The Daily Mail is reporting tonight that Harry Potter is now required reading for A-level students in the UK. The paper says that Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s (Sorcerer’s) Stone is one of the books students will be tested on in exams given by the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA), the largest exam board in the UK.
According to the paper, students “taking the English language and literature A-level next year will study Rowling’s first Potter volume – the 12th best-selling book of all time and the basis for a Hollywood film – along with one other book for the module Themes in Language and Literature. They will have to write a 1,200 to 1,500-word piece of coursework comparing the “approaches” of J.K. Rowling and the other writer.Examiners will mark students on how they relate story lines and the activities of Harry Potter and his friends to the context of the times. And students will have to show an understanding of J.K. Rowling’s use of language, described recently as gibberish by a High Court judge. They will also have to write their own 500 to 800-word story inspired by the book.”
While many here may view this favorably, apparently some in the English government are not as excited about the inclusion of the Harry Potter series along side other classic works such Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre.
Professor Alan Smithers, a special adviser to the House of Commons Education and Skills Committee, said: “The point of English literature is to provide works that have stood the test of time and that allow people to understand their place in the world as others have understood it.I don’t think Harry Potter is appropriate as a set text; I don’t see how it fits in with that. It may be an enjoyable read but I don’t think we are just trying to keep people occupied.”
Nick Seaton, chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, added: “This is all done in the name of relevance and popular culture, but it is not why children go to school.They should be encouraged to read and understand the great works of English literature. Harry Potter may be what children want to read, but that doesn’t mean it should be part of an A-level.”
Last night the AQA said: “Harry Potter is a genuine example of literature of our time and therefore entirely deserves its place in this unit. We believe that it will prove a popular and engaging inclusion.”
L.J Voldelocks-this has acturly made me look forward 2 my A levals [though ihave got 6yrs till i tacke them] and hay J.K not maching up 2 Shackespere ect i mean she can top them all ur quite Sam or fossel its not strange AT ALL!!!!!!!! Odment , Blubber & Tweek.
I don’t see a reason to limit the exam syllabus to ‘tried and tested classics’. I studied The French Lieutenant’s Woman, a very modern text, alongside Arthur Miller, quite modern, and Congreve, Dickens, Shakespeare and poetry criticism. But they were all adult literature at least. Much I love HP, I’m shocked that they’d put it as an A Level text.
Also, the point of school IMO, is to broaden horizons and do stuff that you wouldn’t do at home. We were introduced to a whole range of children’s and adult fiction from the age of 11, alongside a drip feed of standard authors like Shakespeare, Orwell, Bronte. What I’m shocked about with this is that children are reading the book from age 5, carry on reading it until they are teens, over and over again (my nephew is on his eighth reread and won’t read anything else!) and can now apparently take formal exams in it at 18?
I think this is a typically narrow minded, dumbing down, lets not upset students by giving them stuff they don’t know, approach from the exam boards. Especially because they are including only one of the series, IMO the worst written, so no opportunity to study themes or character development even, or to study the whole series in relation to the genre as a whole. We are talking about 18 year olds who ought to be preparing for University study. No wonder Universities are starting to consider their own entrance exams.
I dreaded the day that Harry Potter would be included on the syllabus. I thought it would be much longer until the day happened admittedly.
But when when I did English Lit for GCSE, all we did was read books that could be enjoyable but make them “unfun” because we’d have to try and find meanings in the text that probably weren’t there. I might have enjoyed Wuthering heights but I didn’t because of the way it was tackled in class.
Admittedly I think it’s pretty awesome to have HP on the syllabus but not practical. Oh well. I didn’t even take English Lit. Is it for AS or A2 I wonder. My friends could end up doing HP. That would be funny.
Posted by Luna Loves Pudding on April 27, 2008, 11:23 AM
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Just to clarify a bit what I just said, which sounded a bit negative. I mean no disrespect to the HP series. As a series I think it is very complex, fantastically researched (I am full of admiration for Jo for this in particular), and I love all the linguistic and mythological references in it, which are right up my street.
There’s plenty to get your teeth stuck into if you wanted to study it at A Level standard, but only as a whole series, not as a single book. The first book is also substandard compared to the rest IMO, and barely gets started on themes and characters, so I have a problem with their choice of book.
Also, I do think there’s a danger of stifling exploration of other literature. It’s great that HP has encouraged people to read, but it seems that it is not encouraging people to move onto other books and this is just going to underline that. I’m speaking as someone who had to be weaned off Enid Blyton by my mother forcefeeding us the classics (she read them to us). I’m grateful to her for that. Now I’m an (ex)librarian, so I’ve come a long way since then, but only through being weaned!
Eurgh! Not fair! I’m just about to complete my first year on this course. If I could of just been a year or two younger!!
:(
At the moment we have to do Wuthering Heights and Chaucer…and I’m all for the classics…but come on Harry Potter for A-Level would be amazing!!!!
If only it had been on the curriculum when I did my A-Levels! I do think Harry Potter is worthy of being on a curriculum, it certainly can be studied as our fan conventions have proven. However I’m still unsure how to feel about this as I really do believe that putting a book on a curriculum, giving people a deadline to read it, making them go over it again and again and again, analysing it in minute detail, and then making them write essays on it is one of the best ways to kill the enjoyment of it for at lot of students. At least, that’s what happened with my English class in school when we did Lord of the Flies, after studying primarily the same passages of it for months people just got so sick of it. Of course, not every student will react that way and for those who are already fans of the series it is great, but others I think will grow to resent it for the stress it caused them approaching coursework time.
Well I’ve already got my B in English Lit but perhaps I would have got an A if I had this over Jane Eyre. To be honest though I’m a huge Harry Potter fan but cmon this DOES NOT deserve to be an A Level text
I’m with Anne, certainly as a series but not as one novel, I always thought the series would be perfect for GCSE, but they’d never study 7 novels for one question
I do think that having to study about all the literary aspects of the book will suck the fun out of it. The whole point of the books, in my opinion, is not to analyze it at every possible moment and take it into different contexts, but to enjoy it. It is one of the many books you can reread over and over again, and not get bored. But having to study it, I would never really enjoy the book again. Lucky for me, I’m in America.
i think this is a horrible idea, harry potter is such an easy read, and it’s definately not suitable for A-levels in my opinion. The stuff i had to read in GCSE were harder (e.g. To kill A Mockingbird and Equus)
Malfoy looked up at the crumbling house behind Ron.[br]"Suppose you'd love to live here, wouldn't you, Weasley? Dreaming about having your own bedroom? I heard your family all sleep in one room -- is that true?"
By somebody, I meant someday. :)