The Weasleys/Fanfic/Kid's Poll

[Ebony]

No: HPFGUIDX 8595

Still living in the pre-telephone age... there's so much I'd like to 
reply to...

1)  The Weasleys collectively are wonderful.  Just because I can't 
relate to Ron much doesn't mean that I don't adore the family.  
They remind me so much of my own upbringing... 

The more I think about it, I'd have to say that I'm definitely the 
Percy of the family, Hermione at every school I've ever attended, a 
weird cross between Lupin, McGonagall, and Snape as a 
teacher (hey, at least there's no Binns in me!), and someone 
else entirely when in the midst of a group of friends.

If JKR allows Percy to betray his family, I'll be disappointed.  
Though we real-life Percys may grouse and complain about the 
irresponsible youngsters, we'd give both life and limb on their 
behalf.  Remember Percy's obvious concern at the end of the 
second task in GoF?  When all is said and done, we big sisters 
and big brothers love those annoying brats who are always 
underfoot.  :-)

2)  I plan to read Kathy and Scott's fanfics the minute my 
connection is restored at home... congratulations to both of you!
Also, I smiled when I read the list of new co-moderators.  All of 
them are so cool that no further information about where they 
stand on "the issues" is needed... :-P

3)  I did a scientific poll of my youngest students (fifth grade, 
ages 9-11) during bellwork/journal time to see who their favorite 
HP characters were and which character they related to the 
most.  ("Scientific" because I simply put the questions on the 
board, handed out index cards, and tallied the results without 
fanfare or discussing it beforehand or giving my opinion 
afterward.)

Out of 100 students, Harry dominated the first category by nearly 
5 to 1.  Hermione and (to my horror) the collective Dursleys were 
tied for a distant second place.  Only three students voted for 
Ron.  One went for Dumbledore "'cause he's large and in 
charge".  There were many other "one vote" characters.

The second category IMO proves that I had nothing to do with the 
results of this poll.  Nearly half of the students polled (most of 
whom do like the HP series to some degree) said that they could 
not personally relate to any of the categories at all.  (My theory is 
that these votes came from the kids who like HP a lot, but feel 
cultural "distance" from his fictional world.)

The other half seemed to divide along gender lines... the boys 
voted for Harry or Ron (2/3 Harry, 1/3 Ron), and the girls 
unanimously voted for Hermione.

The biggest shock of all?  Not a single vote was cast for Draco 
Malfoy.  Indeed, when I mentioned his name, all of the children 
seemed a bit horrified that he was even under consideration.  
"Why?" I asked.  "Because he hates Harry!" was the reply.

Shows just how cooperative children are when reading 
narratives.   Unlike we adults who value the ability to discern 
shades of gray in everyone, I think that children still see the world 
in binary terms.

My sixth, seventh, and eighth graders--adolescents and young 
teens--are more like the adults here in that they all like different 
characters.  The only one who I know no one cares for is 
Voldemort.  While my fifth graders love the story and could care 
less about getting into the characters' heads, the junior high 
schoolers like to predict outcomes and make all sorts of wild 
inferences.

This was interesting to me, if no one else.  Just thought I'd 
share.

--Ebony