[tracilicious]

I'm going to take the other side of the coin here. I think you guys are making way too much of this. The teacher got in trouble for exposing kids below the fourth grade to Faust. I have a niece who is in fourth grade. She's ten. She's not going to get the murder and suicide and devil take your soul messages in Faust. More likely they'll terrify her.

I don't think it is about parents wanting to shelter their kids from everything. I know if my child were in second, third, or fourth grade and somebody showed him Faust, I'd have been pissed. Not because it mentions the devil, but because those are very mature themes. Exposure to culture and history is all well and good, but it should be appropriate to age level. With a child that young, it should be my choice as to when they are exposed to those themes.

Regardless, if the teacher wanted to expose the kids to Opera, there are certainly more appropriate operas she could have picked. She sounds like a dingbat to me.