Although usually when I read Edutopia, I find much to recommend to my colleagues, the article "Stay for a Spell" in the Oct/Nov 2008 issue was a disappointment. I wish the author had at least mentioned the existence of the Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive at the University of Virgina's website (http://etext.virginia.edu/salem/witchcraft/ ). Much of the content of the article glibly repeats 19th century American myths about the historical event as fact. No primary source from the episode attributes any voodoo or mesmerizing of the village girls to Tituba -- these stories did not appear until two centuries later, in Charles W. Upham's book "Salem Witchcraft" in 1867 (http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/17845 ). When the article draws attention to "things you think you know" that are not accurate and gives an example, it might have been better to provide educators with an easily supportable explanation why "burning witches" is a misconception. Instead of invoking yet another historical episode that is further afield of the topic, it would have been more effective to point to easily available primary documentary evidence that specifically states that the method of execution used in 1692 was hanging:

http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/salem/witchcraft/archives/BPL/B05A.html