Do not handicap your children by making their lives easy.
Excerpt from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long in «Time Enough For Love» by Robert A. Heinlein
I recently read the (very short) guidebook to Hogwarts (Harry Potter, yeah, I thought I mentioned it, if case you haven’t read it — it’s good, despite many people saying that it’s good). One thought struck me: Perhaps these novels have such a large following, because the children in Hogwarts — any children, not only the protagonists — can have adventures.
It’s not necessarily that all do (excluding the protagonists whose adventures make the series), but there are in an environment that is a) not safe and b) which they can explore.
In short, they are not bubble-wrapped like many children today.
And yeah, at times the danger become actual damage, and at times even death, and we do not have magic to, e.g., quickly (if painfully) regrow broken-and-accidentally-removed bones, but there is something to be said for that freedom.
Just a thought.
(BTW, for a less dangerous alternative, Gever Tulley’s TED talk (back when they were good) is worth listening to.)
