Teachers tended to love Harry Potter since it got kids to actually read, and get excited about books. Which is no mean feat in the era of the internet, smartphones, videogames and everything else.
This headteacher don’t like them though. He thinks that kids should be reading classic literature like Shakespeare and Keats, because books like Harry Potter, The Hunger Games and Lord of the Rings “can damage the sensitive subconscious brains of young children”. Graeme Whiting, head of the independent Acorn School in Nailsworth, Gloucester, wrote on his blog:
Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, The Hunger Games, and Terry Pratchett, to mention only a few of the modern world’s ‘must-haves’, contain deeply insensitive and addictive material which I am certain encourages difficult behaviour in children; yet they can be bought without a special licence, and can damage the sensitive subconscious brains of young children, many of whom may be added to the current statistics of mentally ill young children.
This is like the 80s, when people thought heavy metal and Dungeons & Dragons caused kids to become satanists. Harry Potter might not be high art, but at least it’s getting kids reading. Maybe don’t give your eight year old Game of Thrones though.
[via Metro]
