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Faculty Forum: Harry Potter and the Sinister Measures of Merit
By Judith Sheppard
A third of the way through the movie version of Harry Potter and the Order of the the Phoenix, the fifth installment of that hugely entertaining reworking of Arthurian myth that I refuse to analyze literarily further—it’s been done—I gasped and said to myself: “To hell with this ‘epic battle of the mythical forces of good and evil’ stuff people think this movie is about. This is a movie about academic freedom.”
Only an AAUP member could have such a thought. Luckily, it didn’t ruin the fun of watching the young British hero and his tiny army of brave and resourceful followers— there I go again—battle a cruel Dark Lord who seeks to enslave the minds, hearts, and bodies of the entire world. It was still a thrilling ride.
But watching a government official come into Hogwarts, the school for the magically gifted, and apply a rigid set of standards to disembowel the curriculum, impose strict new mandates, and eject faculty not meeting arbitrary measures of accountability . . . well, it was a bit of a chilling ride, as well.
One does not want to make too much of a work of entertainment, of course. As far as I know, neither J. K. Rowling, creator of all things Potter, nor the movie’s director, David Yates, is aware of controversies surrounding higher education in America. Nor of the uneasy response of some faculty groups, including the AAUP, to elements of the report issued by the Secretary of Education’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education, or to suggestions from Capitol Hill that states, not accrediting agencies, should decide what constitutes a worthwhile education.
Coincidences happen.
Still, I wondered. The Order of the Phoenix opens in a time of great crisis and fear. A repressive government has taken over in a tragedy’s wake, and led (it pains me as a journalism professor to add) by the cheerleading, one-sided media, the magic world now believes that the Ministry of Magic (its version of government) must bring Hogwarts back to basics. Enter Professor Dolores Umbridge.
Umbridge, as played by the excellent Imelda Staunton, wears pink pillbox hats and suits (make of that what you will—I thought she was channeling the Queen, Margaret Thatcher, and an odd mix of first ladies past and present). Her voice is sweet, her demeanor dainty. But her fixed smile and narrowed eyes are pure steel. Umbridge immediately dumbs down the curriculum, distributing primers in place of texts. Class discussion is forbidden; dissenters must renounce their views and write “I must not tell lies” over and over—in their own blood. History is not so much rewritten as abolished; proclamations restricting civil liberties—like freedom of assembly and speech—replace artwork.
Armed with a checklist, Umbridge begins faculty evaluations. For example, when the divinations teacher cannot produce a prophecy on demand, Umbridge terminates her. (To be fair: Professor Trelawney, myopically, hilariously played by Emma Thompson, is a terrible teacher. She is, indeed, that creature so often cited by critics of academe but so rarely sighted in faculty reviews: the almost totally ineffectual professor.) Incidentally, Trelawney is saved. Albus Dumbledore, the deposed headmaster, who might as well be holding a copy of the AAUP’s Policy Documents and Reports, is able to insist she remain in a nonacademic position.
Remember, this is a work of entertainment. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or events, laws, reports, trends, or speeches is purely coincidental.
There you go: coincidental.
I won’t spoil the movie for you, nor the rest of the Potter saga—this summer, I read the final, seventh book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, so I know how it all turns out. Let me say only this about how Rowling concludes her epic tale of good versus evil, the curious mind versus the closed and suspicious one, and, yes, academic freedom in the magic world: we Muggles in higher education should be so lucky.
Judith Sheppard is associate professor of journalism at Auburn University. Academe accepts submissions to this column. See the guidelines. The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the policies of the AAUP.
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