently so traumatized by the vanishing toothpick that his father complained. The school then took action and fired Piculas.
Wizardry? Are they serious?
Last time I checked, we're in the 21st century. Harry Potter book burnings aside, can anyone seriously believe that such "magic" is satanic or otherwise filled with the occult? It's all sleight of hand, misdirection and illusion, and has enjoyed a very long history on the stage.
Even if a kid or his parents take such a trick way too seriously, aren't school administrators supposed to deal with this sort of hysteria without returning to the Dark Ages? At the very least, they should do a better job than Sir Bedevere in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
It's a sad day for education when this nonsense is allowed to happen.
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