necessary math knowledge - LOTR

[naama_gat at hotmail.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 14661

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Amy Z" <aiz24 at h...> wrote:
> Indigo (who had some strange hobbies growing up) wrote:
> 
> > Still, numerology, as I recall, does tend to involve a bit of 
basic 
> > math because you have to know how to add and subtract, mutiply 
and 
> > divide.
> > 
> 
> I'm with Steve:  this is the kind of knowledge a child will easily 
> know well before 11 through homeschooling.  I would add (unschooler 
to 
> the last) that it wouldn't take formal homeschooling, either.  A 
child 
> of 6 can easily learn arithmetic (meaning add, subtract, multiply, 
> divide).  Ditto with reading and writing--I could do both before I 
> started formal education (well, printing anyway), which is not at 
all 
> unusual.
> 
> I just wonder about literature, nonmagical history, science (which 
is 
> true and interesting even if you can circumvent physics with 
magic!), 

No, no, no. You use physics to circumvent magic! Remember - Hermione 
said of electronic devices that they were substitutes for magic, not 
the other way around. :)
Also, nonmagical history wouldn't interets the magical community, 
generally speaking. They don't even read muggle newspapers (it's 
implied by Dumbledore). Science also is irrelevent for magic people. 

I think that we have to adjust to the idea that the magic community 
isn't a kind of ethnic minority (that is, different from but also 
part of the larger society), but an *alternative* society. There are 
crossovers (is that the term?) and points where these societies meet 
and influence each other, but they are very separate, even alien to 
each other. The separateness is best exemplified in that they have 
different histories. Muggle history would be for them an esoteric 
field of knowledge (like Chinese history for 18th century Europeans).
 

Naama