What is with parents these days?

[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.

[katiesue]

I have a fourth grader. I looked up the actual video set on the net and it's an old series that was made for kids to introduce them to opera.

Description: Mignon/La Perichole world-famous soprano Joan Sutherland and her magical puppet friends present opera programs designed for the whole family. Presented with fun and humor, designed to make adults and children comfortable with this area of western culture. Spotlights two operas.

I'd be fine with my daughter viewing this. She can see much worse daily on TV (heck her Dad thinks letting her watch CSI is appropriate).

From the original article it sounds as if the parents were more opposed to the "devil" aspect than the Opera part. I'm not an opera fan but don't a lot of them involve murder/tradedy? What about Shakespeare? Lots of death, suicide in say Romeo and Juliet. The music teacher was trying to expose them to the art of Opera, I don't think the actual content of the opera was the point of the lesson.

[€uroMeinke]

I don't know, at age 10 I was certainly familiar with the Faust tale, suicide, etc. but clearly, I'm not the norm.

I think the opera version of Faust (Gounad) is very simplified telling of the tale (like most opera). Now if they were reading Goethe's Faust, with implied infanticide and more mature themes, then perhaps I might go with the age-appropriate critique.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Bambi's still got a G rating, right?

[Alex]

Yes, but I don't know if it would get one if it were submitted for the first time these days.

[Prudence]

I suspect that many fourth graders could benefit from a morality lesson a la Faust, considering that so many are taught that they are entitled to whatever they want without consequences.

What I think is sad is the implication from the article that the teacher is being run out of town. I have no idea what other incidents may have transpired, or if the teacher is over-reacting, but if she is being run out of town as an alleged "satanist," that's the sadest part.

[Not Afraid]

I feel sorry for the kids who grow up in that town.

No, I feel sorry for those of us who will have to deal with them as adults.

[Kevy Baby]

If you really want to get kids to watch opera, tell them they aren't allowed to see it.

[scaeagles]

Isn't Harry Potter kind of intense? I would suspect most 10 year olds are seeing those movies.

[tracilicious]

That's a good point about Harry Potter, scaeagles.

I reread the article and it seems it was mostly puppets, they weren't actually watching the Opera. How is that supposed to expose them to Opera? The whole situation seems dumb to me.