Tag Archives: teacher

Freedom of Religion?

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I’m going to start this post by stating that I live in the U.S.A..  This is relevant because here we supposedly have freedom of religion.  Basically, The First Amendment to the “United States Constitution prevents the government from making laws which respect an establishment of religion, prohibit the free exercise of religion….”  There is also a clause preventing workplaces from discriminating on a number of factors, one being religion.  The exception is if the employer is a religious institution. 

Just because the laws say there shouldn’t be any discrimination against religions, doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.  It just means that employers can’t mention your religion when they fire you for it.  I’m pretty sure I have been fired for my religion at least twice in my life.  It could have been more than that, but when I get fired because I’m “not a good fit” with a school district, yet they kept a teacher who literally held a student forcibly against a wall and lied about his knowledge of the subject matter he was supposed to be teaching, it’s pretty clear there was something off about their explanation of my firing. 

Why is this coming up now?  I was chatting with my husband the other day.  He couldn’t understand why I enjoyed watching The Good Witch.  I explained that not only is it the most accurate portrayal of Paganism that I’ve seen on TV, but also that I have a dream of one day of moving somewhere and finally being accepted for who I really am, Paganism and all.  My husband flat out told me that it would never happen.  I held back my tears and told him I needed time to myself.  He assumed it was for another reason and I let him.  When I got there, I cried.  I cried for all of the times that I have had to move.  I cried because he had almost dashed my hopes that it was possible to be accepted in a small town for being Pagan. 

While I have gotten good at hiding it from my employers over the past 5 years or so, my son will be starting pre-K in the district I work in before I get tenure.  I had a choice.  I could hide my religion from my son or I can live my truth at home and hope that when the time comes, I will have been there long enough that they will overlook it.  I refuse to hide who I am from my son, so that’s the option I’m going for right now. 

Having to hide who I am in order to get (and keep) a teaching job really hurts.  It’s not like I would ever teach my students about my religion.  I just want to be able to wear a pentacle to work without worrying about being fired.  I want to be able to take my holidays off of work without fearing that I will lose my family’s sole source of income. 

It really pisses me off when I see some of my Christian friends complain that there is a “war on Christmas” because people say “Happy Holidays”.  Really!?  Christmas is a national fucking holiday!  Or when they complain that they’re being discriminated against because they can’t pray in schools.  Uh, actually, the students can.  They just can’t have it be led or required in any way by the school or any adult.  Not to mention if I had a dollar for the number of times someone on the Pagan Parenting group that I’m part of complained about the promotion of religion by someone at their school, I would be rich. 

I’m just sick of feeling like this.  I’m sick of hiding who I am.  I’m sick of worrying about losing my job if I do anything to even hint at being Pagan.  The gays had their chance at rights.  They’re working on transgender rights now.  I just wish there was something that I could do.  But there’s already a law that’s supposedly protecting me.  It just doesn’t.  Please comment and tell me that there’s hope.  I want to know that there are some open Pagans out there — preferably in small towns and teaching positions, that are actually accepted for who they are. 

I’m A Bad Pagan

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I just read through a very touching blog post at My Wiccan Story.  It was a sweet story of how she prayed to the Goddess in a time of need and how the Goddess helped.  I kind of touched on it in my last post, but I have been spending so much time trying to not appear Pagan, that I have lost a lot of my Pagan-ness. 

I’m a teacher.  While I believe firmly in the separation between church and state, I also believe in freedom of religion.  I have never once preached about Paganism to my students.  I have never even taught them about it.  At my first teaching job, however, I did wear a ring with a pentacle on it.  One of my students made a big deal out of me being “a witch”.  His mother started a “witch hunt” and complained about me constantly.  She even snuck into the school to observe my class to find things to further complain about.  I was asked not to return because I was “a bad fit with the district.”. 

At my next job, I left my overtly religious jewelry at home.  I had a necklace that looked like mother earth and I often wore that or necklaces made of gemstones.  I was asked to return for a second year.  The school had open tennis on their tennis courts certain days after school.  Since I was trying to get into better shape, I would often go out there to play.  I made the mistake of wearing my Pagan Pride Day t-shirt one day.  It was seen by a board member.  I wasn’t even given a reason for being fired.  My principal and superintendent tried to back me up, but the board of education voted me out. 

After that, I was pretty butthurt.  I refused to mention my religion at work.  I was careful where I work my Pagan t-shirts, in case someone saw me.  I made sure not to become close to anyone at work in case they found out and made it public.  Nonetheless, I went through three more schools in three years.  After a time when I couldn’t get a job, I found a job in the most unlikely place — Catholic school.  I applied for a job, not realizing that the name of the school referred to something that was Catholic.  An even bigger surprise, was that I got the job!  I doubled down in my efforts to hide my religion.  My boss knew I wasn’t Catholic, but she definitely didn’t know that I was Pagan.  I had to attend Mass and teach my students Catholic hymns.  Hey, it was a job and I did it well for three years.  They were three miserable years where I worried constantly about being fired if they ever found out I was Pagan.

I found another public school job and was happy to get out.  Unfortunately, that one didn’t work out either and I got my job where I am now.  I work in a small town.  I am again afraid that people will find out and I will lose my job.  Tenure has been raised to four years, so my son is going to be entering Pre-K before I get tenure.  I can teach him absolutely nothing about our beliefs to save my job, but that makes me sad inside.  I want to be able to share my religion with my son. 

I realized that while my religion absolutely needs to stay out of my work, it can absolutely become part of my home life.  The problem is that I spent so long trying to appear normal, to fit in, that I really stuffed all of my Pagan-ness deep down.  I want to start doing some things daily to reaffirm my Pagan-ness and create a culture of Paganism at home, but I don’t know what to do or where to start.  When I’m grateful for something good, I want to remember to thank the Gods.  When things are not going well, I want to think to ask the Gods for help.  My son is 15 months old and my husband is vaguely Pagan-ish who will go along with things so long as they’re not too “out there”. I actually set up my altar again and even decorated it for Samhain.  I don’t know what steps to take next.  How do I start creating a Pagan culture at home?