A headteacher is urging parents not to let their children read or watch ‘Harry Potter’, claiming the books contribute to mental illness in kids.
Graeme Whiting, head of the independent Acorn School in Gloucester, told parents to steer clear of JK Rowling’s “frightening” books, advising them instead to introduce their children to classics like Wordsworth, Keats, Shelley and Shakespeare.
Whiting said other fantasy titles such as ‘Lord of the Rings’, ‘The Hunger Games’ and Terry Pratchett’s books should also be avoided.
“Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, The Hunger Games, and Terry Pratchett, to mention only a few of the modern world’s ‘must-haves’, contain deeply insensitive and addictive material which I am certain encourages difficult behaviour in children,” he wrote to parents in a school newsletter.
“I want children to read literature that is conducive to their age and leave those mystical and frightening texts for when they can discern reality, and when they have first learned to love beauty,” he continued.
“Buying sensational books is like feeding your child with spoons of added sugar, heaps of it, and when the child becomes addicted it will seek more and more, which if related to books, fills the bank vaults of those who write un-sensitive books for young children!”
“Beware the devil in the text! Choose beauty for your young children!”
Whiting founded the Acorn School in 1991. The school’s motto, according to its website, is “Have courage for the truth.”