Star Wars on Trial: Charge #9

For many of us, the groups to which we belong define who we are. For Harry Potter, being a student at Hogwarts and belonging to Gryffindor House are arguably the most important things in his life. However, even the most casual reader of the books has noticed that groups are also the source of the greatest conflicts in Harry’s world, particularly at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In many ways, Hogwarts seems to be a “perfect storm” in terms of intergroup tension. Knowingly or not, the school administrators have created and reinforced a structure that has all the necessary ingredients to brew some potent intergroup conflict.
Groups are important and provide us with innumerable benefits. For example, becoming a Gryffindor and joining the Quidditch team add more to Harry’s life than just labels or new friends. These group memberships change the way Harry defines himself, and for Harry– like the … read more»
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Here’s what you need to know up front: I’m not a big fan of Will Schuester. In fact, whenever he comes on the screen, I sort of cringe inwardly and hope against hope that he’s not going to regale us with old-school hip-hop.
Sadly, I am usually disappointed, and I’ve suffered … read more»
When I was thirteen my brother, six years my senior, caught my best friend and me in the finished basement of our Worcester, Massachusetts, home fooling around (in those days that meant serial kissing) with a couple of boys we’d met some months earlier at a local youth center. It … read more»
As an author of teen fiction, there are many things I
absolutely love about my job: meeting new people,
spending all day creating fictional boys for my readers to
crush on, and developing whole new mythologies inside my
head. But I have to say that one of the absolute best … read more»