Harry Potter Debate

* “Choice, Not Censorship, Is the Issue Over ‘Harry Potter’ in School,” Ventura County Perspective, Nov. 7.

Reading the Harry Potter books will lead to alcoholism, tobacco addiction, rampant drug use and homelessness? Dominic Schmidt is, it seems, one poem short of an anthology. Five syllables shy of a haiku.

Literary aesthetics aside, I hardly think reading the Harry Potter books will “rot” my three boys “from the inside out.” But if Mr. Schmidt has such graphic, biblical fears for his own son, then by all means yank him out of his fourth-grade class and subject him to this spectacle--all, of course, in the name of God and righteousness.

By the way, if God has so much time on his hands that he will condemn me for allowing my kids to read about Harry Potter, I’ll gladly face the harp music when my time comes. But to Mr. Schmidt I quote a real prophet, Bob Dylan: “It ain’t me you’re lookin’ for, babe.”

CATHY ELLIOTT JONES

Ojai

* What books, please tell us Mr. Schmidt, are on your list of “time-proven classics?” My guess is that the Harry Potter series will find itself on that list someday.

I have a very hard time thinking that any book that a thoughtful parent or teacher reads aloud to children and then talks about with them is ultimately going to lead to alcohol or tobacco abuse. There are so many difficult circumstances in a person’s life that might lead him to the tragic ends Mr. Schmidt has so graphically detailed, but I can’t imagine any children’s book I have ever read would begin a person on such a downward course.

Nor can anything that invites children to think for themselves about issues of right and wrong and a moral life be dismissed as “candy.” Perhaps the people whom Mr. Schmidt and his wife compassionately counsel as adults grew up in homes where independent thinking and reasoned discussions never took place, where no adult sat down and read aloud to children and talked about ideas and choices.

In fact, thought-provoking books such as “The Giver” by Lois Lowry, “The Dragonling” by Jackie French Koller, “Shiloh” by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, “On My Honor” by Marian Dane Bauer, “The Rifle” by Gary Paulsen, just to name a few, are great catalysts for families and classrooms to keep open precious communication that might help counteract the kind of alienation and antisocial behaviors that have produced such tragic results in places like Littleton, Colo.

In fact Mr. Schmidt, I would suggest we celebrate J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books. They are being read and enjoyed thoroughly by grown-ups and kids alike, and have stimulated hours of congenial communication between the generations. What on earth could be wrong with that?

JODY FICKES SHAPIRO

Ventura

* Dominic Schmidt takes pains to point out that “the manipulation, lying, violence and rebellion of the Harry Potter books are without a doubt unfit for young minds” and in the same article quotes the Bible, a book full of examples of manipulation, lying, violence and rebellion.

The story of the life of Christ is a perfect example of all of these. And I wonder what our world would be like today if Christ himself had not rebelled against the popular beliefs of his time, or endured the violence perpetrated on him by Pilate’s Romans so that he could rise again; would Christianity still have become what it is today?

The purpose of education is to expose children to a multitude of ideas and topics and then to discuss those ideas and topics with the teachers and the parents. It is during this discussion stage that we are able to mold those young minds by helping the children to understand what they have read and to ensure they can relate the written conveyance of a single viewpoint into the fabric of their own societal and family values.

If our children aren’t exposed to the vast variety of ideas and topics in the world today, then they become ignorant of those things. Mr. Schmidt talks of the classics, yet he avoids making any direct reference, other then the reference to the Bible. What if our Jewish community took exception to the Bible’s being discussed? Or our Islamic community? And since Shakespeare’s classic “Hamlet” is a dark story of a dysfunctional family, should we not allow our children to be exposed to it? What about “Of Mice and Men,” “Red Badge of Courage,” “All Quiet on the Western Front,” “Animal Farm,” “Lord of the Flies” or “Call of the Wild”?

Censorship is the issue, and the question is one of choice. If Mr. Schmidt (or any other parent) does not agree with the Harry Potter books as a literary subject in the classroom, that is his prerogative and he should be able to discuss this with the school administration and find an alternative literary subject for his child--or remove his child from the public education system and into a private school or home school using only those books with which he personally agrees.

GERALD BENNETT

Ventura