Hogwarts in the Context of the British Public School

[bluesqueak]

Catlady writes:
> > Didn't some listie say that she had been Deputy Head Girl at her
> > all-girls school?
> 

That would be me, probably. I also have the distinction of never 
having been a prefect, making a career progression for James of 'not 
a prefect but Head Boy' entirely possible. 

Catlady:
> > Here's a question actually related to your essay: WHY were they
> > clergymen? Actually, I mean, why would clergymen want to be
> > headmasters of snob schools rather than ministering to a 
> > congregation or running a soup kitchen?   
> Shaun:
> Well, partly, it's because the Church was a career as much as it 
> was a vocation. While most men who entered the church were 
> presumably pious, they also had to consider how to feed their 
> families, and many were just as likely as anyone else to want to 
be 
> successful. Getting a Headmaster's position at a prominent school 
> was a way of making yourself known, and could lead to considerable 
> power in the Church heirarchy. A fair number of these Headmasters 
> went onto become Deans or even Bishops.

Pip!Squeak:
Quite true, but there is also the *long* connection of the Church 
and Education. There was a longish period when anyone literate was 
probably in the Church, maybe in some minor non-celibate order, or 
had probably been educated at a monastery or by a priest. Most 
Fellows at the two English universities were in divine orders for a 
very long time as well. Add this to the idea that parish priests or 
their curates often tutored youngsters privately for some extra cash 
and clergyman=teacher and teacher=clergyman was pretty firmly 
established in people's minds. 

So it probably wouldn't occur to anyone that a clergyman *shouldn't* 
teach/head a snob school, just as clergymen were Fellows at the very 
snobbish Oxford and Cambridge Universities.

Catlady:
> > Why doesn't Hogwarts have any music or arts education, 
> > apparently no foreign languages or maths?
> Shaun:
> Because it's not considered necessary - and that matches the 
public 
> schools fairly well as well - until well into the 19th century, 
> many of these school focused almost entirely on Latin, Greek, and 
> Divinity - things like mathematics, music, art, English, history, 
> geography, science, etc - were ignored.
> 
> It seems odd to us with our perception of education, but they 
> weren't considered necessary for a long time.

Pip!Squeak:
Agreeing with Shaun: you picked up what you needed by studying the 
Greek. Aristotle covered all that was needed of Natural Philosophy, 
for example. Pythagorus, geometry. And so forth.

Similarly, I suspect Hogwarts considers that necessary maths is 
covered *within* the appropriate subjects - potions, astronomy 
(which is pretty mathematical). Music and art are probably 
considered 'home' subjects - things you often learn at home anyway, 
so why bother including them at school? Languages - I'm suspicious 
of the high level wizards who speak incredible numbers of languages, 
so that may simply be an advanced spell. Or more likely it's a joke 
about the abysmal language teaching in English schools. ;-)

Pip!Squeak