iMonk on Harry

Internetmonk, Michael Spencer, is weighing in on the Harry Potter & Christianity issue, quoting the relevant parts of a memo he was asked to write to the administration at the Christian school where he is the English department chair. Here’s an excerpt:

As English department chair, I am aware of all the books being taught in our English program. I am aware of the themes and characters in the novels, stories and plays our students study. [The high school principal] and I are in agreement that the Harry Potter books are identical, even superior to, many of the stories we teach here at OBI.

For example, our students read Shakespeare in all four high school grades. This includes the witches and murderers in Macbeth, the ghosts in Julius Caesar and Hamlet, and the violence and mature themes in all of Shakespeare’s plays. If Shakespeare were to be confiscated for these elements, I would have to consider whether OBI could maintain its reputation as a “real” school with a curriculum comparable to other private schools.

Yet Harry Potter is sometimes confiscated for the same elements, even though any reader of both will tell you that Rowling is far more clearly, teachably, “moral” in her story-telling than Shakespeare is in his plays.

It’s always good to see arguments not just against the Harry critics, but actually for the quality of the novels themselves. Nice work, Michael.

You can find a permanent link to Michael’s Internetmonk blog under the “HP fans” section of the Links page.