Home > Gwinnett > Rick Badie / My Opinion > Archives > 2006 > April > 22
Saturday, April 22, 2006
Parents should teach kids difference between real, make-believe worlds
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
When he was younger, I’d ask my son questions while he watched TV.
There’d be some superhero who’d stopped a speeding missile, then rescued a sinking ship. Or some cartoon character who’d jump back up after being smacked by a semi.
“Do you believe someone could actually do that?” I’d ask.
“No,” Miles would answer. Then he’d look at me as if I were crazy.
It was just Dad’s way of making sure his son was grounded, that he could distinguish between the real world and fantasy.
If nothing else, our Harry Potter debate tells me that some critics can’t differentiate between the two.
On Thursday, a hearing was held in which defenders and critics got to say whether Harry Potter books should be removed from Gwinnett County schools. Laura Mallory, a Loganville mother, filed the complaint that led to the hearing. The books, the missionary and mother of four said, teach adults and children witchcraft. It’s anti-Christian, too.
Potter foes found a poster child in 15-year-old Jordan Fuchs. At the hearing, she said the books made her obsessed with witchcraft. She and friends cast spells and even performed a seance during gym period. It’s unclear whether any of it worked. Her obsession made her angry and depressed. She even contemplated suicide.
Jordan’s mother, Stacy Thomas, said her daughter’s demonic spiral started around sixth grade. She testified at the hearing that she couldn’t explain the change. But she knows this: Jordan’s activities hurt the “Christian family,” cost them friends and made them the “town outcasts.”
Thomas learned that Jordan had been reading Potter.
Eureka! It was all the fault of a wizard-in-training.
“She became heavily involved with witchcraft and Wicca,” said Thomas, a mother of five. “Witchcraft almost destroyed my family, and it all started with Harry Potter.”
Go ahead. Laugh. I admit it’s funny.
But sad, too.
It’s hard to look within. Potter — at least in the case of this mom and daughter — has become the scapegoat for issues that rival any sorcerer’s tale. Blame is laid on the pages of a book. On literature that’s got children reading, whose central theme is friendship, courage and good vs. evil.
But that doesn’t matter to some critics. They want the books banned.
Su Ellen Bray, a retired DeKalb County school administrator who served as the hearing officer Thursday, has five days to give board members a recommendation. Then, the school board will have 10 days to make a decision to remove the six Potter books or not.
Like her mother, Jordan said she wants the books banned. She said she’s turned her life around and is on the road to recovery.
I hope so.
But given the apparent denial and misplaced blame, you have to wonder: Does her mother have her daughter’s recovery taking place in the real world or a make-believe one?
