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

[Catherine Keegan]

No: HPFGUIDX 26699

At 04:36 PM 9/25/01 +0000, Joy witch wrote:
>--- 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 think it is completely unfair to assume that because someone has a
>working class job that they are somehow stupid, uneducated, or
>ineducable.

Coming from a very blue collar background, I don't have that opinion at 
all!  My dad was a plasterer and was a math wizard.  My mom worked in the 
showrooms for years as a waitress and as captain and she is definitely not 
dumb.  Heck, I've worked with some incredibly stupid (or perhaps 
stooooopid) programmers over the years who had at the very least a four 
year degree.

I thought that I was perhaps a bit harsh on the bus drivers so I listened 
to that part while driving back from Santa Rosa yesterday.  I dunno.  I 
still think they're none too bright.  Not stupid but not the kind of folks 
who would get the prime jobs out there.  The description of objects jumping 
out of the way of the bus made me wonder if there were any driving tests 
for that job...

However, (some LOON please chime in here!) there is some mention that if 
you don't get a certain amount of OWLS or decent enough grades, you don't 
continue.  Maybe ol' Stan or Ernie did complete all 7 years but maybe 
not.  Maybe they couldn't afford to attend.  I never did figure out whether 
Hogwarts was publicly funded or you had to pay to send your children.  The 
school robes reminded me of my days in parochial school where you paid a 
lot to have your kids sent there.

>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.

OK! OK! I agree.  The Three Broomsticks is the name of the pub IIRC.

I won't join the WOWWW but I won't cross your picket line, either.  ;-)

Catherine from CA who grew up in a the very Union Las Vegas, NV