Thoughts on the book ban

Quote :

School bans Harry Potter


The Harry Potter books are a phenomenon in both the UK and the US


A primary school head teacher is banning pupils from reading the best-selling Harry Potter children's books because she says they go against the Bible's teachings.
The books, by the Edinburgh-based author JK Rowling, tell the tales of a young, orphaned wizard, and are a hit with large numbers of children.

JK Rowling says her books are "very moral"

But Carol Rookwood, head of St Mary's Island Church of England Aided School in Chatham, Kent, says the nature of the stories does not fit in with the school's "church ethos".
She says pupils' parents are fully supporting her decision.
"As a head teacher I have a responsibility to ensure that we give the children the best that we possibly can.
"We are a Church of England aided primary school which means the church ethos is very important to what we do," she said.
"The Bible is very clear and consistent in its teachings that wizards, devils and demons exist and are very real, powerful and dangerous, and God's people are told to have nothing to do with them.
"It is not just books by one author, but a range of books, videos and TV programmes that portray witches and wizards as fantasy, imaginary, fun and harmless, but that's not what the Bible says."

Carol Rookwood: "Wizards, devils and demons are dangerous"

Mrs Rookwood admitted the school owned sets of Harry Potter books, but said the governors, staff and herself had agreed they were not the sort of books they wanted to make freely available to their pupils.
She said pupils had studied The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis, but that that book was "not a problem" because it shows an evil witch who is overcome by the powers of good.
"I am not aware of any parents who disagree. Some have said they don't agree with my reasons but applaud the responsible stance we are taking," she added.
The National Secular Society reacted angrily to the ban.
NSS general secretary Keith Porteous Wood said: "Children's imaginations have been nourished for centuries with stories of wizards, witches and fairies.
"In this age of declining literacy, banning popular children's books is doing pupils a great disservice."
US complaints
Mrs Rookwood's decision follows complaints in the United States about the books.
Parents in a number of states have tried to get the Harry Potter books banned, saying they were unhappy at the way they depicted death, evil and hatred.
Last year, JK Rowling hit back at the complaints, saying the books were "very moral" in their representation of the struggle between good and evil.
She said the novels needed to include such ingredients to honestly tell their stories.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/693779.stm

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I think that is positively disgusting that the books were banned. Thought that someone that they were making a respondsible decision by banning books in ludicris. That's depriving children of their imaginations and messing with their ability to think for themselves.

More than that is the fact the Church felt threatened by these books. I'm sorry but if a long standing institution can't stand it's own and co-exist with a bit of fictional literature that throws up all sort of red flags.

I go by the rule that if a book has made upper middle class white soccer mothers mad, then it has to be a good book.

What? That's crazy. Harry Potter is read by all ages. Why can't kids in schools read it? They think it's against Church rules that evil spirits and witches and wizards are going into they're little brains and destroying them? Come on!
Let the kids have a bloody imagination for Pete's sake! They don't need to read about fairytale princesses and princes because that's just shit.

Ergggggg, people kill me inside, sometimes. Harry Potter is sooo much better then half of the crap they put out there these days. I mean really, Captain Underpants???

".....unhappy at the way they depicted death, evil and hatred."
Yes, because there is never any death, evil, or hatred on T.V. or in real life! For goodness sake, no, don't give the book to some five year old, but kids arn't exactly stupid. We are well aware that bad things do happen, than not everyone can burp sugarplums and bleed gumdrops.
Putting that aside, Its. A. Book. If you think HP is going to make your kid try and split their soul in half, or take over people's dreams, or drink unicorn blood or whatever, you need to be slapped.


On the brighter side of things, I'm sure people will read the book because its banned. Who doesn't love reading banned books?