Harry Potter's Provocative Moral World: Is There a Place for Good and Evil in Moral Education?

Abstract

ALTHOUGH I count myself among many educators who relish Harry Potter series, I sometimes wonder if we should not think more about controversial implications of moral world J. K. Rowling created. While we applaud way series motivates kids to read, perhaps we should also contemplate how its moral outlook differs from moral reality of most public schools in critical ways. In this respect, public educators should be challenged by Rowling's provocative moral world, but they should also think about how to borrow something from it that would embolden moral education they provide. PUBLIC SCHOOLS WITHOUT GOOD AND EVIL? In a challenging critique of moral education in public schools, James Davison Hunter argues that unspoken imperative of all moral education is to teach only those virtues, principles, and other moral teachings about which there is essentially no disagreement in American society. (1) Hunter claims that almost every major form of moral education in public schools falls prey to this quest for inclusiveness. psychological approaches championed by Lawrence Kohlberg, recent forms of character education, and communitarian alternatives recommended by Amitai Etzioni are all subject to Hunter's critique. The effort to affirm an inclusive morality, Hunter argues, reduces morality to thinnest of platitudes, severed from social, historical, and cultural encumbrances that make it concrete and ultimately compelling. (2) Words such as and become obsolete in light of this strategy, and instead moral education establishment replaces them with words like prosocial. By inventing a new vocabulary, Hunter maintains, the moral education establishment literally creates a new way of seeing reality. Altogether, we end up epistemologically and linguistically with a moral cosmology that is beyond good and (emphasis in original). (3) If Hunter accurately represents moral cosmology presented in theories, curricula, and actual lessons of moral education--and I believe in many respects he does--public educators should be concerned about this subtle form of epistemological and linguistic bias. After all, public schools should show fairness to diverse visions of good life and not merely replace them with neutered and safe substitutes. In addition, sterile and safe substitutes, as Hunter points out, may be ineffective and contribute to narcissism among young people and adults. Hunter would no doubt find studies confirming growing narcissism among college students unsurprising. (4) I would also suggest that part of reason these forms of moral education may be ineffective is that a moral education without good and evil becomes boring. HARRY POTTER'S EXCITING MORAL WORLD It is fascinating to compare moral world presented to public school students with exciting moral world presented in Harry Potter books. Clearly, one attraction of Potter series is that it enlists students on side of good in a cosmic battle against evil. Within Potter story, this struggle between good and evil gives meaning and excitement to everything that happens at school. In Sorcerer's Stone, Hermione saves Ron, Harry, and herself from a nasty encounter with a plant called devil's snare through her knowledge of spells. As Ron quips after encounter, Lucky you pay attention in Herbology, Hermione. (5) What Harry learns in Quidditch pays dividends in his efforts to defeat Voldemort. Thus Rowling provides a clear connection between learning and school activities and a larger moral struggle, something that American public school students may not always perceive. In wizarding world, what one learns and experiences at school can actually help in battle between good and evil. battle between good and evil not only provides a larger reason for learning, but it also allows us to make sense of Harry's moral choices. …