WARNING – POSSIBLE SPOILER
I saw the latest Harry Potter in the theaters last night and really enjoyed it. I thought the plot was great and a real slap in the face of institutionalized schooling. It sent a great message kids to question the bullshit that they have to put up with in school!
The “ministry” (I cringed whenever I heard that word) was becoming paranoid about what was going on at Hogwarts. They sent in one of their lackys (a real bitch) to Hogwarts to whip everything into shape. Her first order of business was not to teach the children anything (she actually admits to this), but to prepare them for pointless standardized tests. (NCLB anyone? They must have forgotten to mention was all the added cost to the muggle parents.)
Eventually the bitch gets in charge and all hell breaks lose. She makes up a whole bunch of bullshit, arbitrary rules, which nobody follows (much to my delight). She knows the students are planning some sort of revolt, but cannot figure it out so she offers “extra credit” to students who rat other students out. This doesn’t work so she resorts to torture to get the information she needs, but eventually the students do revolt and ruin her standardized testing (much to my delight).
Overall, I enjoyed the movie and highly recommend it to children (and sure adults too). I further recommend these same children mimic Harry and question anything and everything any adult tells them. Thank you J.K. Rawling.
