HWGA -- Number of students

[jferer]

Original Yahoo! HPFG Header:
No: HPFGUIDX C7000
From: jferer
Subject: Re: HWGA -- Number of students
Reply To: [Yahoo! #6947] Re: HWGA -- Number of students
Date: 8/16/00 12:55 pm  (ET)

I agree with you about what I think the birth rate must be. I'm not sure I
agree with you about the 800-1000 number you've postulated for Hogwarts,
but I keep coming back to the fact my daughter's elementary school has
way over 300 students, and it's not big. It gave me an appreciation how
small that number is.

Still, there are things that nag me. We haven't heard one word about other
schools in the UK, but what happens to people like Stan Shunpike on the
Knight Bus? He went to Hogwarts? How about Tom in the Leaky Cauldron?

My hypothesis is that a magical child *must* be trained. (Remember the
toddler that was swelling a slug at the World Cup? It would be downright
dangerous to have children like that running around without schooling.)

Last, you're absolutely right that the wizarding society would be
destroyed if all, or not even all, the population was destroyed, even if
there were magical children born. We'd be back to the witch-burning days.

I think the only legitimate things we can draw comclusions from is
material from the books or things JKR has said. We can't use fanfic. So
all this does is make us aware there's a lot we don't know.