Stan Shunpike & Tom the Innkeeper + North Dakota

[Steve Vander Ark]

No: HPFGUIDX 24224

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Kelly Hurt <klhurt at y...> wrote:
> --- Steve Vander Ark <vderark at b...> wrote:
> 
> >These folks do not attend Hogwarts,
> >they move directly from basic
> >schooling in the home or in small
> >communal school settings into trades.
> >Examples include Stan Shunpike and Tom
> >the Innkeeper.
> 
> How did you reach the conclusion that they never attended Hogwarts?

Sorry, I wasn't clear. We don't know that they didn't, I was using 
them as examples if my premise was correct. In other words, given 
what I was suggesting up to that point, two people who might fit that 
description are Tom and Stan. There is nothing in the canon to prove 
that, although I would argue that there has to be a lot of people who 
never qualified for Hogwarts for that small a student population to 
make sense. 

I know some would argue that if Goyle can make it at Hogwarts, Stan 
should be able too, but that's not necessarily the case. Stan was 
exceptonally dim ("See you, Neville!" to someone whose identity has 
just been revealed to him as NOT Neville but instead a famous 
celebrity). Goyle is dim too, but his father was a Death Eater and I 
suspect has some connections. His father is dim too, from the sound 
of him, but might very well have skills that can come in useful, 
especially when combined with a lack of mental prowess.

The point is that Stan and Tom are in the kinds of jobs that one 
would imagine non-educated folk to hold in a medieval-style society.

Steve Vander Ark
The Harry Potter Lexicon
http://www.i2k.com/~svderark/lexicon