Surprise! My one article on Harry Potter at Suite101.com got more hits than any of the others by far. Should have seen that coming. So in the interest of building a readership there, I wrote another:
As usual, I welcome all questions, comments, and declarations of heresy.
You can tell I’ve got education on the brain, what with this presentation on literacy that I’m doing for Convention Alley. By the way, you can now register for day passes or Keynote presentation w/ meals for Convention Alley. If I understand correctly, the day pass would not get you into the keynote events, but I’ll check to clarify. The prices and keynote events are below the break:Day Passes: $30.00 each
Keynote Tickets: $45.00 each
The Keynote Presentations are as follows:
Friday Lunch – John Granger - ”Snape’s Green Eyed Girl: Dante, Renaissance Florence, and the Death of the Potions Master”
Saturday Lunch – Travis Prinzi – “Quills, Queries and Quests: Literacy Learning in Harry Potter”
Sunday Brunch – Travis Prinzi – “Fountains, Fabians and Freedoms: Dumbledore as Fabius Maximus and Libertarian Headmaster”
Friday Dinner – Karen Kebarle – “If Rowling says Dumbledore is Gay, is he Gay?: In other words, what do we do with Rowling’s interpretations of her own books?”
Saturday Dinner – John Granger – “Unlocking Deathly Hallows: Five Keys for a Greater Appreciation of the Last Harry Potter Novel”
Arabella Figg on 
Joivre on 
PotterMom05 on 
Red Rocker on 
korg20000bc on 
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{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
If nothing else, Travis, you are a big fan of alliteration.
Yeah, there aren’t that many Q words in the dictionary.
Read your article on the Weasleys. Even checked out a few ads. Neat birthday cards. Just need to point out that Umbridge was not interested in education at all, so her methods shouldn’t really be considered “bad” education. In that sense, her methods are a “straw man” target for poor education. The ghostly Professor Binns, perhaps, would be a better “poor” example, as well as the dramatically interesting but pedogogically challenged Professsor Snape. Must admit, however, that JKR gives us more than her share of awful teachers.
I’m really sorry to have to miss Convention Alley. Ordinarily, I’m only a two hour drive from Ottawa. That week-end, I’ll be a three hour plane trip away.
Sorry for the double post, but here’s a comment on Convention Alley.
Is Karen Kaberle going to argue that JKR’s comment on Dumbledore’s sexual orientation is a matter of opinion? The use of the word “interpretation” in the title of her talk certainly suggests that.
Will you be attending the dinner? Can you give us a synopsis of her arguments, the audience respsonse, including your own?
Just need to point out that Umbridge was not interested in education at all, so her methods shouldn’t really be considered “bad” education. In that sense, her methods are a “straw man” target for poor education.
I disagree. I think she’s very interested in education, for the reasons that overly-involved governments are usually interested in education. She’s a caricature, but the themes are all there.
Will you be attending the dinner? Can you give us a synopsis of her arguments, the audience respsonse, including your own?
I will be there, and I plan to report on it!
Travis, great article! Agree completely. Dolores Umbridge, even being a caricature, she epitomizes the theory of education criticized by Pink Floyd in “Another Brick in the Wall.” Students are just faceless bricks to be processed through the system. Individuality & creativity are discouraged; conformity & mindless obedience is encouraged & enforced.
This is in fact the current educational system of the United States & has been for quite some time. Based on the Prussian model of education where students were to be primarily trained to be good citizens of the state & good workers & also good consumers but not good thinkers.
The recent ruling by the California Supreme Court on homeschooling shows this attitude to be alive & well, “A primary purpose of the educational system is to train school children in good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation as a means of protecting the public welfare.”
Don’t let anyone fool you with talk about getting people a good education. If that has happened to some people, it’s been a mistake or an oversight, the primary purpose of education in America right now is in training people in loyalty to the state & in providing consumers to purchase products.
The Fred’s & George’s of the world are an anathema to such a system & are easily dealt with by having the creativity crushed out of them by mindless boredom or if that doesn’t work by being dosed with mind controlling drugs.
And yes, I know there are some children who need ADD drugs. But the rampant over diagnosis of ADD & the overprescription of medications shows there’s a deeper problem going on.
Sorry for the rant. Just an important subject to me, even though I don’t have kids. But hey I still get to pay taxes to support the schools!
Again, great work, Travis. Unfortunately with insights like yours, if you enter the system, you’re going to have a hard slog of it.
Red Rocker said, “Is Karen Kaberle going to argue that JKR’s comment on Dumbledore’s sexual orientation is a matter of opinion? The use of the word “interpretation” in the title of her talk certainly suggests that.”
Yes, I’d like to hear your report on it, too, Travis. Good luck on your own presentations.
revgeorge,
AD&D in drug form?! Man, I never knew Advanced Dungeons & Dragons was available in such a format. Could you order it in fighter, magic user or thief or did you have to go by elf, dwarf, human or halfling?
Matthew, that would’ve been nice to get AD&D in drug form. Sadly, not a lot of time was spent developing & prescribing those kinds of drugs.
revgeorge,
What a quote: “A primary purpose of the educational system is to train school children in good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation as a means of protecting the public welfare.”
Speaking as an outsider (from Australia) my impression is that many Americans would not have a problem with that definition.
Australians might wince at that definition, but it is true for our education system as well.
And I wonder if Rowling is making a comment on corporal punishment with Harry having to write on his hand. As someone who grew up with the cane at school, it made me wince reading it.
… Oh, and Travis,
That was a great article (sorry!)
I love Fred & George’s rebellion. It was really needed to lighten up a very dark book, and shows the power of humour to expose the emperor’s clothes. Are they like Court Jesters (tricksters telling the truth)?
Are they like Court Jesters (tricksters telling the truth)?
Can’t give too much away here…I discuss this line of thinking in the book.
Man, everything’s apparently in your book, Travis.
It better be published quickly.
Black Angus, yes, it is quite a quote. I’m surprised but not shocked the California court justices actually put that language in their ruling. But it is unfortunately a statement that most people would agree with. How can it be bad, after all? Citizenship, loyalty, patriotism to the state & public welfare. All sound good, until you realize what the system means by them. But most people don’t realize, ’cause they’ve gone to public school.
Alexis de Tocqueville noted in his book, Democracy in America, that democracies have the tendency to slip into what is called a soft despotism. Wikipedia notes, “Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by self-interest might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called ‘hard despotism’) in the sense that it is not obvious to the people. In a soft despotism, people may have the illusion that they are in a democracy, when in fact they have no influence in the government. Alexis de Tocqueville observed that this trend was avoided in America only by the “habits of the heart” of its 19th-century populace. {quote from Alexis de Tocqueville’s book Democracy in America}
Certainly I think this has happened in America, perhaps most other major democratic countries around the world. The America deTocqueville viewed certainly wasn’t the one that came out of the Civil War.
Just to keep it on the subject of Fred & George, I also agree that their departure from Hogwarts was one of the highlights of an otherwise dark book. And as someone mentioned, I can’t remember where now, the turning point of the book when things started to spiral out of control for Umbridge.
Oh, actually it was Travis who mentioned it in his excellent article. Sorry I forget where I had heard it already.
I’m not sure that the California verdict was about creativity and independent thinking, exactly. Although it ultimately ended up as a decision against homeschooling, it started out as a debate over spanking, homosexuality and evolution. The state of California disagreed with the parents’ right to physically discipline their kids through spanking; the parents disagreed with the state’s right to teach their kids about homosexual/lesbian/transexual lifestyles and evolution.
This is the father’s position:
(the father) has told WND he objects to the pro-homosexual, pro-bisexual, pro-transgender agenda of California’s public schools, on which WND previously has reported.
“We just don’t want them teaching our children,” he told WND. “They teach things that are totally contrary to what we believe. They put questions in our children’s minds we don’t feel they’re ready for.
“When they are much more mature, they can deal with these issues, alternative lifestyles, and such, or whether they came from primordial slop. At the present time it’s my job to teach them the correct way of thinking,” he said.
Somehow I don’t think that either the pc state education system or the creationist parents are quite in the spirit of casual disregard for authority and learning through independent inquiry and experimentation that Fred and George stand for.
Great article, Travis. I too loved that Fred and George left school on their own terms, making it fun for the other students “left behind” as well as showing Umbridge that they really did know a thing or two. Although Molly was initially disappointed that they left (which I can understand; we mothers are an anxious lot), let us not forget where the seeds of their creativity were planted and nurtured – they were homeschooled until they got to Hogwarts. We Homeschoolers Who Love Harry Potter rejoiced when Jo came out with that in an interview!
Red Rocker said, “I’m not sure that the California verdict was about creativity and independent thinking, exactly.”
Which was why I wasn’t focused on the particular details of the case but on the attitude expressed by the court, that education exists for the purpose of instilling loyalty to the state. In essence, children are the property of the state & thus the state has the duty to see to it that their loyalty is to the state above all else.
And despite any faults it may have, homeschooling seems to be a better place for instilling creativity & independent thinking than in the machinery of the state. Certainly, homeschooling can respond more quickly to a student’s needs, whereas public education is pretty much a one size fits all approach.