[HPforGrownups] Should Harry have told on DJU? (was Re: Harry as last DADA teacher?)

[Shaun Hately]

No: HPFGUIDX 100602

On 9 Jun 2004 at 14:16, potioncat wrote:

> Someone wrote a very good post a while back, I suspect it was Geoff 
> or Shaun, about the schoolboy code (it wasn't called that, but that 
> was the idea) and it was about keeping quiet.  Whether that's 
> British or frontier, or warrior...there are cultural groups who 
> approach life that way. It really explained, I thought, what was 
> most likely going on in Harry's mind. It must have been in Lee 
> Jordan's mind too, because he didn't seem to report it either.

Yep - it might have been me writing about it, I'm not sure - but 
it's certainly something I'm very aware of.

As I've mentioned numerous times, I attended a school based very on 
archetypal (almost stereotypical) British school traditions - the 
same traditions that I think JKR drew on in creating Hogwarts. I 
know of a lot of other people who went to similar schools in the UK 
and around the Commonwealth - and there are certain commonalities. 
They are *not* universal - there are exceptions - but in general 
you can make statements about the common attitudes in these 
schools.

And one of these things is that you accept what happens to you to a 
great extent. If an injustice is done, you grin and bear it. You do 
*not* complain - often not even to your friends, but *especially* 
not to teachers. It just isn't the done thing.

That's not a particularly *good* attitude - but it's a real one. 
And most people who go to such schools where this happens, do buy 
into the system. And it's a very hard thing to break - when I was 
at school, the adults - the teachers - at my school had come to 
realise that this was a bad system in many ways - and they were 
*trying* to change it. I have vivid memories of sitting in my Form 
Masters office in Form III as he tried *desperately* to get me to 
give the name of the people who were making my life a living hell. 
This man was virtually in tears from frustration because he knew I 
was being hurt, and he knew he could so something about it - and I 
wouldn't give him the names! And it wasn't because I didn't want 
the problem dealt with - I would have been *delighted* to see these 
boys caught and punished (and eventually they were, and it was 
great), but I wasn't going to break 'the code' or whatever you want 
to call it.

Frankly... in many ways, it was a good thing I didn't - because if 
I had, I'd have become a pariah. Things might have improved for me 
with regards to the small number of boys who bullied me - but they 
would have been worse with almost everyone else.

As I say, my school tried to fix this - but even today, 15 years 
after I was sitting in that office, they've had very limited 
success. The system just doesn't change easily.

It does have some good aspects as well, I must say. It helps create 
a school environment where kids learn to be self sufficient and 
develop resilience. And you do see that at Hogwarts, I think - 
these kids are remarkably self sufficient.

The problem with it, is that it goes too far. Kids wind up trying 
to deal with problems which they are *not* able to deal with 
without adult help. But trying to find a balance where you develop 
kids who are self sufficient, resilient; but *still* know when it's 
time to ask for help. That's tricky. Very tricky.


Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
Shaun Hately | www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/thelab.html
(ISTJ)       | drednort at alphalink.com.au | ICQ: 6898200 
"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one
thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the 
facts. They alter the facts to fit the views. Which can be 
uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that 
need altering." The Doctor - Doctor Who: The Face of Evil
Where am I: Frankston, Victoria, Australia