University

[Amy Z]

No: HPFGUIDX 18620

Rita wrote:

<lots of good stuff snipped>

> > I have thought that people could LEARN to be scholars and 
> researchers 
> > through an apprenticeship system, based on guilds (collegia) for 
> each 
> > discipline.

Haggridd wrote:

> 
> There is a real life parallel to the above.  In the early history of 
> the U.S. lawyers were admitted to the bar, not after graduation from 
> lawschool; instead they "read law" under the tutelage of an 
> established attorney, who was not even a recognized professor.  I 
> don't understand why anyone finds a university structure necessary, 
> though. During the nineteenth and early twentieth century in 
Britain, 
> did not the ruling class enter into their jobs after graduating from 
> "public" schools such as Eton or Harrow, without attending 
University?

Don't know about modern Britain, but the contemporary US model of 
multiple university degrees is unusual in the history of 
education/training and certainly is not the only workable one.  You 
can still read law in some places.  My state has the only State 
Supreme Court justice in the US who never went to law school, but it 
used to be very common.  Rita's vision fits with the medieval system, 
at least as well as I remember the tiny bits we learned about in 
middle school, and since the wizarding world is relatively small (I 
know the size is highly debatable, but what's certain is that there 
are way fewer wizards/witches than Muggles), a system of 
apprenticeships and other less standardized forms of training would 
work very well.  I think it would work very well for us Muggles, too, 
but that's just my hobbyhorse . . .

Amy Z
founder, Potter-Loving Unschoolers Mastering Professions (PLUMP)

-------------------------------------------------
 Ron peered into Harry's teacup, his forehead
 wrinkled with effort.  "There's a blob a bit
 like a bowler hat," he said.  "Maybe you're 
 going to work for the Ministry of Magic. . . ."
               -HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban
-------------------------------------------------