To quote Robert, whose opinion I respect:
I never knew you had a Harry Potter blog! How cool is that? You should advertise that more.
I went through my archives and decided to post a link to an essay I wrote on my Harry Potter blog about what I regard as J.K. Rowling’s thinly veiled critique of a problem in modern education: “Harry Potter and Government Interference in Education.” Caveat: as I re-read the essay, I think it sounded as if I thought students who speak English as a second language or who come from a lower socio-economic status should be “left behind,” and I assure you, I don’t believe that. I do believe that these children start out behind, and to expect them all to perform at grade level puts all of the blame for problems that go much deeper than education on the schools.
[tags]Harry Potter, education, NCLB[/tags]
There was a whole article at Reason magazine (I think) once that talked about Harry Potter as libertarian fantasy, Star Wars as conservative fantasy, and Star Trek as liberal fantasy. Certainly the character of Dolores Umbridge is sort of emblematic of the meddling, sadistic, incompetent government school official.