The Cat Chap: Does Jo Think We're Dumb? 3

[Sandra Collins]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Caius Marcius" 
<coriolan at w...> wrote:
>Nevertheless, I cannot help but react to what strikes me as a 
> singularly patronizing parenthesis at jkr.com
> 
> "If neither boy was 'pre-ordained' before Voldemort's attack to 
become his possible vanquisher, then the prophecy (like the one 
the witches make to Macbeth, if anyone has read the play of the 
same  name)"
CMC (don't even get me started on the Earl of Oxford)

Sandra writes;

I do love to read points made so eloquently, CMC!
Of course JKR thinks we're dumb, and she's quite right to. I don't 
think she is dumbing down - she's pretty much there already, 
and simply knows her market, that's all. The way schools are 
going these days, I expect her books to be kicking Shakespeare 
off the curriculum within months, particularly if the sales figures 
are better than expected for the next volume.  I can see Tony Blair 
inviting her to No10 for a mug of tea, a chat, and a commercial 
tie-in. Imagine how pleased the Government will be in the future 
when the exam results come in from the A Level multi choice 
sections - I expect those to account for 90% of the marks. The 
remaining 10% will be from Spot The Difference, of course. I 
think the fact that spelling mistakes are no longer to count 
against 14yr old students gives a fair indication of where 
education is going. Give the system another few years, and she 
won't even need to mention MacBeth because even fewer of her 
flock will have heard of the play of the same name... they'll think 
it's a new arm of MacDonalds.

I think her comments were intended as much for her adult 
readers as her juvenile ones, even though the kind of reader 
who posts at this site and the HP For Grown Ups site tend to be 
well read and can thus be left out of that generalisation. The  
dumbed-down educational system leads to comments like hers, 
and all that I can do is feel annoyed about it. That's my view,  and 
I'm going for a cup of tea and lie down, now!