Interesting piece from the Hartford Courant about why the Harry Potter series is seldom assigned for serious study in jr high and high school classrooms, but seems to make an appearance on college reading lists. While many secondary school educators dismiss the books as low- or middle-brow, college instructors have embraced the series. Trista M. Merrill, who received her doctorate last year from the State University of New York at Binghamton often uses the series in courses.
“I remember one day we started having a discussion about the house elves: whether the way they were being treated was fair or not. It led to a discussion of apartheid and slavery in our own country.”
More Like Saving A Good Book
The ruining-a-good-book dept was a little misleading. Its a very interesting article describing the pros and cons of making a book part of a curriculum. Having it part of junior high and high school takes the fun out of the books when fun is their primary purpose at that age. On a college level I don’t think they are actually analyzing the books so much as using the various twists on the real world as a backdrop to discuss other things.