Cut the teens some slack!

[Garrett]

No: HPFGUIDX 76171

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Peggy" <pegruppel at y...> wrote:
> --- 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

Ok the people who are saying Harry's an angry and over dramatic 
teenager, should look very carefully at how they and there friends 
acted as teenagers. I bet 9 out of 10 of your parents would say, WOW 
my kid acted just like that when they were teens! So next time you 
knock harry for being angry you should ask yourself, how would I have 
acted in this situation?
Garrett (a 13 year old who thinks this is the only group with 
reasonable theroys)