Harry Potter

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Home : 2001 : August : 28

Harry Potter
By Teacher/Parent

I am a Christian,a parent of a 4th grader and a teacher. I read the Harry Potter books this summer while I was out of school. I had a feeling that the issue would come up with my 4th grader. I have seen the heated debates
about this book series on this site and others. After reading the books, I decided I did not want my child to read them. They were extremely well written, great vocabulary, etc. However, they were very addictive. After reading them myself, Harry Potter was all I could think about for a few days. I believe that the Bible warns against witchcraft (Gal 5:20.) There were witches in the

bible as well(1Sam 28). I believe that if we are warned against witchcraft there must be a good reason. I have heard the arguement that there is witchcraft in Fairy Tales etc. The difference that I see is this... Harry Potter is so realistic. Fairy Tales are very much fantasy. Reading Harry Potter make witchcraft come alive. This is just my opinion. I hate to see books being banned. But I feel that just because a book is well written, doesn't necessarily mean that it is righteous. We must think about our goals and the values we want to reinforce in the mixed-up lives of our students. There are so many other excellent choices for read-alouds that reinforce these values.