Wizarding school/class titles

[flying_ford_anglia]

Original Yahoo! HPFG Header:
No: HPFGUIDX C5371
From: flying_ford_anglia
Subject: Re: Wizarding school/class titles
Reply To: [Yahoo! #5369] Re: Wizarding school
Date: 7/30/00 1:59 pm  (ET)

<<What was that one class that Hermoine was taking, it sounds like Math to
me, but then again, some of the British classes' names are very foreign,
even if they have the same subject as ours here!>>

You mean Arithmancy. We call Math 'Maths', but that's pretty obviously
the same thing. Most other classes would be the same I guess, but...

I always thought it was funny that girls did something called 'Home
Economics', which translated as cooking and 'keeping house'. I kid you
not - they actually had a furnished flat at the Girls' High School where
they practiced ironing clothes and vacuuming the carpet! When my school
merged with the Girls' High School in my sixth year, a gang of us used
to hang out in the flat, smoking and playing cards.

Another class that puzzled the hell out of me was 'Divinity'. It was
supposed to be religious instruction [not reading tea cups, before you
ask]. The Headmaster himself took the class and taught a whole year of 90+
boys in one classroom. He was a noted atheist, so the lesson consisted
of each of us reading two lines from the bible out loud. Once we'd gone
round the class, we went round again, until the bell rang. I think that
was his way of fulfilling the requirements of the time.

I agree that the Hogwarts students seem to have given up conventional
subjects in favour of magical ones. Even vocational colleges teach basic
three-R skills...

Neil