Class Issues in Magical Britain Re: Do all wizards go to school?

[lucky_kari]

No: HPFGUIDX 37420

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "joanne0012" <Joanne0012 at a...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at y..., "saintbacchus" <saintbacchus at y...> wrote:
> > Zoe Hooch wonders:
> > 
> > > I have wondered about the witches and wizards who don't go to 
> > > Hogwarts, such as Stan Shunpike or Ernie Prang on the Wizard 
bus. 
> > > There have to be a number of them who've never set foot in a 
wizard 
> > > school. I wonder how they get their training? Is there a 
parallel 
> > > track for non-academic wizards?
> > 
> > I think they must go to school. It strikes me that the wizard 
> > population isn't very large (the size of Hogwarts, Ron's comment 
that 
> > they would have "died out" if they hadn't started marrying 
Muggles), 
> > so it would be easier to get all young witches and wizards into 
> > school than it is for the general population.
> > 
> > It's also more important that they make the extra effort, since 
> > wizards have powers - whether or not they've been trained to 
control 
> > them.

I'm firmly convinced that Hogwarts cannot be the only wizarding school 
in England. First of all, Hogwarts does not in a million years have 
that 1,000 students JKR vaguely dreamed of, but more importantly, 
everyone at Hogwarts that we've seen is firmly upperclass. While 
Hogwarts takes people from all social backgrounds from the Muggle 
world, we've yet to meet a Hogwarts student from a wizarding 
background who, on investigation, does not seem to have an almost 
aristocratic background.

Draco Malfoy - 'nuff said
Pansy Parkinson - good enough for Malfoy
Pavarti Patil - knew Pansy before Hogwarts, Pansy's comments suggest 
recognized as one of themselves
Neville Longbottom - respected wizarding family
Ron Weasley - old and somewhat respected wizarding family
Ernie MacMillan - can trace his ancestry through nine generations
Cedric Diggory - Ministry father
Bartie Crouch Jr. - one of the oldest pureblood families
Goyle and Crabbe - thought good enough to associate with Malfoy
Harry Potter - JKR has confirmed that James Potter was independently 
wealthy, a good hint that the Potters were another old family, as is 
Draco's enthusiasm to make friends with Harry
Newt Scamander - his biography sounds pretty aristocratic, especially 
with the mother who bred the fancy hippogriffs

Exceptions?:

Seamus Finnegan - half and half, we don't know about his mother, but 
if I am correct, she came from the same clique who send their children 
to Hogwarts
Rubeus Hagrid - I would assume the same thing. 

Was Tom Riddle selected on his mother's membership of the aristocracy, 
or the same way that Muggle children are selected?

Other students:

There seems to be no requirement of this sort for the Muggleborns.

Colin and Dennis Creevey - milkman father
Hermione Granger - dentist parents
Justin Finch-Fletchley - down for Eton

-----------------------------------------------

The wizarding world is represented as one where everyone knows each 
other. However, on closer inspection, this is not true. People like 
Ernie Prang of Stan Shunpike we only meet when we fall out of the 
class in which Harry moves, a class to which one is admitted on basis 
of one's having attended Hogwarts. Not everyone in the Potterverse can 
work at the Ministry, and other such high profile jobs. However, 
everyone in the Hogwarts' circle does. While we do not know the 
background of countless wizarding students at Hogwarts, if we do know 
the background, it's upperclass. 

The primary difficulty with imagining Stan and Ernie at Hogwarts is 
not their brains, as has been suggested, but, and it may sound cruel 
to an audience with democratic and equalizing sensibilities, their 
accents. I am no expert in English accents, but I would stake my life 
that Ernie and Stan are represented as stereotypically lower class. 
People educated at Hogwarts do not speak in that manner. They speak 
the Queen's English. Different regional accents exist, witness 
Neville Longbottom in the celluloid-thing-that-must-not-be-named, but 
they speak "proper" English. If some students are admitted from the 
wizarding lower classes, they must soon pick it up. They would not, 
after a Hogwarts education, talk as the two learned custodians of the 
Knight Bus.

Now, to be fair, many of these Hogwarts students may not be exactly 
upper class, in the strict sense of the word. In my city they would 
be, but this is the wild West, still a little un-sophisticated in such 
things. :-) I would suspect that they might define themselves as 
middle-class. What I am getting at is "an aristocracy of education."

And, btw, this is why I think Hogwarts charges tuition.

Eileen

PS - The incredible exception is Hagrid, who speaks his own dialect, 
and cannot spell. This isn't plausible, though it makes for good comic 
relief.