Trust in students
Dumbledore was too wise to think that Ministry officials hold the keys to the action that was required in “dark and difficult times.”
While Dumbledore trusts the members in the Order of the Phoenix – he saved the most important tasks to three of his students, Harry, Hermione, and Ron. In the end, it is Dumbledore’s Army, “a teenager’s gang that’s about to take him on, which no else has dared to do!’ said Fred” (Deathly Hallows 604). History has shown us that it is the power of young people coming together questioning power that moves mountains. Governments that think of young people as naïve and unrealistic tend to make incompetent choices that in the case of the Ministry of Magic, lead to their downfall.
“’I would not expect you to understand’…’you are sixteen years old—‘
“’Dumbledore’s a lot older than sixteen, and he doesn’t think Stan should be in Azkaban either,’ said Harry….’You never get it right, you people, do you? Either we’ve got Fudge, pretending everything’s lovely while people get murdered right under his nose, or we’ve got you, chucking the wrong people into jail and trying to pretend you’ve got ‘the Chosen One’ working for you!’” (HBP 346-347).
I don’t think the point is that those in power never get it right. I think the point is that in order to get it right those in power should be trusting young people to lead the way.
The third paragraph reminds me of another great Dumbledore quote: “Age is foolish and forgetful when it underestimates youth,” from Half-Blood Prince.
As a minor, I agree. I and other teenagers were constantly speaking out about how disproportionate the funds are in our city, going to seniors (a huge minority) rather than youth (the huge majority). Nobody paid us any mind until I finally went in front of the City Council, gave them a boatload of numbers and anecdotes supporting my case, and then, once I had them convinced, revealing I was just barely going into high school, despite my adult-sounding voice and huge gloops of stage makeup that made me look older.
Alexa — It’s great that you felt comfortable and confident enough to speak out! Yay for you!
I’ve been thinking about the question of trust and how it played out in HP. Dumbledore took huge risks with his trust. He trusted Harry to make the choice (and it had to be a choice) to sacrifice himself for his friends. He trusted that Snape would be able to rise above his hates to embrace that which he loved. If Dumbledore had been wrong about either of them, everything would have failed. Ultimately, he trusted that people would rise to the best in themselves, not the worst.
(And good for you Alexa. I’m a senior but I worry a lot about how much of society’s resources we’re going to consume to the detriment of my beloved children and grandchildren. Keep speaking out, all your life. You’ll be amazed at how much your courage will accomplish.)
Cheers, Alexa, and congratulations. I’m also a minor. Did the Council actually listen to you?
In Goblet of Fire, Dumbledore says, “Youth cannot know how age thinks and feels. But old men are guilty if they forget what it was to be young…”
I think that sort of fits into this. It seems like the ones in charge are forgetting what it is to be, not just young, but young and trying to succeed. They assume we don’t understand their logic, while we, children, can spot holes in their plan. They forget what it was like to be us, and focus more on their own careers and profit. That’s why we have things like No Child Left Behind, and bad health care, and the recession.
I think that people sometimes forget that although teenagers seem young, they have had experience. They do understand what goes on and they have ideas on how to fix things. Although I will only be a teenager for a few more months I want to show people who have believed in me that my teenage years were not a waste. It is very important for adults to realize that teenagers are people and are capable of things that they would never even dare to try whether good or bad.