In defense of the Working Class, was Re: Work after Hogwarts?

[Joy M]

No: HPFGUIDX 26681

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Catherine Keegan <keegan at m...> wrote:

an excellent post on employment opportunities for wizards. (thanks, 
Catherine)

However, I have one small disagreement.

> Knight Bus is an alternate form of transportation (and, it seems, 
where the 
> students who flunk out of Hogwarts go for jobs...).

Many, many people have expressed the opinion that certain HP 
characters such as Stan Shunpike, Ernie Prang, Rosmerta, and perhaps 
others must have flunked out of Hogwarts or been educated elsewhere, 
or not at all.

I completely disagree with this.  There is NO evidence that Stan or 
Ernie or anyone else (except Hagrid and that's different) flunked out 
of Hogwarts, nor have we been presented with any evidence that some 
wizards and witches are not intelligent enough to go to Hogwarts.  In 
fact, JKR has stated quite clearly that there is a magical quill 
which writes down the name of every magical child born, and 11 years 
later that child receives a letter inviting them to attend Hogwarts.

I think it is completely unfair to assume that because someone has a 
working class job that they are somehow stupid, uneducated, or 
ineducable.  Rosmerta works in a pub in Hogsmeade whose name I've 
forgotten which some LOON will no doubt remind me of.  I believe it 
is also implied that she owns the pub, although I could be making 
that up.  Owning your own business, no matter how small or mundane, 
is no easy task.  You have to have a basic understanding of 
accounting, management, and customer service. Rosmerta would also 
have to have some knowledge of cooking, bartending, and how to 
control crowds of rowdy, drunk wizards and drunk, inexperienced 
students wizards.

People have said that Stan Shunpike seems a little dim because he 
continues to call Harry "Neville" even after he learns who he is -- 
but he also seems to have a pretty good philosophical understanding 
of how the world works.  Perhaps I'm biased, since he is the author 
of what is my personal favorite HP line:

  "How come the Muggles don't hear the bus?" said Harry.
  "Them!" said Stan contemptuously.  "Don't listen properly, do 
they?  Don't look properly either.  Never notice nuffink, they don'."

He also has a accent, which, in my very limited knowledge of British 
accents I have assumed is some sort of lower class accent.  However, 
for all I know it is a regional accent of some sort.  And a lot of 
people would get confused about someone's name when introduced to 
someone as "Neville" only to find out he's really "Harry."  And for 
all we know, Stan or Ernie or both could be highly skilled wizards 
who create the spells that cause houses, lampposts and mailboxes to 
move out of the way of the Knight Bus, not to mention make the bus 
jump from one part of England to another.  Maybe they got their jobs 
because they got excellent grades in Advanced Apparation of Moving 
Vehicles.

And even if Stan, or Ernie or anyone else, is not that bright, what 
about Crabbe and Goyle?  By all accounts, they are idiots.  No one 
has ever suggested that they are too dumb to go to Hogwarts, except, 
perhaps, many of us here at HP4GU.

I know that the great and knowledgable Lexicon Steve (I mean that as 
a compliment, and I really hate to disagree with Steve but I just 
have to, just this once.) feels that Ernie, Stan, Rosmerta, etc. 
probably did not go to Hogwarts, and that the reason Crabbe and Goyle 
are allowed to go to Hogwarts because of the advantage of coming from 
rich and powerful families, since family connections can make up for 
lack of intelligence in terms of getting ahead in the world.  (If 
political comments were allowed on this list we could speculate that 
family connections might even allow someone with limited intellectual 
abilities to become president, but since that's not allowed I won't 
mention it.)  While it is true that family connections can get you 
into college or a job even if your academic qualifications are not 
too good, we don't really know anything about Crabbe and Goyle's 
families except that their fathers, or mothers, or both, are death 
eaters and friends of the Malfoy's.  For all we know, Crabbe, Sr. 
shovels manure on the Malfoy's Pig Farm and Goyle, Sr. is the janitor 
at the MoM.  (Well, yeh, they probably do have elves for those tasks, 
but you know what I mean.)

Lots of smart people drive buses and conduct buses and work as 
waitresses.  I've waitressed myself, and I now I am working on my 
PhD.  Does that mean I used to be stupid and now I'm smart?

Anyway, that's my two knuts in support of Stan, Ernie, Rosmerta and 
working class wizards and witches in general.

--Joywitch, who is going to go make little badges that say "WOWWW" -- 
World Organization of Working Wizards and Witches.  (1 sickle to join)