[HPforGrownups] Teaching, HP and C.S. Lewis (long)

[Peg Kerr]

No: HPFGUIDX 1552

Ebony Elizabeth wrote:

> 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.
>

I'm still rooting for Neville to teach Herbology.  I get the impression it's
the one area in his life where he's gotten positive feedback.  I think I
heard in one JR interview somewhere that one person in Harry's class will
end up teaching, and for some reason, I have a gut feeling that it'll be
him.  Of course, this means that something's going to happen to Sprout . . .

> 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've just had a conversation with my seven year old daughter, who has been
catching some flack from other kids in her class room, apparently children
of the Some Christians in your paragraph above, and she's puzzled by these
comments.  I've thought about what to say to those Some Christians, but it
was a bit more difficult to think of what to say to my daughter when she is
confused by the comments of these Some Christians.  Any other parents out
there have this experience?  How do you explain to your children the nature
of the argument over the suitability of the Harry Potter books?  I found the
conversation a bit challenging; I felt as if I was simply baffling her
further as I tried to explain.

> 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. <snip>
> Christians who believe that one should not question authority or God
> must not be reading the same Bible that I've read.

This is my orientation, too, and it's the orientation I want my children to
have, too.

Peg