Teaching, HP and C.S. Lewis (long)

[Ebony Elizabeth]

No: HPFGUIDX 1544

Hello, everyone!  TGIF!

--- In HPforGrownups at egroups.com, "Rita Winston" <catlady at w...> wrote:
> > I say, probably yes. I am prejudiced on the subject because I 
went to > a (public) primary school in a very properous, upper-middle-
class, > white suburb, where all the other children hated me and beat 
up on > me, and the teachers couldn't think of anything to do about 
it/me > except to give me various mild punishments (such as standing 
in the> corner) for my offenses such as daydreaming during class and 
reading > when I was supposed to be playing with the other kids 
during recess. 

This is probably why I don't see any of Our Heroes teaching at 
Hogwarts after all is said and done.  Not only would that be 
anticlimatic, it is a research proven fact that most elementary and 
secondary educators had very positive K-12 school experiences.  I am 
a teacher today because the majority of my K-12 teachers were 
*awesome*.  Snape doesn't exactly inspire bright young minds to 
follow in his footsteps. 

(BTW, Brooks, I hated QA too.  And for some strange reason, *every* 
science teacher I had from middle school through college could 
outSnape Snape.)

> > Of course it is not likely that a teacher, just about anywhere 
> > these days, could get away with treating students as bad as Snape 
> > does.  
> 
> See above.

Amen.  There is a teacher on our fifth grade team who I am going to 
have to speak to soon re: recurring allegations of verbal abuse.  Now 
I'm not trying to defend his behavior.  The man is going through 
a personal situation that is beyond his control.  Unlike office 
workers, when we have a bad day we not only get upbraided by the 
boss, but we also have the wrath of parents and the disdain of 
students to face.  

You are always on stage--even when you're outside of school--I see my 
students and their parents *everywhere*. Needless to say, you have to 
watch yourself.  People have lost their licensure for being caught in 
all kinds of compromising situations--outside of school!  Many of you 
on this list, tolerant as you are, do not want your child's 
kindergarten teacher being ______, engaging in _______, or seen at 
_____.

It takes everything you have physically, emotionally, mentally, and 
spiritually to do this job--and you run the risk that even when you 
invest 110%, there's no guarantee that you'll ever see the return.  
It gets to be a little much sometimes.

And even then, you still get blamed.  Yesterday a parent with a Ph.D 
(he made sure that we knew *that*) attacked me during Orientation for 
not doing literature with mainly American characters--he disagreed 
very loudly and publicly with my multicultural/world lit focus this 
school year.  Last year he complained about our teaching staff not 
having M.A./Ed.S. degrees.  I'm bracing myself for a minor headache 
this school year as his daughter is in my homeroom.  There's at least 
one in every bunch.  :)

> > I think part of what JKR is trying to teach us is to always 
> > QUESTION AUTHORITY, QUESTION OUR ASSUMPTIONS, and always be 
> > vigilant about SEEKING THE TRUTH.
> 
> Some people on some of these HP lists have posted a few anti-HP 
> Letters to the Editor which specifically stated that one of the 
> reasons HP should be banned is that it teaches chilldren to 
question authority.

I tell my students the exact opposite.  Never have I told a 
child, "Because I'm the teacher and I said so."  My generation 
questions *everything*--our boomer parents, our beleaguered school 
systems, our employers, the state of the world we live in, even dusty 
societal dogma.  

This is what the opposition among Christians re: Harry Potter boils 
down to.  There are some Christians who feel that they are to have 
unquestioning obedience to an earthly authority.  Most of these 
Muggles have not read the books or even know much about them.  What 
has happened is that they received misinformation from their pastor 
or their paranoid friend and jumped to conclusions.  They are not bad 
people--they just believe that their salvation depends on total 
obedience to the line of "Do not allow your little ones to be 
corrupted by this Harry Potter garbage!"

I, Ebony, hold that the Bible is the unerring, infallible Word of 
God.  Yet I read Harry Potter enthusiastically.  This may seem like a 
huge contradiction to some, but to me it makes perfect sense.  This 
is because I make it a point to study the Bible for myself and not 
just rely on my pastor for information.  I have many parallel 
versions, commentaries, etc. for serious study.  For devotional 
reading I use the NIV (Carole's recommendation). 

Christians who believe that one should not question authority or God 
must not be reading the same Bible that I've read.  You can count on 
the Bible greats for asking questions of man and Creator.  Jesus 
Himself lead the pack--like any good teacher, He was a master the 
Socratic method.  In the NT, for instance, the Berean church was 
commended for checking *everything* that Paul said to them with study 
of the Scripture.  Automatons aren't of much use in Biblical 
Christianity.

Christianity is not all church and religious dogma.  It's not all 
fluffy pink bunnies and rainbows and smiles either.  The person who 
explains it best to those who do not share our beliefs IMO is C.S. 
Lewis in his *Mere Christianity*.  He, like I, converted to 
Christianity after personal searching and study of many other belief 
systems.  We weren't born to it.  Sometimes I think that helps.  :)

Also IMO--if Lewis (a friend of Tolkien) were alive today, I am sure 
that he would enjoy Harry Potter.  Probably have some interesting 
conversations with Brooks about his World War II parallel theories.

Ebony AKA AngieJ