Harry Potter abracadabra-ed my life entirely

When I was little, I did not read much. I spent my free time wandering around the house, fiddling with a piece of string or gazing out of the window. My mother tried shoving different books at me, but I never found anything I really liked. And I could never finish all those books about hysterical fairies fluttering around and trying to defeat gnomes and goblins.

Then one day I picked up the first Harry Potter. My twin had already read the first book and my older sister had finished the series. They had both fallen in love with the world of strange spells and magical adventures.

The minute I picked up the first book, I fell in love with the series too. I was spellbound by the fast-paced stories and enthralling duels in the dead of night and could barely put the books down. I gobbled up the series in a month.

The Harry Potter books opened a door for me. They introduced me to a new universe. Suddenly, I started reading everything I could find and now I can’t live without books.

Even so, I was quite boggled when I heard that the ICSE board is planning to bring Noddy, Snowy the Dog and Hermione Granger into the school classroom. Just imagine Harry Potter as a school textbook. Imagine having to answer a test with questions like:
Compare the four houses of Hogwarts.
How are Hermione and Ron different?
Explain how the metaphors make Book 1 more interesting.
Wouldn’t it spoil the book if you had to continuously jot down notes and think of answers to five-mark questions?

I had loads of fun reading the Harry Potter series with its suspense and breath-taking moments. However, I don’t think I would have enjoyed it that much if I was trying to learn all those magical spells for a test. The mystery in the book would have gotten boring and been lost in layers of heavy analysis.

Similarly, many boys in my class love comics. They find them hilarious and a breather from boring schoolwork. They all charge to the school library to snatch the Tintins. But imagine their horror if those breathers suddenly became the boring schoolwork.

Instead of cackles at the funny jokes, what if there were yawns and sighs? The teachers would decide not to waste their precious teaching time on extracts from comics, so they would announce that it was fun work to be done at home. That would mean more homework and much less joy. I can just see it—Tintin, from being the hot favourite, would become another tedious English reader, tossed into ours desks with Sulabh Bharati and Reading Comprehension, Grade 5.

Of course, the ICSE board—we are told—believes that in order “to prepare the future generation of learners to meet the challenges of an ever advancing knowledge-based society and a dynamically changing environment, it is imperative that children are equipped with a repertoire of skills and a positive attitude.”

“The curriculum caters to a varied and diverse range of individual differences, intelligences and abilities and provides a plethora of opportunities to enjoy the learning experience through integration of generic skills, values and attitude in key learning areas.”

I’m not sure how the adventures in Toyland or wicked wizards will help us meet these scary-sounding challenges. But then, these decisions have been made by adults, who probably do not understand that we don’t care about “integration of generic skills, values and attitudes in key learning areas”. What we care about is relaxing with our favourite comics and books. 

I strongly feel that you cannot really enjoy a book while, at the same time, you have to circle some boring verbs and adverbs. There is a difference between schoolwork and fun. Trying to blend them together will only end up killing the joy.