Wizard population/education

[flying_ford_anglia]

Original Yahoo! HPFG Header:
No: HPFGUIDX C7022
From: flying_ford_anglia
Subject: Re: Wizard population/education
Reply To: [Yahoo! #7021] Re: Wizard population
Date: 8/16/00 7:53 pm  (ET)

<<In the very first book, Neville said his family was afraid he wasn't
magic enough to get admitted to Hogwarts. If he hadn't been, would he then
 not have been educated in magic at all? Or maybe that's when they are
 home-schooled? I always assumed that if he hadn't been admitted to
 Hogwarts, he would have had to go to another lesser quality school. >>

Perhaps he would have been sent to a regular school after a going
through a suitable brainwashing charm? I think Hogwarts selects only
those students with potential and leaves the rest to fit into a Muggle
lifestyle or live in the Wizarding World, untrained.

The only thing that bothers me about what I just wrote is that, in that
scenario, some witches and wizards would end up having no education at
all. We've also not resolved the problem of non-magical topics being
absent from the Hogwarts' curriculum. Potions is great, but how much
Chemistry is taught? Charms is fun, but not if you can't spell...

<<And Neil, there are at least two editions if not two separate
newspapers. HP2 mentions an Evening Prophet.>>

Thanks Margaret, I'd missed that! It doesn't really alter the point though
- the implication that there is a fairly small wizarding population. As an
aside, the London Evening Standard is sold in several different editions
each day, which begin - bizarrely enough - around noon.

<<Margaret, hoping she hasn't alienated Neil (especially if he's sick)
since she wants him to make the weather in London on October 11-13
 beautiful so her sister and roommate (who've never been there) will
 love it as much as she does. You have the power, right Neil? >>

I'll have to dig out my 'Meteorica Bueno!' spell for that,
Margaret. Fighting off rain in autumnal London requires some powerful
magic.

Neil is feeling cool (again, not in a Sirius way, just returning to being
'Tragical Me')