Defense Against the Dark Arts: Or, Why I Send My Children to A Christian School

This summer, our family is reading aloud the first three books of the Harry Potter series. Sally, who began the summer POSITIVE that she did not want to hear these potentially scary stories, has become so enthralled that she reads and re-reads the books we've finished and even quotes favorite passages (her favorite character is Peeves the Poltergeist). She's not-so-secretly convinced that she will receive a Hogwarts acceptance letter on her 11th birthday.

(Her proof that she is magic: "Once I was mad at Mom and then a mosquito bit her." Nice.)

Meanwhile, Huckle, who has read the whole series, is under strict orders not to reveal the plot twists and outcomes. A summer of such restraint is very difficult for his Hermione-ish knows-everything-and-must-share side. It's all very "Huckle Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" around here.

At the same time, my personal summer reading includes a steady stream of books about raising adolescents. Sigh. It's a new reality becoming more real as I order Huckle's middle school uniform (his first "real" tie and blazer) and fill out the middle school forms for the Christian school he attends.

Reading about adolescence sometimes makes my heart sink: raging hormones, emotional distance from parents, tremendous peer pressure, rampant drug use, girls & body image, and the toll pornography is taking on our internet savvy sons. Stories I have heard from and about students at our local public high school only serve to underscore the dark side of the teen years in this environment of privilege and entitlement.

It's enough to make me daydream about signing my children up for their own Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons a la Hogwarts. Except, of course, my children don't need to worry about hinkypunks, hobgoblins, and hippogriffs. No. They'll face much worse.

And then I realized it -- I HAVE signed my children up for Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons. That's the whole point of sending them to a Christian school, right? They're learning the most powerful defenses available against the most powerful dark arts in the universe.

Expecto Patronum!