Readers here know that I like to note instances of allusions to Harry Potter in current media pieces as a marker of the degree to which Ms. Rowling’s novels have become and act as our “shared text” in the 21st Century. Today’s reference (H/T to Charles, who knows my thoughts on Education courses and degrees!) is from the National Review Online’s ‘Corner’ page in an entry written by John Derbyshire, the author of We Are Doomed. That blogpost, ‘Gapology,’ discusses the three explanations of the so-called “achievement gap’ in education, the last of which — the common sense one never-to-be-named in politically correct academic circles — is tagged “the Voldemort View.” Mr. Derbyshire after this allusion then adds another Potter reference, this time to the climactic confrontation in Philosopher’s Stone, that no one not very familiar with that book will ‘get.’ [Read more…]