Attention all education majors: If two of your passions include travel and the magical world of “Harry Potter,” the Clog’s got some great news for you.
England’s acclaimed Durham University is offering education majors the opportunity to learn about the ins and outs of Hogwarts with the addition of a class dedicated solely to the Potter series. This is basically the coolest dream ever for anyone born in the last 15 years. The course being offered, Harry Potter and the Age of Illusion, is far from the two-unit DeCal that Berkeley offers. Instead, the class offers an understanding of modern education through the lens of Hogwarts and counts as a legitimate class. Plus, we think it’s finally a chance to receive a Hogwarts acceptance letter.
The content of the class involves understanding how intolerance and prejudice was illustrated in the Gryffindor and Slytherin dynamics, how the culture of Hogwarts commodifies education and how masculinity is portrayed in the novels. Basically, the academic world is learning that J.K. Rowling is actually amazing and that her books emphasize a lot of themes that can actually be discussed and analyzed. (Although true Potter fans already knew this!)
We’re hoping this means that Quidditch will also grow into a more mainstream sport, although at Berkeley it’s already pretty big. Instead of tennis or yoga, the Clog wouldn’t mind getting some P.E. credit for riding around on brooms.
Sure, there are a lot of other places education majors could go during their optional semester abroad, like helping teach the children of farmers in Nicaragua or building an orphanage in the Himalayas, but who has time to reread “Harry Potter” while doing that stuff? And let’s face it, diving back into your childhood is the best escape ever!
Just remember one thing before shipping off to the land of Potter: Your peers in that class are going to have some advantages due to their being from the same country as Harry, like how to properly pronounce words such as “lumos” and “Hermoine.”