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.”
When I read HP and the Philosopher’s/Sorcerer’s Stone, it always seems so primitive compared with the others. Half the time, the dialogue makes me wince because it sounds so unnatural. Don’t get me wrong – I love the books! :)
Posted by Martyn P on April 27, 2008 @ 05:44 AM
I love the dialogues in PS best of the whole series.
Kids are a lot more likely to read HP on their own than they are to read some other books that are equally as good or better, and that are also a part of culture and literature. Not fond of this idea. They have pop culture to introduce them to HP; school ought to introduce them to something else.
I think that its a great idea and I would have given anything to read it in Highschool. Huck Finn, and others are really easy too, so I dont see what the big deal is. I think that Harry Potter has indeed proved to be a classic, it maybe hasnt been around as long as other classics but giving an updated and modern touch to literature is a fun and good idea.
I’m mixed, it’s a great book but like Smithers says, I’m not sure it meets the standards. It hasn’t “stood the test of time” – yet! As far as he saying that it doesn’t allow people to “understand their place in the world”, if they are just reading the first book then that is correct. The series as a whole, however, totally fits that standard though.
On the one hand, that’s really cool. On the other, it’s slightly worrying. I love Harry Potter, but do I want to write my coursework on it? Why do we have to do it on the first book and not one of the longer ones?
Oooh, it would be interesting if we compared it to a complete ‘classic’ though.
As an educator who consistently has urged the inclusion of HP in college literature classes, and even played a role in creating one of the first courses devoted just to Rowling’s novels, I must admit I find AQA’s decision a bit much
As a teacher I am generally frustrated by the lack of breath and depth that US college students enter higher education with. If the standard of the A levels is to ensure students have achieved a degree of understanding of English lit, then wouldn’t Dickens (Oliver Twist? Hard Times? Bleak House?), Jane Austen (yeech..ok, I may not LIKE Austen, but still I recognize her importance), Gaskell, Shaw, Eliot, Richardson, Joyce, Conrad …in short, a long list of authors.. be far more important at this time for students to know? Rowlings might be added to the list down the road, but sorry, not yet. And I want to emphasize the distinction between including HP, or any individual text, in the classroom discussion compared to assessment examinations of the importance of A levels.
(for US readers, while the education system here does not yet have the equivalent of A levels, there are discussions underway that imply we may be moving in that direction. The closest equivalent would be if the SAT or ACT exams that many US students take as part of the college application process included a mandatory essay on HP)
On a larger scale, I am appalled every year when I learn students have never heard of Sophocles, or when they think Victor Hugo wrote musicals. I love popular culture….I wouldn’t visit Leaky as often as I do if I did not …but there is a definite problem when my students watch film versions of (for example) the Hunchback of Notre Dame, Les Miserables, War and Peace, Last of the Mohicans, Catch 22 or even Lord of the Rings, Forrest Gump (! trash novel, but truly a brillant film), the Natural, and other literary works of varying importance that have been transformed into film and somehow think they “got it”.
Does anyone know if it for AS or A2 course ? AS is the first year of a levels that i have already done, A2 is the second. Im panicking i missed the chance of a lifetime !!
PLEASE HELP i have searched EVERYWHERE!
Hmm I wonder about this. The books as a whole do hold a lot of themes and many things that could be discussed endlessly or translated into your own stories. But for the most part most of these themes show up more strikingly latter on in the series. The first book I would say is an introduction, its the tip of the ice berg so to say.
Though I do understand why they would have to choose it. You can’t just start something part way through and though there are some that would do it asking people to read however many books just to catch up with the one their meant to be doing is a bit much.
Oh and rose I’m very sorry but having started the course I think you would be finishing up the two year syllabus you’re already on.
"Lucius, my slippery friend," he whispered, halting before him. "I am told that you have not renounced the old ways, though to the world you present a respectable face. You are still ready to take the lead in a spot of Muggle-torture, I believe? Yet you n
When I read HP and the Philosopher’s/Sorcerer’s Stone, it always seems so primitive compared with the others. Half the time, the dialogue makes me wince because it sounds so unnatural. Don’t get me wrong – I love the books! :)
Posted by Martyn P on April 27, 2008 @ 05:44 AM
I love the dialogues in PS best of the whole series.