Cut the teens some slack!

[Peggy]

No: HPFGUIDX 76144

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "klmf1" <KLMF at a...> wrote:
> I keep reading all these posts that are highly critical of behavior 
> and personalities in our cast of teenage characters.......To quote 
> Dumbledore (Am.OoP, pg.826) "...Youth can not know how age thinks 
and 
> feels.  But old men are guilty if they forget what it was to be 
> young..."
> 
Peg:

Thank you, Karen.  The young people we're reading about are acting 
just like what they are--young people.  Teenagers.  I'm only 
surprised that they're as manageable as they are.  I think JKR has 
seen enough teenagers in action (she's been a teacher, after all) to 
know how they're going to behave.  

More importantly, she remembers how it *feels.*  I also remember 
being that young, and I'd never be that age again for *any* reason 
whatsoever.  Once was quite enough.

And just to illustrate the kind of changes that they go through, I'll 
have to quote my mother, an English teacher for 35 years at a small 
high school (U.S.).  She got every kid in the community--the ones 
from divorces, abusive households, "normal" households, etc.  Being 
from a small town, she knew the kids' families and what was going on 
with them.  She never took "acting out" too personally.  That doesn't 
mean she put up with it, only that she didn't let it get under her 
skin.

Years later, some of the worst of the bad actors meet her in the 
grocery store or somewhere else, and say something like "I was pretty 
awful, wasn't I?"  

She usually responds with something to the effect of "I knew what was 
going on in your life, so I didn't worry about it."

They outgrow this stuff.

Right now, Harry is going through changes that makes my Mom's 
students' problems look minor.  Orphaned, emotionally abused, 
apparently abandoned by Dumbledore, threatened with expulsion from 
the one place he calls home, physically assaulted by a teacher 
(Umbridge and that quill), attacked by dementors, adult wizards and 
LV, burdened with the knowledge that he is living in a "destroy or be 
destroyed" situation.  Heck, I'm surprised the kid hasn't tried to 
feed himself to the giant squid.  Except the squid is probably smart 
enough (hey, it's a magical squid!) not to let him do it.

I enjoyed OotP, and I'm looking forward to the next installment.

Peg