From the Mouths of Babes

It's strange what things stick in your mind from the early parts of life.

I hardly remember anything from elementary school. I know the name of my first grade teacher, how big the school felt, and some of the changes that happened there. Out of everything, though...one things sticks out in my head.

The card game Magic: The Gathering was banned from our school. It wasn't because teachers and administrators were afraid that we'd gamble on the games (nobody ever did), it was because the cards represented "bad spirits". This is kind of like saying that Pokemon trading cards will summon the devil.

Cards would be confiscated on sight, and the requisite scolding administered. At first, it was only the devout Catholic yard supervisors who did this. However, once it trickled on down the line of subordinate staff members, damn near all the staff started taking them away.

Sure, one could make the argument that they didn't want us to lose stuff that cost money lest our parents get upset. However, I think it went deeper than this...nearly everybody at my school was either some form of Christian or a Buddhist. I was one of the very, very few that had no declared religion and hadn't really made up my mind on the whole God thing yet. (For the record, I still haven't.) I used to get into little mini-debates in 6th-8th grade about the origins of life and evolution (huge nerrrrrd, I know), and I'd always get attacked by the Christians who insisted without proof that we had only been on Earth for 6,000 years. Once during class, I even had a teacher go over both Creationism and evolution, because he felt that they were both equally legitimate theories. As he put it, "They're both very convincing. One day I can prove to you that evolution is true, and then the next day prove to you that Creation is true". What the fuck was going on?

I still don't have an answer for what happened. I don't blame anybody or any group in particular for this, because I don't feel like I was trampled on, persecuted, or forced to believe in something that I don't agree with. I simply find it interesting that nearly 15 years ago this was the case...that something like that went unnoticed.