The Harry Potter books are better than anyone other than the insightful John Granger believes. They contain many life lessons and one is that you should go to Wheatstone Academy this summer. (At least this is an implication I have drawn from the books . . . ) Don’t let “life lesson” discourage you: Harry Potter is brilliant fun . . . meaning the life lesson goes down as easily as if vitamins were included in your butter beer.
Here is one important thing I learned from Harry Potter and what I have done about it.
A school like Hogwarts is great because Dumbledore runs it and not Umbridge. Safe to say, if you learn nothing else about education than that American education needs more McGonagall and less Umbridge, you have learned much.
What does that mean?
Umbridge is all about procedures while a good teacher and administrator like McGonagall (or to a lesser extent Dumbledore) is all about people. The cause or the school never gets in the way of educating the students. Dolores Umbridge is dolorous precisely because the rules are the essence of the school. Rule keepers are “good” and rule breakers are “bad.” An Umbridge always confuses rules and procedures for morality.
Rules are guides to moral behavior, but they are not equal to moral behavior. The rules say “don’t walk in the grass,” but if you can save a life by driving across my lawn, then by all means break the rule. Of course, the opposite peril exists. Like a Voldemort, one might decide that the rules never apply, but let’s assume no school is quite that bad!
Some rules in the Bible are “bendable” and some are firm. The ceremonial laws are made for our help and not for our hindrance. As a result, they can be “bent” or suspended if it helps people. Man was not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath was made for man. Education in America has become too much about testing, rules, and credits and too little about making sure the individual student learns. You cannot treat Harry like Neville or Hermione like Ron. People are individuals and as such ought to be treated as individuals.
Rule based education always becomes cruel as Umbridge became cruel. Her Hogwarts was for Hogwarts and not for the faculty and students. Her system also had the power of the state, the Ministry of Magic, developing curriculum and turning education into propaganda. Tyrants love rules because one cannot help but break them if enough rules are made. This places all of us in the power of the Umbridge state because Umbridge can always find something we have done wrong.
All of this reminds me that if I am not careful, my favorite causes, party, or even the Faith herself may become a set of rules to follow. How often do I take umbrage when my will is crossed? Moral laws are eternal, but rules, liturgy, and manners can change over time. The things that are cultural can be set aside for the higher law of Love. Any human institution can die, and should die, rather than become Umbridge-like. If only rules govern a nation, then the nation is already dead because a patriot may make mistakes, but he never turns traitor. A man will do great things for love that no Ministry or Magic could bribe him to do.
Love Himself can never be disobeyed because He is Lord of all. What we call love is feeble, mere passion, compared to His reality and He never changes. His Way, the Way of Love, never changes and though it is hard to walk, a true education teaches us the way and helps the ignorant to walk in it.
This summer I will get to spend a week learning the Way with a group of friends at the closest thing to Hogwarts I know. Join us.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In