Psychologists say HP is wonderful!

[Steve Vander Ark]

No: HPFGUIDX 18370

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Tandy, Heidi" <heidi.h.tandy.c92 at a...> 
wrote:

Did you notice that by far most of them had read the books? Here's a 
quote:

    "Almost everyone in the audience of about 100 psychiatrists,
     psychiatry students and their spouses said they'd read at least
     one of the Potter books. Three-quarters had read all four."

That is so cool.

> connecticut doctor said he has worked with some children who've 
became
> obsessed with Harry Potter and take the books as proof that they 
don't have
> to obey adults. 
> Methinks that said children may be predisposed to such things and 
if HP
> wasn't around, they would've used Bart Simpson or something 
instead. The
> same doctor said the girl was much improved now that she's reading 
Nancy
> Drew. 

Notice also that he said he'd only read a few bits of the books and 
that he had learned a lot from the conference. I got the impression 
from the CNN article that he was open to changing his mind. 



> Putting aside the whole "magic" issue for a moment, how is a 
seventeen year
> old crime solver who pretty much does what she wants a better 
person for a
> troubled child to model herself on than Harry is?

Yeah, how about we go back to the classics of American literature as 
examples for our kids. After all, Things Were Better Back Then.

Characters like, oh, Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. Yeah, there's a couple 
of great role models for you. I read Tom Sawyer aloud to 5th graders 
and believe me, they all want to be Tom. Seriously! It sounds like he 
has the best time... You know: stealing, lying, fighting, breaking 
every rule, running away from home, sneaking around graveyards at 
midnight with a dead cat to perform an incantation that will cure 
warts, smoking a corncob pipe, thoughtlessly breaking a little girl's 
heart, things like that. Ton's first sentence to the new boy in town 
is "I can lick you." 

Makes Harry look like a saint.

Steve Vander Ark
The Harry Potter Lexicon
created and edited by a bona fide librarian
http://www.i2k.com/~svderark/lexicon