A Primary School classroom assistant will learn in the next few days if she is to be reinstated to the job from which she was suspended after refusing to allow a pupil to read from a Harry Potter book. The woman, a Born – Again Christian claimed the books glorify witchcraft. The girl who wanted to read Harry Potter for one on one session is an advanced reader for her age group and complained to her parents that the alternatives she was offered were too simple.
After the case of the Muslim classroom assistant and the full veil last year we have to conclude it is not witchcraft and magic that causes problems in schools but the religious sensibilities of classroom assistants (although I’m sure most are diligent, open – minded and highly committed). Is it time the courts acted to remove religion from schools altogether, after all apart from glorifying magic and superstition more than all the children’s books in the world, if it stops people doing their job properly then they should not be in the job.
Since my children were at school I had had the impression that the decline in reading skills was largely due to the boring, politically correct, patronising literature that was on offer. I know both ignored school readers. Gabby preferred to read mine and Teri’s old Enid Blyton, Jennings and animal fiction and David gravitated towards my war and boy’s adventure books. There would horrify the political correctness police of course, yet both children turned out to be excellent readers.