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FIVE LESSONS OF A DUMBLEDORE EDUCATION What Harry Potter’s mentor knows By Rusmir Musi´c and Lyndsay J. Agans
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ANDS AT THE READY! Don your robes school’s headmaster, whose influence is felt throughout and grab your broomstick, for you are about the school.The students he advises almost universally to depart for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft regard the mysterious and powerful Dumbledore as the and Wizardry. Educators are invited on this journey supreme authority on any given subject. Nonetheless, the because they, too, can conjure moments of magic in last three books of the Harry Potter series illustrate his their work with students.This journey offers an opporhumanity, his complexity, and—dare we say it—his flaws. tunity to consider how to Order of the Phoenix reveals make magical moments a Dumbledore as perhaps too permanent feature of our caring toward his students. work, creating institutions Half-Blood Prince has him as magical as Hogwarts. questioning whether his faith THE TRUE BEAUTY OF J. K. The beauty of J. K. in the power of love and his Rowling’s writing is not unequivocal trust in close ROWLING’S WORK RESTS IN that it crafts other worlds or confidantes ultimately caused HELPING READERS EXPERIENCE THE new educational theories. great personal tragedy. The true beauty of her Deathly Hallows exposes a EVERYDAY WORLD IN A NEW LIGHT work rests in helping readman uncomfortable with ers experience the everyday power.As educators struggle AND DISCUSS COMMON THEORIES world in a new light and to maintain healthy boundWITH A NEW, MORE MAGICAL discuss common theories aries with students, they with a new, more magical should remain mindful of VOCABULARY. vocabulary. After disemRowling’s lesson that they barking from the Hogwarts may never escape questionExpress, you may discover ing how protective or new ways to mentor and empowering to be with stuengage students. dents. Indeed, the essence of education may be in grappling time and time again with this question. Dumbledore, like any mentor, need not be OGWARTS and the world of Harry Potter may help educators re-imagine their daily work and are perfect; it is comforting to know that his imperfections may be what bind him closer to the students. good reminders that intentional formal and informal menDumbledore guides several good educational practoring, informed by educational theory, play an essential role in student learning and development. Mentoring tices at Hogwarts; his philosophy is embedded in five simple yet powerful concepts: information, empowerprinciples at Hogwarts flow from Albus Dumbledore, the
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Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/abc.227 © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 21 ABOUT CAMPUS / NOVEMBER– DECEMBER 2007
ment, self-care, empathy, and choice. Dumbledore’s prinprocess of examining issues, making the best available ciples provide a fresh perspective and a new language choices, and hoping that social good results. with which to engage students, faculty, and staff in disClosely linked with information sharing is Dumcussion of ongoing educational questions. bledore’s unshakable faith in student empowerment. The headmaster believes in giving students inforYoung Harry explores this concept as he reflects on his mation: the tools and knowledge they need to accomface-off with Voldemort in Sorcerer’s Stone:“He’s a funny plish difficult tasks on their own. Confronted by Harry man, Dumbledore. I think he sort of wanted to give me at the end of Sorcerer’s Stone, the first book in the series, a chance. I think he knows more or less everything that the great wizard explains his position. “The truth,” goes on here, you know. I reckon he had a pretty good Dumbledore sighed.“It is a beautiful and terrible thing, idea we were going to try, and instead of stopping us, he and should therefore be treated with great caution. just taught us enough to help” (p. 302). However, I shall answer your questions unless I have a One of the most powerful aspects of the Harry Potvery good reason not to, in which case I beg you’ll forter books rests in the degree of personal agency that is give me. I shall not, of course, lie” (p. 298).Though he allowed in the students.While exceptionally appealing to prepares Harry for the posmany, this level of freedom sibility that some details frightens many more; Harry may be concealed for his and his friends question and own good, in Order of the even break rules set by the Phoenix, Dumbledore quesadults.This empowerment is AS EDUCATORS STRUGGLE TO tions his own hesitancy and centrally about feeding one’s regrets not having given own imagination. In the MAINTAIN HEALTHY BOUNDARIES Harry the knowledge that Harry Potter books, students WITH STUDENTS, THEY SHOULD may have prevented tragic are encouraged to board the events. Dumbledore withHogwarts Express away from REMAIN MINDFUL OF ROWLING’S holds information out of his the world of their parents care for students. Other and toward construction of LESSON THAT THEY MAY NEVER educators’ experiences may their own magical world of ESCAPE QUESTIONING HOW resonate with Dumblepossibilities. Dumbledore’s dore’s; finding balance concept of empowerment is PROTECTIVE OR EMPOWERING TO between providing students somewhat discordant with with necessary information the typical treatment of stuBE WITH STUDENTS. and potentially hurting dents.While an eleven-yearthem is rarely easy. How can old boy can stand up to the we explore truth if truth is most powerful wizard of all not appropriate? How can time, many of our stuwe model integrity while dents—who would be of maintaining appropriate levels of discretion? Would withage in the wizarding world—find roommate conflicts holding information compromise an educator’s credibiloverwhelming and even terrifying. Educators must close ity? Think of moments when you could not disclose this gap between students’ fictional worlds and worldly specific facts behind a judicial conversation or interperreality by challenging and supporting students in their sonal conflict mediation. Rowling’s writing hints that learning and development. Harry has both the tools and there may never be a definitive answer on how to create the confidence to do what is right rather than what is easy. policies or choose levels of transparency. But there is the He is not fearless or doubtless; he is surrounded by those who love him and believe in him and arm him with the necessary tools to succeed. Rusmir Musi´c—a Hufflepuff—is assistant director of experiOne of the most important lessons that students ential programs at Hiatt Career Center, Brandeis University. can learn from a good mentor is how to manage selfLyndsay J. Agans of Gryffindor is the College of Education care, both as individuals and in groups. A good mentor Scholar in the doctoral program in higher education at the knows not only when to push students forward but also University of Denver; she was formerly a quad director at when to pull them back if they do not understand how Brandeis University. much responsibility they can effectively manage. It can We love feedback. Send letters to executive editor Marcia be quite difficult to act in the best long-term interest of Baxter Magolda (
[email protected]), and please copy her on notes to authors. students by denying them new authority and responsi-
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bility, especially when such an administrative decision, seen through the short-term lens, might seem unfair. Dumbledore finds himself in a similar situation in Order of the Phoenix: “I feel I owe you another explanation, Harry,” said Dumbledore.“You may, perhaps, have wondered why I never chose you as a prefect? I must confess . . . that I rather thought . . . you had enough responsibility to be going on with” (p. 844). Dumbledore’s tearful admission demonstrates his deep conflict over his choices. He finds his way through this classic mentor’s dilemma only by trusting his own instincts. While teaching self-care on an individual level may mean restraint, Dumbledore remains quite explicit about the idea that self-care in a group setting means continual sharing through a system of testing and helping. In HalfBlood Prince, for example, Dumbledore instructs Harry to share highly privileged information with Ron and Hermione, though not with other students and adults.The episode draws key characteristics from each person and results in more balance within the group. Hermione, for example, must learn to “sort out her priorities,” lest she remain isolated from Ron and Harry. Harry uses his friends’ support as a platform to hone his leadership skills. Even as Ron struggles to develop an identity separate from his family, his magical background supports the trio during their adventures.The three friends become a miniature self-directed community, in which mistakes can be made and learned from, and in which, despite minor squabbles, support can be expected during the toughest of times. Taking care of one’s self and one’s group requires emotional awareness—especially, as Harry’s lessons with Dumbledore make clear, an understanding and appreciation of the power of love. Dumbledore does not shy away from exploring and exposing his own feelings, even when doing so presents him as vulnerable to Harry. Conversely, he allows Harry to become engulfed in confusing emotions and tolerates Harry’s violent outbursts. Ultimately, however, Dumbledore guides Harry toward love, as this scene from Half-Blood Prince illustrates:
the headmaster does not attempt to teach Harry how to deflect dark spells. Dumbledore instructs Harry on how to understand his nemesis’s feelings and the path they dictate. In Deathly Hallows, even as he continues to question his mentor’s philosophy, Harry demonstrates appreciation for Dumbledore’s wisdom. Love is old magic, more powerful than spells and potions.As a typical teenager, Harry does not fully recognize how love (through his mother’s sacrifice) once saved him and how it continually helps him overpower a man whose predominant emotions are fear and hatred. Educators likewise may face resistance when coaching students on the importance of empathy. Bombarded by information, immersed in their schedules, and distracted from human contact by technology and media, students often do not want to or do not know how to take note of their own feelings. Effective mentors teach students to recognize, manage, and communicate emotions so that they can ultimately learn from them. Dumbledore, the mentor, identifies for Harry that an open heart is the ultimate salvation.Whether confronting dark wizards or self-doubt, the ability to feel for others gives students the greatest power. Rowling suggests and we heartily agree that the learning of the heart must be equal to the learning of the mind. The final lesson of Dumbledore’s philosophy, choice, may be the most powerful. “It is not our abilities that show what we truly are, it is our choices,” says Dumbledore to Harry at the end of Chamber of Secrets (p. 333). Few messages are better for college students than the Half-Blood Prince’s dictum:“You are free to choose your way” (p. 512).The educator’s responsibility is to support students in making good choices, even if they sometimes lead to mistakes. Like the greatest wizard of all time, effective educators invite their students to choose to feel; everything else will fall into place, as if by magic.
NOTES Rowling, J. K. (1998). Harry Potter and the sorcerer’s stone. New York: Scholastic. Rowling, J. K. (1999). Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets. New York: Scholastic. Rowling, J. K. (1999). Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban. New York: Scholastic. Rowling, J. K. (2000). Harry Potter and the goblet of fire. New York: Scholastic. Rowling, J. K. (2003). Harry Potter and the order of the phoenix. New York: Scholastic. Rowling, J. K. (2005). Harry Potter and the half-blood prince. New York: Scholastic. Rowling, J. K. (2007). Harry Potter and the deathly hallows. New York: Scholastic.
“Yes, Harry, you can love,” said Dumbledore . . . “Which, given everything that has happened to you, is a great and remarkable thing. . . .” “So, when the prophecy says that I’ll have ‘power the Dark Lord knows not,’ it just means—love?” asked Harry, feeling a little let down. “Yes—just love,” said Dumbledore. [p. 509] Harry’s lessons with Dumbledore throughout Half-Blood Prince consist not of advanced magic but of how to feel;
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