Schools all around

[Christian Stubø]

No: HPFGUIDX 6069

The matter of schools is indeed interesting.  It isn't
only a linguistics game, but also a numbers-game. 
Alas, I think it unlikely that there was ever a
noveauxbatons, as there would be very few
French-speaking wizards in North America.  If one
assumes uniform distribution of wizarding abilities in
(at least European) populations, one can get an
indication of the ability of a district, country or
language to maintain its own school of magic.  I
believe that the limits for when a school is able to
sustain a sufficient quality-level must lie at around
250-300 students in Hogwarts-age (henceforth called
Hogwarts-number), equal to 36-43 graduating students
each year.  This is based on JKR's statement that
Hogwarts has 1000 students.

The number of students at school, however, will in
some countries differ from the Hogwarts-number.  In
Norway, for instance, the educational system is
different from Britain, with the result that Norwegian
magical children would have to go magical school from
they are 6 years old (7 years old before 1997), and
stay till they are 19 years old.

French-speaking Canada has a Hogwarts-number of only
110, while English-speaking Canadians have a
Hogwarts-number of 263.  It is of course possible that
Canada has a bilingual magical education, which of
course gives Canada the ability to maintain its own
French education.

In Europe, all French education will be at
Beaux-batons, which is not surprising, with exception,
perhaps, for those from Switzerland (which again might
have its own multilingual education, for reason of its
national pride).  Beauxbatons will then be about the
same size as Hogwarts.  There is the matter of the
French colonies and territories, as well, and former
such - do they have their own setup, or do they send
their magical offspring back to France?

English-speaking Canada and Australia both have barely
the numbers needed to maintain a school.  New Zealand
has less than 10 students graduating each year, and
will have to join forces with Australia, sending their
magical children to ANZAM (Australia-New Zealand
Academy of Magic).  If Canada has joint education, I
suspect it will be with USA, as I understand Canadian
education to be more similar to US schools than to UK
schools.  South-Africa is an interesting country - do
white south-africans go to Hogwarts, while those of
aboriginal african descent have more traditional
institutions, what was the view on apartheid in
South-African magic, was magical South-Africa a victim
of the UN embargo, etc.?

Germany can easily have its own school of magic -
within Europe there are 91 mill German-speakers,
giving a Hogwarts-number of ca. 1500 (50% more than
Hogwarts).

All the major slavic languages in Europe, except
Russian, total at around 160 mill, giving the
Hogwarts-number at around 2710.  I set the number of
Russian-speakers in Europe tentatively at 75 mill (I
don't know where to find out how many Russian speakers
live West of Ural), giving an additional 1200.  If all
of these went to Durmstrang, that would mean
Durmstrang alone was more than twice as big as
Hogwarts and Beauxbatons added together.

I will try to make an organised spreadsheet of
population, wizarding population (based on a
postulation I made some time ago that there are 20 000
wizards living in Britain and Ireland together) and
Hogwarts-numer (number of students in
Hogwarts-equivalent age).

> I still love your wit. But there is very much
> question as to when
> wizarding schools (of European language and
> traditional) were first
> founded in the Americas. I'm inclined to believe
> that wizarding folk
> were slow to emigrate and avoided Jamestown,
> Plymouth Rock, and covered
> wagons. When did wizarding folk begin to emigrate,
> and once they did
> begin to emigrate, how long did it take them to
> found their own schools
> instead of sending their children to the home
> country for education? And
> how many schools? Do you think there are only New
> Hogwarts and
> Nouveauxbatons for norteamericanos? I could go on
> for pages on this
> topic.


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"There are two trillion six-houndred and sixtyfive billion  eight-houndred and sixtysix million, seven-houndred and fortysix thousand, six-houndred and sixtyfour litte devils in the world"
---------------------------------------------
Christian Stub
Student of Technology, architectura navalis

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