seeking knowledge and keeping secrets-long

[alshainofthenorth]

No: HPFGUIDX 80831

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

> Laura again:
> 
> a child asks you a direct question I think you should tell them 
> *something*.  Maybe you try to answer the real concern under the 
> spoken question if you think that's what's going on.  But Harry has 
> learned already in PS/SS that LV has a vendetta going against him.  
> That's not going to change.  The reasons for it are immaterial-it's 
> the behavior of LV that's the problem. DD should have begun to 
> explain to Harry at an age-appropriate level rather than refusing 
> outright.
> 
> Kneasy suggested a few posts ago that kids Harry's age in PS/SS
don't have a sophisticated understanding of death--that it's forever
and that it can happen even to children.  So even if DD had told Harry
at that point that LV wanted to kill Harry, would he have been as 
fearful as you think?  The idea would still be pretty abstract to 
> him.  And remember, at the end of PS/SS, CoS, and GoF, Harry has 
> defeated LV(albeit temporarily).  So he knows he's not completely 
> powerless.  So telling him the general gist of the prophecy wouldn't 
> have changed anything except that it would have been in Harry's 
> consciousness as an idea he would grow to understand more fully over 
> time (and something DD could build on to help him come to that 
> understanding instead of acting like nothing was going on). And as
he did, he'd also begin to understand the ramifications of that and
what he'd have to do to deal with it.  So learning Occlumency would
have made a lot more sense to him, for instance. 
> 
> I believe that there are times when adults need to withhold or edit 
> information from children, for the sake of the mental health of the 
> children.  But I don't think that's what's happening in these books.  
> The adults are keeping secrets to protect themselves or to avoid 
> difficult subjects.  Neither of those are good reasons, imo.  Kids 
> know when they're being snowed or lied to, and that knowledge can 
> create a level of anxiety that just answering the question never 
> would have.


As you already stated, Laura, Harry knew from the first book that
Voldemort wanted him dead and he has the scar to prove it, no need for
Dumbledore to tell him things he already knows. His first question in
the heart-to-heart they had in PS/SS was WHY. 
Would it be a good idea to explain to an eleven-year-old that 
he is going to either kill Voldemort or be killed by him? How could
Dumbledore *not* cause him mental harm by doing it? And is there even
a way to translate it into terms a child can understand? Harry had
trouble enough adjusting to it four years later.

So I guess I can buy Dumbledore's actions as a consequence of his love
for Harry and his wish to let him have at least some semblance of a
happy childhood. It might not be a wise decision, but understandable.

Grey Wolf beat me to the point of the Order's need for secrecy. What
the kids don't know they can't let slip at school. 

Alshain