[HPFGU-OTChatter] Prefects, Headboys and Headgirls in Real Life

[Shaun Hately]

On 29 Aug 2003 at 12:11, Morgan D. wrote:

> So, my question for anyone here who studied or teach in schools with 
> hierarchical systems similar to Hogwarts': what do those selected 
> students do? what is their range of authority? what are their tasks 
> and how are they rewarded? how does the selection affect the chosen 
> ones' relationship with the teachers and the others students? is the 
> selection a refusable honour? do students refuse it sometimes?

I was a prefect at school, so I'm happy to answer these questions.

First of all bear in mind that schools differ, as does the office of 
prefect. My own schooling was in a school which came from a similar 
tradition to the one Hogwarts seems to be based on.

So I'll talk about what I did.

My duties as a prefect were both explicit and implicit. Explicitly, I 
was expected to support the staff of the school in matters of 
discipline, and also to act as a liaison between the staff and my fellow 
students. I was expected to keep an eye on younger pupils, and to help 
them deal with minor problems (on the principle that they'd be more 
likely to talk to another student about many problems than they would a 
teacher) and direct them to support for more major ones. I was sometimes 
called on to represent another student when they felt an injustice had 
been done. I dealt with kids who were homesick. I mediated disputes. I 
supervised students. There was a lot involved.

Authority - well, we had some disciplinary powers. We could hand out 
lines, and we could sign disciplinary cards (everybody had to carry one 
of these cards, and if you managed to get 10 signatures in a term, you 
had to see the headmaster - something to be seriously feared. As a 
prefect, I was able to give up to three signatures at once - in theory. 
In practice, I was informed that I'd better have a *very* good reason if 
I ever gave more than two, and I should also avoid if possible, ever 
giving a tenth signature to a student). 90% of the time, we simply gave 
warnings.

How are they rewarded? Rewarded?!?!? (-8 Seriously, it was an honour, 
and not something you sought reward for. We did have some privileges - a 
small (and I mean *very* small) personal office - it was about the size 
of a phone booth (and I am not joking about that). We could go to the 
head of lines in the library, or the school canteen (this was because we 
were assumed to have other duties to perform and so our time was at a 
premium - it was very bad form to jump a queue unless you were actually 
having to hurry off on duty). Longer term, it did look good when 
applying for university.

How did it effect your relationships with other students? Well, the fact 
is, *most* people respected the position provided you didn't abuse your 
powers, and provided you weren't arrogant about it. At least that's how 
it worked for us. Younger students tended to respect the position 
reasonably well. Students of your own age tended to know that you 
actually had a lot of extra work to do because you were a prefect - and 
respected that effort. They rarely gave you a hard time.

Relationship with teachers? Not a lot of change in my experience. By the 
time you became a prefect they already knew you, and either respected 
you or didn't. The only time there was much of a difference was if you 
explicitly approached them as a prefect - for example, if you were 
acting as an intermediary for a student who felt they'd been unfairly 
given a detention - in such cases, they would act quite professionally 
towards you as a prefect - quite differently from the way they 
interacted with you as a student.

Could a person refuse the honour? Yes - but at my school, that would 
have been seen as bad form - you'd benefited from the school and it's 
traditions, and then you'd refused the chance to do your bit to 
perpetuate them. Refusals at my school were very rare - but I know they 
had happened.  

Resentment was rare - at least long term resentment was. People might 
object to a particular action - but generally long term problems 
wouldn't develop. Only time I remember any significant problem was when 
there'd been a fight between some students from my school and a rival 
school on a train station one night, and for the rest of the week I 
found myself dispatched there each evening to keep a look out on things. 
That was resented by some students - but not because I was supervising 
them - rather it was because the other school had sent prefects there as 
well, and all the prefects from both schools were cooperating - this was 
seen as somewhat disloyal (-8 Cooperating with the enemy. The other 
school's prefects got the same treatment from their boys.

Some of the purposes of a prefect is (in theory - it doesn't always work 
in practice) to serve as an Ambassador for their school, a role model to 
their fellow students, a connection between the staff and the students, 
and a support to their fellows.

It's a tradition.

"Another ingredient in the process, besides games, was the prefectorial 
system... Prefects ran house activities and helped legislate rules; they 
kept order, judged offences and often did the punishing themselves."

"Despite the lack of formal checks on their power, prefects generally 
acted with self-restraint."

"Like the institution of Games, the prefectorial system channelled 
rather than suppressed aggressive impulses. The senior boy, accorded 
official status by the community, put his energies into tasks of social 
leadership; he didn't have to prove his authority by bullying, fighting, 
or other forms of anti-social behaviour."

"This tradition, acting as an internalized check on the ruler, had two 
aspects. First, the community conferred high office only as a quid pro 
quo, offering prefectorial privileges - special living comforts, freedom 
from certain rules and so on - in return for duty. Memory assisted the 
quid pro quo obligation, since each prefect could remember what it was 
like to be on the receiving end of prefectorial commands before he came 
to office."

The above quotes are from 'The Prefects: British Leadership and the 
Public School Tradtion: A Comparative Study in the making of Rulers' by 
Rupert Wilkinson, published by Oxford University Press, in London in 
1964.

I just included them for the sake of interest (-8

Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
Shaun Hately | www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/thelab.html
(ISTJ)       | drednort at alphalink.com.au | ICQ: 6898200 
"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one
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facts. They alter the facts to fit the views. Which can be 
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