A Lesson on Teaching from Harry Potter - Part 1

I was late to jump on The Hogwarts Express. I didn't complete the series until this past summer while on sabbatical with my family. Needless to say, this was a series that made the long drives incredibly enjoyable (Jim Dale is an incredible narrator!).

As I mentioned in an earlier post, preachers are blessed (or cursed) with the ability to hear most anything and immediately file it away as a potential sermon illustration. The Harry Potter series is chock full of such happenings. When I read Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban I came across a scene that made me want to stop and write about it immediately.

Professor Remus Lupin, teacher of Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts, was taking his students to learn how to repel a boggart. I immediately knew I was about to hear a fascinating story when Lupin began his class in a way that is atypical to most modes of education.

“Good afternoon,” he said. “Would you please put all your books back in your bags. Today’s will be a practical lesson. You will need only your wands.”

This may be a bit geeky, but I am fascinated by people that know how to teach or apprentice in such a way that the learner actually learns new skills. I want to be a teacher like that. I want to teach others how to live in the power of the Kingdom, and experience a new power for life in doing so. Therefore, I am always seeking to learn from gifted educators, including professor Lupin.

As Lupin was taking his kids to the wardrobe where the boggart was, another professor named Severus Snape, a man that was beloved by absolutely zero students, said to Lupin and the students within earshot:

"Possibly no one’s warned you, Lupin, but this class contains Neville Longbottom. I would advise you not to entrust him with anything difficult."

Now Neville Longbottom was what we might describe as the kind of guy that is afraid of his own shadow. Fear and uncertainty are almost literally coded in his DNA. He has an amazing ability to trip over air, forget things immediately, and many other undesirable qualities. One wonders if having wizarding abilities was a cruel joke played on him. Needless to say Snape was not the only one who doubted Longbottom's ability to repel a boggart... Even Longbottom doubted that he could do it.

Professor Lupin, however, did not. For Remus Lupin was a teacher extraordinaire.

He proceeded to teach the students the charm (10 points to the house of the reader that says it out loud) that would repel a boggart and had the class repeat the phrase several times together. Then, confident that they had enough practice and were ready to move to the next stage, he asks Neville Longbottom to be the first one to have a shot at repelling the boggart.

This was the part that I found truly inspirational. By starting with the student nobody believed in, he would elevate the confidence of the entire class if the student was successful. Kind of like when a group of fearful kids sees another kid go down the slide head first, then they all think they can do it, too.

“Neville, we’re going to back away,” said Professor Lupin. “Let you have a clear field, all right?” They all retreated, backed against the walls, leaving Neville alone beside the wardrobe. He looked pale and frightened, but he had pushed up the sleeves of his robes and was holding his wand ready. “On the count of three, Neville,” said Professor Lupin, who was pointing his own wand at the handle of the wardrobe. “One—two—three—now!”

Neville backed away, his wand up, mouthing wordlessly. Snape [the form the shape shifting boggart assumed] was bearing down upon him, reaching inside his robes.

“R-R-Riddikulus!” squeaked Neville.

There was a noise like a whip crack. Snape stumbled; he was wearing a long, lace-trimmed dress and a towering hat topped with a moth-eaten vulture, and he was swinging a huge crimson handbag.

He did it!

A few minutes earlier neither professor Snape, nor Neville, nor any other student on Hogwarts campus believed that Neville could successfully repel a boggart. Only one person believed he could. After Neville successfully repelled the boggart each student thereafter confidently stood forward and repelled it themselves.

I actually think this is what Christian spiritual formation classes should look like. It's safe to say that we have focused on book-learning as the primary means of growth for long enough. The results are observable and anyone who cares to look will see that all of our curriculum and 6 week studies are not helping people become like Jesus.

A few years ago I was in a men's class. We were reading through a book on living free from the control of anger. After we'd finished the last chapter we immediately began discussing which book to read next. I interrupted them and asked, "How many of you can say that you've learned how to live free from the control of anger?" None of them raised their hands. Then why, I wonder, were we rushing off to the next book?

We shouldn't do away with books altogether, for they are more precious than gold, but they should have their proper place in the formation process and no longer be forced to bear the entire burden of changing a person.

I bet if we could see Jesus and his disciples walking around we would see him using the approach to teaching that Remus used on Neville. How else would he come to the point where he could tell his disciples to go and teach, preach, heal, cast out demons, and even raise the dead? At some point he would've taught them how to do those things.

We need to return to this kind of formative learning through affective teaching. We need Christian education leaders who are so immersed in the Life themselves that they can say to their students. "Good afternoon, would you please put all your books back in your bags. Today’s will be a practical lesson. You will need only yourselves.”

This way disciples of Jesus can actually begin learning to do all the he commanded his students to do.

Without spoiling the book for those who are still trying to figure out which platform one uses to board the Hogwarts Express, I am happy to report that Neville Longbottom developed into a young man that displayed immense amounts of bravery and courage. I wonder if the initial discovery of those heroic characteristics was made in front of a wardrobe with a boggart in it, and a teacher who believed in him standing alongside.

I plan on writing about some other themes I found in the Harry Potter series; if you noticed any other interesting themes that can be applied to discipleship comment below and let me know.

Thanks for taking the time to read.