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A Primary Disaster
By Kathryn H. Kidd

Happy New Year, friends and virtual neighbors! After having two weeks off from Circle of Sisters duties, I'm tanned, rested, and ready to jump back in the fray. Bring on the controversy! Put on those boxing gloves! Circle of Sisters is in business again.

Speaking of boxing gloves, we have an issue of Primary importance. A desperate reader has sent in a plea for help in dealing with miscreants in Primary. I'll let her words speak for her, and then we have one last letter on a literary theme — this one dealing with the “Golden Compass” books.

But primarily, today's topic is Primary. Jenn from Washington, D.C., writes:

I have just been extended a call to serve as a Primary teacher. My class has a young boy who is simply beyond hyperactive and I don't know what to do!

Please understand, this is a very sweet little boy, who has no malice whatsoever in him. He's just overwhelmingly high-spirited. This last Sunday I had him

chewing on his shoes and pretending to be a dog;
throwing the salt dough that I made for part of the lesson at the window, walls, and ceiling (the lesson manual told me to bring salt dough, btw, although I was hoping that having something in his hands might help keep him busy);
standing in the classroom window;
punching the window;
lying on his back on his chair with his stocking feet resting on the backrest of the chair;
trying to escape to the hall (I have learned to sit or stand directly in front of the door, so that he cannot escape), and
interrupting every few minutes to throw in some out-of-the-blue comment.

I feel so strongly that this child is at a point where a loving teacher, who believes in him, could make such a difference in his life, whereas a teacher who is harsh or unkind could really do some
damage to him. I want to be a good teacher for him, but I have to find a way to get his behavior enough under control that it isn't keeping all the other (very well-behaved) children from being able to learn.

Right now his behavior is tremendously disruptive and I have to cope not only with him, but with all the other children jumping on him for being "bad" and telling him to be good. I know that he is considered to be the problem child of the Primary. I have a hunch he's driven off other teachers, although no one has said for sure. I know the Primary presidency was very concerned about finding someone to take the class.

This boy is never going to be a child to sit still in a chair, hands folded on his lap. I don't expect him to be that way; I come from a family where most of us have ADHD, so I'm very used to dealing with this sort of thing and have a clear idea of the strengths that can come from ADHD, as well as the problems. I'd like to share that with him and his parents.

But first I have to find a way to lovingly get him calmed down enough that he is willing to try to restrain himself. And I have no idea how to do this.

Last Sunday was a nightmare for me, and I came home so upset that it took me until late at night to calm down again and regain my optimism. I would love any suggestions from anyone who has ever dealt with anything like this, especially concrete ideas for keeping some degree of order during our lesson time.

Jenn from DC

Okay, readers, here's a subject that is totally out of my realm. I know nothing about Primary-age children, so I'm not going to be any help to Jenn whatsoever. She needs you!

If anyone has any suggestions that would help Jenn with her sweet but disruptive child (or that would help teachers of disruptive children who are decidedly not sweet), please send your comments to meridianmagazine@aol.com . Put something in the subject line to tell me the letter isn't spam! But please do not procrastinate. Jenn needs your help pronto !

Now, as promised, here is the letter offering a dispassionate review of The Golden Compass :

Dear Kathy,

I enjoyed reading the article on " Reading on the Edge." With all the emails I have received on The Golden Compass , I thought I would read the series and then send to all of my friends my take instead of the reactionary emails that I have been receiving.

Janelle Gilson

Dear Friends,

After multiple forwardings of "Don't let your kids watch The Golden Compass !" I decided to read the series to see if all the angst about it was true. So here is my take on the Pullman series.

First of all, I disagree with critics comments that it is powerful literature. It is a good story, and very interesting. Pullman has an excellent imagination, however, it is not on par with Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, or with C.S. Lewis, or for that matter, the Harry Potter series.

Secondly, and more importantly (I believe) this is not a series for children. At Barnes & Noble, I was dismayed to see them being marketed to six- and seven-year-olds!

The first book deals essentially with the kidnapping and murder of children. Most of the murders are unstated but understood, but the heroine's own father murders her best friend after she believes she has rescued him from a concentration camp where the adults were doing testing on the children that resulted in their immediate or eventual deaths.

It is interesting to note that the movie actually doesn't end on that note (where Lyra's father kills her friend), but it occurs earlier in the movie (I guess they don't want to traumatize the audience at the end of the movie).

Additionally, her friend the bear (the one you see in all the ads that she rides) must kill another bear in a graphic (at least in the book) death battle for leadership of the bear
kingdom.

A large part of the second book deals with the Specters, who, though invisible to children, swoop down on adults and suck the life out of them, leaving children motherless, fatherless and adult-less. As a result, the children can get a bit Lord of the Flies -ish.

Also, in books one and two, both of Lyra's parents are chasing after her to use her as a tool. They are very cruel and never treat her as a daughter.

I believe that what has so many people in a dither about these books is Pullman 's negative view of Christianity, which is obvious. However, I do want to clarify a couple of things that I read about that were the main reasons cited for not allowing your children to see this book.

First, it is implied that Lyra and her friend Will, go out of their way to kill "God." They don't; they actually stumble upon "God," who has been left alone in a dangerous area within an enclosed chamber. They just see an old man who is confused and trying to get out of a container. As they help him out, his body disintegrates into the air because it is so old that it cannot withstand the air and sun. They don't purposely try to kill him.

Now some background information: God is portrayed in these books as weak, ineffectual, and petty. He is also incredibly old as well as doddering, drooling, and childlike. He has a second in command (whose name escapes me, perhaps the supreme commander?) who is just mean and trying to take over as "God." His downfall is actually lust. Now I ask you, how are these beings like God the father and Jesus Christ? That is the point, at
least for me. They aren't like those two perfect and infallible beings.

Pullman does make several negative comments about Christianity/Catholicism, and much of the series is deals with Inquisition. But who would agree that the Inquisition was a good thing? Another strange parallel with Christianity was that he has Lyra and Will act as a new Eve and Adam. I was uncomfortable with that because it is implied that they have sex (as did Adam and Eve) but according to the book, they haven't yet made it to puberty.

Another weird storyline is how Lyra and Will go to heaven (which is actually hell — a very mythological hell) and release the prisoners (all those who have died) to the air and light, where they disperse into nothingness.

Overall, Pullman writes a story about a parallel universe to ours, actually several universes. The story is fantasy so I didn't get upset about his portrayal of God and Christ (because it was so ridiculous to me). I wouldn't recommend this to children at all. I don't really want to recommend it to anyone really, as there is so much really fine literature out there. Readers must approach it as strictly fantasy. I do know that for some of the time I read it, I didn't feel the Holy Ghost with me.

I hope that helps some of you in your decision making.

Love, Janelle

Thanks for your take on this, Janelle. This is the only Golden Compass review we're posting here, but I thought your ideas would help many of our readers.

Okay, people, let's get back to our Primary discussion. If you'd like to write in, send your thoughts to meridianmagazine@aol.com . Put something in the subject line that will let me know your letter isn't spam. And when you write, be sure to include your full name, city and state or province. (If you'd rather be semi-anonymous, sign your name as “A Reader from Michigan ” or “Sandy from Timbuktu .” The important thing is that we hear from you.)

Until next week — Kathy

“There was a time when we expected nothing of our children but obedience, as opposed to the present, when we expect everything of them but obedience.”

Anatole Broyard

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