Aspen High School is proud of it’s status as an IB school, and as such, you can find the halls riddled with posters telling us students about the IB learner profile. The IB learner profile is a set of guidelines IB students are meant to embody. Students are encouraged to be: Inquirers, open minded, knowledgeable, caring, thinkers, balanced, risk-takers, communicators, principled and reflective.
Recently, while I was sitting in my health class, and I decided to look a little bit closer at the posters representing the IB learner profile, and was troubled by what I found.
This poster, which is supposed to demonstrate the IB Learners profile by giving examples of well-known figures, cites J.K. Rowling as an exemplary communicator because she “teaches acceptance through diverse role models in her writings.”
JK Rowling is a divisive figure for many people. Some view her as the beloved children’s author who created their favorite wizarding world, and others see her as a hateful transphobe. No matter how one might feel about JK Rowling, or Harry Potter, saying she “teaches acceptance through diverse roles” is a blatant lie.
JK Rowling has come under fire for years because of her poor representation of people of color, disabled individuals, and the LGBTQIA+ community. The Harry Potter books have even been accused of being Antisemitic. Within the seven original books of Harry Potter, there are seven non-white characters and no LGBTQIA+ characters. The Harry Potter movies and other media released after the books, including video games and miscellaneous Twitter posts, have attempted to rectify this lacking representation to very little success.
While it is true that the world has come a long way since 1997; the year her first book was published, Harry Potter: and the Philosopher’s Stone. There is no reason IB could not have chosen a more modern author to represent communication on this poster, after all, the IB learner profile is supposed to inspire kids in the modern day. Besides, there were authors in the late 90’s that had better representation, including author Ursula K. Le Guin, founder of the idea of a magic school, and who’s book series the Wizard of Earthsea famously included more people of color representation than most of the books of it’s time.
JK Rowling Later claiming that Dumbledore was secretly gay within the story does little to actually represent her audience. Also, video game inclusions of wheelchair users in a school with moving staircases and no ramps seem like a strange oversight.
JK Rowling’s representation has been critiqued by numerous people from marginalized communities, in particular Rachel Rostad, an Asian American public speaker who wrote To JK Rowling from Cho Chang reflecting on her experience reading about the character as a kid.
The issue with this poster is not that Harry Potter is lacking in diversity. There is no denying that Harry Potter’s representation of marginalized communities leaves much to be desired, but also, that’s not the point of the books. JK Rowling did not write Harry Potter intending for it to be the pinnacle of representation, however, there are many talented writers who do care about diversity in their work. The problem is that IB has no problem spreading a potentially harmful and insulting misrepresentation.
If IB needed a popular author to add to their poster they could have chosen author Rick Riordan, famous for the Percy Jackson series, who began writing the book in an attempt to give his son with ADHD and Dyslexia something he could enjoy reading. Since the start of the series, Rick Riordan’s books have been increasing in representation for disabled people, LGBTQIA+ people, and people of a diverse range of skin tones and religions. Rick Riordan is not necessarily without controversy himself. He’s been accused of misrepresenting many groups of people in his effort to add diversity to his novels, but this representation is clearly a focal point of his work, more so than JK Rowling. The world is not lacking in authors who add good representation to their books. IB is simply too lazy to include them.
As a student I am constantly being asked to do better. I am being told that I need to pay more attention in classes, that I need to work harder and dedicate more of my time to my studies. I am constantly being told that I must fulfill the IB Learner Profile. However, IB does not hold itself to the same standard.
Many times when writing this article I thought that I was overreacting; that no one would care about a third of a poster hanging up in a high school, but the more I think about this stupid poster the more I realize how this is indicative of how schools show apathy to the education of their students.
This poster has been designed, slapped with the IB seal of approval, printed multiple times over, hung up in multiple buildings, and no one decided to look closer and realize the fallacy of the content. Multiple individuals have looked at this poster and not seen a problem with it. I, myself, have walked past this poster and not bothered to look at what it actually had to say, because I didn’t care. Hundreds of people have seen this and decided “that’s not my problem.” No it’s probably not your problem, but lack of representation can harm people as shown to us in To J.K. Rowling from Cho Chang, and as Rick Riordan has reflected on in interviews and demonstrated in his stories.
This lack of care causes real harm by taking voices away from the people who advocate for representation, and the people who need it the most. The poster ignores their messages and life experiences and creates a skewed vision of JK Rowling and her work. This has the potential to misguide young authors into not trying to improve upon the representation in their own media.
As a student of an IB school, it is embarrassing that IB would produce something like this with no thought of whether it is true, and if it could have potential effects on people. Major entities of education should hold themselves to the same standards it holds their students to.
Written by: Isla Rich
Eileen Knapp is in charge of posters in the school
