Wizarding Education/British School

[Steve]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Sarah" <plungy116 at a...> wrote:
> --- InIn HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Shaun Hately" 
> <drednort at a...>
> > > wrote:
> > 
> > I confess to being just slightly annoyed with HPFGU at the 
> > moment - I sent a very large post, which I put a lot of research 
> > into,  to the main list last week, and received virtually no 
> > comments about it at all. 

> Sarah:
> 
> Aren't we all just getting a bit too analytical and delving far 
> deeper than JKR would ever have intended?  ... I think JKR would
> just want us to accept it at face value.  
> Maybe that is easier for me to do since I am British, went through 
> the British education system, I'm assuming as JKR did.
>
> To me Hogwarts works as a secondary school and thats that. I took an 
> eleven plus at my last year of primary school and the result of that 
> determined whether I went to a secondary modern school ... During 
> the summer holidays my mum and I went to town and bought uniforms, 
> stationery, hockey boots etc etc ... There were 100 new first years 
> from the town and surrounding area, split into 4 forms - 1H, 1B, 1X 
> and 1S, and you stayed with that letter throughout school (1H, 2H, 
> 3H, 4H etc). - sorting. ... We all stayed at school until the end of
> the 5th year when we took our O levels (ordinary levels) (OWLS).
> You could then leave school at 16, or stay on the the lower and 
> upper 6th to complete your A levels (advanced level)(NEWTS), ...
> 
> So stop analysing - this is all normal
> I've had my say now, thank you for reading this far
> Sarah xx


Asian_lovr2:

Yes, that's all good and well, but millions of us never had that
experience. I went to a small town school in the North Central USA.
Our schools are divided into grammer = grade 1 through 6, Junior or
middle school = grade 7 throught 8 and sometimes 9, and high school =
grades 9 through 12. The last four years are referred to as Freshman,
Sophmore, Junior, and Senior years. 

My knowledge of the British school model comes from movies, and these
are movies that most younger people today would not be inclined to
watch since no one gets shot, cars don't drive fast, and nothing blows up.

In the USA, unless you are from the VERY rich part of society, you
would be considered a very poor parent in the US, if you shipped your
kids off to boarding school. How could you possibly love your kids, if
you sent them away for nine months out of the year, and in all
likelihood shipped them off to camp in the summer? 

To lower, middle, and lower-upper class people in the US, you would be
a disgraceful parent for doing that. For the most part, boarding
schools are for extremely rich kids who can't lower themselve to
associate with us rif-raf, and for kids who have been kicked out of so
many public/govermnent schools, that the last resort is to ship them
off to boarding school and hope the structured environment help
straighten them out. In a sense, sending your kids to a fancy prison
before the government is forced to sent them to a real prison. So, you
see, your view of Hogwarts is vastly different from a majority of the
readers.

Personally, I found Shaun's post fastinating, and responded to him
both off-line and on. And when Shaun posted in groups where people
take a deep intellectual interest in things, he received many positive
responses.

So, why do I and other people care? For one thing, a deeper
understanding of the books. The school model is completely foreign to
me and I can't imagine why you people lump unsuspecting 11 year-olds
in with Senior students, and I wouldn't know a Prefect from a hall
monitor. 

For another, a deeper and greater base of general knowledge. I
remember, among other things, discussing the technology of sword
making and it's accuracy in the books. In addition to discovering that
someone in the main group at that time actually had a fair collection
of swords.  Also, mediaeval costumes to determine what wizard robe
might actually look like. Is that critical? No. But on the positive
side I have expanded my general knowledge in deep conversations with
very interesting people.

But still, what good is all that useless information? My favorite
activity relative to the books is to engage in what I call 'Logical
Extention of the Wizard World'. True, we could be content to accept
what we do see, but I have an intense curiousity about what I don't
see. How does business and commerce work in the wizard world? Do
wizards raise all their own vegetables, or do they import from them
muggle world? Where does Mr. Fortescue get all the ingredients for his
ice cream? To what extent is the ice cream enchanted? To what extent
are the ice cream flavors so unique and unusual that it must be kept
away from muggles? How do wizards ship all the goods that they import?
Does Gringotts Bank invest the money it holds in it's vaults? Does it
invest everybodies money, or do you have to put your money in a
special account to get interest on it? Do the Goblins have extended
investment opportunities similar to Stock, bonds, or mutual funds? Are
there food and drink concessions at the Quidditch games? What do the
sell? Popcorn? Peanuts? Nachos? Do wizards even eat popcorn? For that
matter, do the British eat a lot of popcorn? Are there magical
construction companies, if you wanted to build a nice house, would you
hire muggles, or could you look in the Wizard's Yellow Pages under
'Home Construction'? How to people travel? What are the rules
regulating Portkeys? How far can you apparate? Does the Floo Network
extend to other European countries? Can you Floo from London to Rome?
Is there an inherent limit to the range of the Floo Network? Can the
Knight Bus travel over water? We know it can't stop on water orunder
water, but can you take the Knight Bus to Munich or Athens? Are there
muggle neighborhoods in London that have been gradually taken over by
wizards the way muggle minorities sometimes transform neighborhoods?
If there are muggle-made-wizard neighborhoods, are there also wizard
tea shop (etc...) in those neighborhoods, and can muggle get in? Are
there small wizarding enclaves in other major cities? Are their
uniquely wizarding ocean beaches hidden from muggle view? 

Why would people want to extend the wizard world, one good reason is
Fan Fiction. If I am going to write a story about the wizard world, it
would be nice if it didn't contain any gross violation of a logical
extention of that wizard world. For example, I don't think you can
Floo to South America, and I would have trouble believing any story
the said you could unless the author gave sufficient justification for
it. 

By the way, JKR has said there is a limit to how far you can Apparate,
but gave no details. She simply said that farther the distance the
more difficult it becomes. So can you Apparate to the United States in
one jump, or do you have to go London to Scotland to Iceland to
Greenland to Canada to the United States, and how exhausted would you
be when you got there. As long as we are on the subject of the USA, to
what extent are the wizards and wizard school here? What are their
likely locations? 

Why would anyone want to extend the wizard world in this way? Another
good reason is that by looking beyond the surface, you gain a better
understanding of the surface. 

In addition to all of the above, it is a fanstinating insight into a
world, your world, that I might otherwise never get to see.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Steve/Asian_lovr2