Harry Potter

&
The Importance of Imagination

“We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we
need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine
better.

ESL Activity
inspired by J.K. Rowling 2008 Harvard commencement speech
If you ever made anything unexplainable happen, you are...
...a teacher.
...a wizard.
...a student.

Harry is accepted at...

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Broomery
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Cookery

The dining room is lit by...

candles.
electric lights.
torches.

Hedwig, the owl,brings Harry...

a letter.
a broom.
a cupcake.

In his forehead, Harry Potter has...

a spot.
a beauty mark.
a scar.

Hermione casts a spell on Neville Longbottom, which makes him...

sing.
fall.
laugh.

According to Hagrid, not all Wizards are...

God.
good.
great.

The gigantic, fierce dog has got...

three heads.
three legs.
three eyes.
 Magic

"I can make things move without touching them. I can make animals do what I want without training
them. I can make bad things happen to people who are mean to me.
I can make them hurt if I want to..."
—Young Tom Riddle describes his magical skills

Magic is a supernatural force that can alter the fabric of reality at fundamental levels. The ability to use
magic is a hereditary trait passed down from a person's ancestors, which allows witches and wizards
to practise witchcraft and wizardry.

The basic concepts of magic are fairly simple — even a two-year-old wizard can do some form of
magic — but the inherent power and potential for misuse are great indeed. It is for this reason that
promising young witches and wizards are sent to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry or other
schools of magic to refine their craft and learn the art and responsibility of their power. At Hogwarts,
students learn a variety of magical specialties as well as general theory and the history of magic in
their world.

Magic is unable to be performed by Muggles and Squibs. Their inability to perform is what sets
Muggles apart from the wizarding world. As such, as a substitute of magic, Muggles use technology.
In the same sense, many wizards are ignorant of the workings of most Muggle devices, including
electricity. Both the Muggle and the wizard view their choice of tool as completely and utterly logical
and ordinary, although each would find the other's tools fascinating or even mysterious.

As per the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy, wizards and witches must constantly hide their
magic abilities from the Muggle world, and thus most Muggles are unaware that magic exists. It is
possible that magic, should it be revealed to the Muggle world, could be treated as a fourth branch of
science, along with chemistry, biology and physics. However, as science is the study of the natural
and physical world, and magic is a supernatural force, magic is not a science.

Dark Magic, or the Dark Arts, is an evil brand of the power, and because it is referred to as "arts", it
can be assumed normal magic is also an art.
 ASTRONOMY

"They had to study the night skies through their telescopes every Wednesday at midnight and learn
the names of difficult stars and the movement of planets. "
—Harry Potter summary of the subject

The term "constellation”

The word "constellation" seems to come from the Late Latin term cōnstellātiō, which can be translated
as "set of stars", and came into use in English during the 14th century. A more modern astronomical
sense of the term is as a recognisable pattern of stars whose appearance is associated with
mythological characters or creatures, or associated earthbound animals or objects. It also denotes 88
named groups of stars in the shape of stellar-patterns.
 DIVINATION

"Many witches and wizards, talented though they are in the area of loud bangs and smells and
sudden disappearings, are yet unable to penetrate the veiled mysteries of the future."
—Sybill Trelawney

Using the future to make predictions

Will Simple Prediction There will be snow in Brazil

Going to Prediction based on evidence You are going to be rich.

(crystal ball)

About to Event that will take place very soon He is about to trip.

Be to obligation You are to travel to London

Will + have + Projecting into the future and A month from now he will have gotten
participle looking back a tattoo.

Will + be + ing Action in progress in the future Next sunday you will be sun-bathing
 IMAGINATION AND EMPATHY

What is imagination?
What is empathy?
What is the connection between imagination and empathy?

“Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without having
experienced. They can think themselves into other people’s places.

Of course, this is a power, like my brand of fictional magic, that is morally neutral. One might use such
an ability to manipulate, or control, just as much as to understand or sympathise.

And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all. They choose to remain comfortably within
the bounds of their own experience, never troubling to wonder how it would feel to have been born
other than they are. They can refuse to hear screams or to peer inside cages; they can close their
minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally; they can refuse to know.

I might be tempted to envy people who can live that way, except that I do not think they have any
fewer nightmares than I do. Choosing to live in narrow spaces leads to a form of mental agoraphobia,
and that brings its own terrors. I think the wilfully unimaginative see more monsters. They are often
more afraid.

What is more, those who choose not to empathise enable real monsters. For without ever committing
an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it, through our own apathy.”

Excerpt from J.K. Rowling 2008 Harvard Commencement Speech