Too Much Time On My Hands...

[badstar]

So...out of curiousity I decided to give Witch School a call and pretend that I was interested in teaching a class. I asked what kind of documentation I would need to submit as far as my experience, credientials, training etc....

...nada. Zip. Zilch. Squat.

foolish at best, but potentially downright dangerous.

Even if there are no requirements are needed for those interested in teaching things like movie revierwing (yes, it's one of the classes on their "wish list"), there are certain things that should not be taught except by those qualified to teach the subject. The other example that I used is herbalism. If you just go messing around with random plants and you don't know what you're doing, you could make someone sick or kill them.

Comments

[meapet.livejournal.com]

can i hteach hexes? :P
can i teach "how the movie The Craft is like real life"
:P
as if

[fuego.livejournal.com]

I dare you to write up a class and submit it

[meapet.livejournal.com]

a real one or a fake one?

[fuego.livejournal.com]

your call.

[meapet.livejournal.com]

where's the wish list?

[fuego.livejournal.com]

it's on the page about teaching:
http://www.witchschool.com/teach.asp

here's the list itself:

• Review of Traditions
• Gods/Goddesses - Individual and Pantheons
• Individual Holidays (Sabbats, etc.) including feast recipes
• Harry Potter (Books and Movies) Review From Wiccan's Point of View
• Anything on Fairies
• Tarot Spreads
• History
• Athame and other ritual tools
• Spellwork and Spellcraft

[ranger-hotsauce.livejournal.com]

Harry Potter (Books and Movies) Review From Wiccan's Point of View

BWAA HA HA HA HAAA!

[ranger-hotsauce.livejournal.com]

Can I teach magyck to wombin? Or how about a herstory class?

[fuego.livejournal.com]

yes, plese...write up a course and submit it. I want to see what happens.

[ranger-hotsauce.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that sounds like actual work, and I'm trying to cut down. Sorry.

[peaceful-fox.livejournal.com]

How about ADF Groves who have unqualified people teaching classes? I know when I applied to be Protogrove Organizer, I didn't have to show any qualifications. I had to give three references, but really, not *that* much was asked of me. See:

http://www.adf.org/members/groves/starting/go-survey.html

Now I can teach any classes I want as lore and arts meetings, and I can have guest speakers come into the group to give talks, etc. No one asked me my area of expertise.

Luckily, I am honourable and honest and care about my fellow Protogrove members, but we really don't have any checks and balances about who can teach local classes and run large public rituals.

[fuego.livejournal.com]

were you teaching potentially dangeous topics? were you calling yourself a school? I don't know. I wish I knew the answers. Unfortunately not everyone out there is honest. I would suspect that things like this Witch School is more likely to attract the less honest set because of the way the present themselves.

It might be interesting to find out if ADF would do anything, and what would be done if someone started teaching fallacious information under an ADF affiliation...

[peaceful-fox.livejournal.com]

No, I'm not teaching dangerous topics, but the problem is that I *could* be. A few people in your Grove know me, so they can tell you how dangerous I am! LOL! :-)

I'm not fond of the Corellian way of doing things, either, although I know Don. I don't think they are bad folks, but they are misguided. I don't think they mean to hurt anyone, but it could happen. I think they are naive.

I see this in all sorts of traditions, even within ADF, but to a lesser extent. People teach all sorts of things, and who is to say if it is factual, Unsubstantiated Personal Gnosis spouted as fact, or plain BS. I don't see a huge BS factor within ADF (generally they are mocked until they go elsewhere - Witch School, perhaps.) but it can happen.

Don't get me wrong, I love ADF and I've been a member for 8 1/2 years and I love it so much I have started a Protogrove here in England. I'm not knocking it as an organization, but we need checks (not Czechs, although I have an interest in Slavic Hearth Culture!) and balances.

[fuego.livejournal.com]

(i didn't mean i wish i knew the answers to what you were doing, but to the question of eh, for lack of a better term, "quality control")

[peaceful-fox.livejournal.com]

I knew what you meant! LOL! :-)

My 2 cents

[pagandenma.livejournal.com]

Eh, most ADF folks are driven by the organization's academic excellence slant, so the wannabes generally bail. (Heck, you won't find many wannabes that wouldn't wash out of the DP, for instance.)

The fact that there are no prerequisites for the teachers is unsettling at best, and yeah, dangerous at worst. You don't want some uncertified fool teaching herbalism or energy work, or going off on weird-arse topics.

[chirael.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a money-making diploma mill to me. Nice approach to find that out, though :)

[fuego.livejournal.com]

gotta do somehting with my time at home and all those minutes I never use on my cell phone...heh...

[chirael.livejournal.com]

Well, you could always tackle some books from the ADF suggested reading list (http://www.adf.org/training/resources/reading.html) or Generalist Study Program.

Nothing like reading In Search of the Indo-Europeans (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0500276161/arndraiocfeinadr/) to help you fall asleep fast ;)

(There are many good gems in that book of course, but the linguistic stuff is hard to wade through to get to them sometimes ;)

[fuego.livejournal.com]

heh...still gotta do the modern paganism book for my DP....and I don't have one yet (as in have not aquired a copy of any of the books on the list and the ones that are readily available, I'm not especially interested inr eading right now)