You're scaring me.

I'm a teacher, and a pretty good one, if I do say so myself. I was as pleased as the next educator when kids started picking up books and reading them for fun again, even if I think the particular Hogwartian motivator isn't the be all and end all of children's lit.

Using a student's interests to teach a difficult subject is a pretty effective way of motivating kids to examine something they previously disliked or shied away from in a new light, and it's not a new practice. Crossing subject areas within a single lesson is also not new - teaching reading in harmony with the other subjects is proven to both make kids stronger readers and more successful in other disciplines as well. For example, I frequently use both fiction and non to teach social studies.

All that being said, I think Harry Potter math is hooey, from the picture the article painted. As someone active in school reform, I can say with near 100% certainty that mumbling spells over subraction problems did not raise this school's performance. It may have made math more palatable for the students who didn't dig math, but that alone is not enough to take a school from the bottom to the top of the barrel. The anecdotal evidence may indicate differently, but I'd be willing to bet an authentic, scientifically based study would prove it's not the "numerus subtracticus" that made the difference for this school.

Clever motivation technique? Maybe. Solution for low performing schools? I don't think so.

Plus, here in the good ole USA, for every parent that read every page of the HP tomes with as much gusto as their child, we have a parent who believes the magic/witchcraft themes go against their core values. That's a discussion for another letter, though. : )

Learning multiplication tables. Learning how to properly carry the one and do long division help too.

"Investigate Mathemetics"? WTF are they talking about? What is there for a grade school kid to investigate? Sounds like code for "new math". Do they mean abstraction? There already is a class where you can learn abstract algebra, it is called a 300 level intro to abstract algebra class that math majors take as undergrads, not as grade school math kids.

This just sounds like more bogus fuzzy math garbage. Do the kids get to use Harry Potter calculators too, since kids today can't count or do simple arithmetic without using their fingers and toes?

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Instead, they broke it and want to break it even more. No thanks. Linking math to literature? How about instead of linking it to irrelevant fields, they try linking it to fields like physics instead? You know, where it belongs.

Office for Standards in Education, if anyone wants to know.

Sounds like that school had an annus mirabilis.

Not only is Pottermania helping in Math, but Rowling has single handedly resurrected the Latin language, years after even its main proponent, the Catholic church finally dropped it, and has supposedly done more for reading than anyone since Gutenberg.

Isn't it time for a Nobel laureate? Or at least an appearance on Oprah?