Parents, in case you haven't bought the Harry Potter series yet, now is the best time. According to an Italian study, the books written by J. K. Rowling that sold millions of dollars worldwide and spawned multiple franchises not only teach kids how to read and appreciate literature but also show how to be more tolerant of different groups of social classes.
The study composed of researchers from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia led by Loris Vezzali requested the participation of more than 30 young schoolchildren. At the start of the experiment, all students were asked about their views of immigrants in the community. They were then divided into two groups, one of which were compelled to read certain portions of the book that talked about or implied prejudice. The other, meanwhile, read random parts.
After a couple of days, the researchers gave another round of questionnaire to assess if their attitudes and views of immigrants had changed. Those who had read passages about prejudice showed marked improvement in tolerance.
They also conducted a similar experiment this time among high school and college students, producing almost the same outcome-that is, better tolerance of other social groups like gays-after reading the book.
Meanwhile, the Whitman School of Management of Syracuse University develops a competitive system that is similar to that used by Harry Potter's houses. Using a downloadable mobile app, the 400 highly diversified set of undergraduate students who were then divided into different groups (or houses) called Waverly, Harrison, Marshall, and Adams.
With the guidance of their respective house masters, who are from the faculty, along with their own shield and badge, they then compete in different areas such as leadership and community development. Each extracurricular activity counts for a point. The house with the most number of points after the year ends wins and gets the Goodman Cup and a party from the dean.
Although the goal is to win, the school hopes the program called Goodman IMPRESS does more for the students like encouraging them to be more engaged and well rounded.