hidden curriculum

jk rowling was a teacher, and maybe i'm wrong, but i've sensed that she feels a personal responsibility to educate the world's youth in her series of books.

i've noticed, since she gained so much fame, that the more she writes, the more she uses terms that i think kids would have to look up in the dictionary. i can't think of examples now, but i know they are there.

she's also been using that "former/latter" stuff... i don't recall her using those before, and i wonder if she wants to teach kids what all that means... it's not everyday language, and personally i think it's annoying and haughty, moreso the latter.

SPOILER ALERT

but within her curriculum, something bothers me more than word usage. it didn't occur to me until yesterday what impact this might have in the world. all through the book, harry is telling dumbledore and anyone who will listen that snape and malfoy are up to something. no one listens, and the whole castle comes under attack and dumbledore dies because he doesn't listen. now, it's a tragedy that dumbledore didn't listen to harry, and that would be very annoying. but i think- realizing that jk rowling had all control over how things would happen - why would she make dumbledore seem so dumb? why would she, even though harry is supposed to be the hero, make it so that only he, a 16 year old boy, knows the truth? perhaps dumbledore had to die, but did it have to be because he, a wizened, tough, and most-powerful wizard ignored the advice of a 16 year old boy? the book makes it seem that old people ignore young people to their own disadvantage.

it's not right to ignore people, that's true. so why did jk rowling allow dumbledore, who seemed to me to represent fairness and justice, along with wisdom and power, to ignore the pleading of anyone, let alone harry potter? i know she is the one who knows how the series must end, but here we are with two years until the final book, where maybe she will rectify this "old vs. young" squabble...

but until then, we have all these kids running around saying, "you better listen to me, old man, cuz you know what happened to dumbledore when he didn't listen to the young harry potter..."