A Teaching Handbook for Wiccans and Pagans by Thea Sabin Page B

said it half-jokingly, we laughed about it more because it’s true than because it was funny. People who are obviously unbalanced aren’t likely to make it past your screening, so they’re less of a danger. People who are able to hide symptoms, or whose condition creeps up on them so even they don’t know what’s going on until it’s too late, are much more problematic than the person claiming to be Elvis or an ambassador from Venus.
    Unless you’re a psychiatrist, chances are you aren’t going to be able to tell if someone is “subtly crazy” during a screening. But one thing you can look for in advance that can be an important key to determining if someone’s behavior is going to be a problem or not is empathy. If students display a lack of empathy—an inability or unwillingness to be aware of and sensitive to what another person is feeling or experiencing in a situation—chances are their ethics and behaviors aren’t going to meet your standards. Lack of empathy can be an indicator of anything from an overinflated ego or selfish nature to full-blown narcissism. It can also be a sign of other mental health issues. In my experience, of all of the problems you can come across when working with people, lack of empathy—people who just don’t give a damn about others—is probably one of the most subtly destructive and difficult to work with.
    Remember, though, that sometimes people do weird things when you meet them for the first time not because they’re nuts but because they’re nervous, or, if you’re meeting them in person, because they just don’t interview well. So you need to take wacky behavior during a screening with a little bit of salt sometimes. And you need to think about your own behavior—how you might be coming across to the potential student—and how that might influence how he or she acts.
    As Sarah Davies points out:
    As far as mainstream society is concerned, what we [Wiccans] do is freaking weird. You bring people into your home, and you’re pointing knives everywhere and making geometric shapes. I can see where someone can go, “This is not what I signed up for.”
    We had one potential student who met us for coffee and attended one class. During both the coffee and the class, she repeatedly told us that her friends knew exactly where she was, what she was doing, and who she was with. It was obvious she wanted us to know that she’d be missed if we decided to kidnap her, indoctrinate her into a cult, and use her as a ritual sacrifice. After the first class she never came back, and she never called or emailed to let us know she wouldn’t be returning. We can only assume we scared the hell out of her—not at all surprising, because she was already nervous and we’re a loudmouthed, strong-willed group of people, and we were very vocal during the one class she attended. She probably wasn’t a good match for our class, but even so, we knew she was nervous, and we should have toned down our discussion a notch. The point is, yes, she was acting a little weird, but our behavior didn’t help.
    This is one of those areas in which you really should rely on your gut. If you are uncomfortable with a behavior a potential student is exhibiting during screening, don’t ignore that feeling, especially if you think they are being disingenuous or lying. They don’t need to tell you every little detail about their lives before you take them on, but what they do tell you should be the truth.
    Mental Health
    Screening for mental health is tricky. On one hand, your students’ medical situation is none of your business. But on the other hand, it is your business, because it can affect their behavior and ability to do well in your class, it can have an impact on your other students, and you as the teacher will need to deal with it directly if their illness causes problems. The phrase