No ADHD at the Midnight Showing of Harry Potter
Mr. F and I are not night people–when left to our own devices, we are definitely asleep by 11pm, no later. But we made an exception for the midnight showing last night of the latest Harry Potter film, and it was definitely worth this morning’s sleepiness (and caffeine fixes all anyway).
Professor Snape and I share the same personality type, but I wouldn't say he's my role model for teaching...
Being me, I couldn’t just enjoy the movie, but I had time before the start of the show to observe my fellow film-goers, most of whom looked to be about 16. I’m not around this age group very much–my students are in the next age group up, and there are significant differences. So in a way, I was getting a preview of the coming attractions I’ll see in my classroom a year or two from now.
For starters, you might imagine that a group of teens, with very few “adults” in sight, might be a rowdy bunch. Not so. They were opinionated–a preview for the next Twilight film produced both cheers and jeers, but you could have heard a pin drop when Harry began. The movie was relatively long by current standards–we exited the theatre at about 2:45–but it held the audience in rapt and polite attention.
The message I took away was that attention is not a problem for these teens. Making education as fascinating as Harry and Ginny might be another matter, but if we can move in that direction, I think they’ll meet us at least halfway.
