Wizardy builds character

Thomas Hibbs writing on why Harry Potter is great character education:

It is true that as practice in many schools character education is no more than a fad, deployed as a quick fix for rising violence, promiscuity, drug use, and incivility that afflict our youth. [...] Much that passes for character education never transcends "simplistic slogans." Schools promote virtues the way Baskin-Robbins sells its flavor of the week, with posters of nice kids being nice to other nice kids. This is the sort of insubstantial rot through which young people see very quickly; it is, I would contend, one of the motives for rebellion among perceptive, slightly disaffected kids who yearn for something more than the latest superficial pitch from adults.

No kidding. And yet so few administrators, teachers and others in charge of rearing our nation's children realize that their hokey sloganeering is woefully ineffective in reaching today's ultra-scrutinizing, media-savvy youngsters. Hollywood will spend $40 or $50 million marketing a single 2 hour movie to the nation's children (and even then many films fail) -- does anyone really think a couple of laughable, archaically designed posters and videos will have a chance? There's much more to be said about the failure of educational systems to use media effectively, but it's the Monday after Thanksgiving; there's work to be done.