A Mistake and a Question

[Steve Vander Ark]

No: HPFGUIDX 23298



> Actually most of the school systems in the U.S.  (i'm a student 
> there still) have a cut off date of like September 1st

This is not true. It may be true in your particular case, but most 
schools in the US have a later cutoff than September 1. Parents have 
a lot of choice in the matter. Some pre-kindergarten testing may be 
required for children past a certain point, but often the school just 
lets the parent make the choice. And frankly, a lot of parents don't 
make a particularly good choice, but that's spoken as the husband of 
a kindergarten teacher.

The gender of the child does make a difference, both because girls 
tend to mature a little quicker than boys and because parents are 
quicker to have their son be the oldest in his class (and therefore 
not the smallest, the last to get a driver's license, etc.). 

In Hermione's case, I can easily imagine, with her precocious 
abilities, that she would be placed forward rather than back. Her 
somewhat immature actions in SS/PS suggest that she is a bit lacking 
in social skills, which I see not infrequently in gifted kids. 

The clincher, though, is going to have to come from our British 
friends. In my opinion, if they say that parents do get to make that 
kind of a choice in British schools (and in fairly traditional 
schools, which Hogwarts certainly is), then I'd say Hermione is young 
for her class. That would almost certainly be what would happen in 
the US. If they say that no, the rule is always Sept 1 and is really 
never broken, then I'd say that Hermione is very old for her grade 
and turns 12 three weeks after the start of their first term in 1981.

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