Classist Hogwarts (was ... was .... was...)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 46018

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "James P. Robinson III" <

>>> My argument is that class does have a role in Hogwarts 
admission.  It is certainly not the only factor.  I would further
that 
by saying that I believe Hogwarts turns out adults  prepared to 
enter, at least, an upper middle WW class (e.g., the MoM rather 
> than the Knight Bus).  In my mind, this does make Hogwarts 
elite. <<<

 
I think it's a misapprehension that Hogwarts is elitist because it 
trains  people to be government and professional workers, and 
government and professional workers constitute an elite class.   
This is not the case in a modern economy, and despite its 
medieval trappings, this is what the Wizarding World has.

In the  Wizarding World, as in  modern real-life US and Britain, 
the largest single employer appears to be the government. In 
such an economy, some government jobs are elite, but most  
aren't. It's very prestigious to be an MP or a Senator, but there's a 
whole army of regulators and paper-shufflers who'll never make 
the society pages.

 If ministry clerks and professional service providers 
(curse-breaker, dragon-handler)  are the majority in the WW, they 
can only regard themselves as an elite class in the same sense 
that the majority of drivers suppose they are better than 
average.<g> Even Voldemort seems to want slaves so he can 
torture and kill as he pleases, not because he needs cheap 
labor to run his factories or work in the fields. 

The Wizards don't need comprehensive schools. How would 
they develop a class of workers whose children needed to be 
kept  off the streets while the parents are working in factories, or 
who had to be taught trades because they  were no longer 
needed on the farm? 

Considering that the magical/mystical garden is a staple of myth 
and fairy tale--were Werewolves first created by evil wizards to 
guard their crops of fluxweed during the full moon?-- wizards 
have probably always grown their food by magical means. Even 
Hagrid manages this, and he's not terribly skilled. And all their 
manufacturing seems to take place on a small scale, too. 
Perhaps the goblins are simply too conservative to finance large 
ventures.

It doesn't follow that because Harry is concerned about his 
finances, all students must pay full tuition. There could be a 
sliding scale for Hogwarts tuition and board: wealthy students 
like Potter, Malfoy and Justin Finch-Fletchly have to pay  in full, 
poor students like Creevys, Weasleys and Riddle don't. That 
leads to the paradoxical canon situation  in which  Harry has to 
worry  about  his tuition while the Weasleys only struggle to pay 
for their books and supplies. Surely Fred and George would be 
begging to be sent to a cheaper school if there were one--it 
would save the family money and they don't want to work for the 
ministry anyhow.

There is additional canon support for the idea of Hogwarts as 
the only wizarding school for those who cannot afford to study 
abroad. I mention it here only because I don't think I've seen it 
before: The Sorting. Being placed in an unsuitable House would 
hold no dread if there were some  alternative way to study magic. 
Indeed, Hermione and Malfoy don't seem terribly worried: they 
have parents who can afford to send them abroad. For Ron, on 
the other hand,  being sorted into Slytherin would be the End 
(I'd've got the train straight back home.) 

According to JKR, the  reason for making Hogwarts a boarding 
school was logistics rather than social commentary. She 
needed to have her characters abroad at night and boarding 
school made that easier. Where would our poor shippers be if 
she'd made the trio siblings instead?  It may be at odds with 
some readers' conceptions, but there are real life examples of 
children being boarded in the service of anti-elitist ideals, such 
as the Children's Houses of the Israeli Kibbutzim.

James P. Robinson again:
>>Let's  also remember that, at least at one time, Lucius Malfoy 
dominated the  Hogwarts Board of Governors.  Would he have 
had anything to do with a  non-elite institution?<<

The boards of charitable institutions are usually rife with blue 
bloods--that's how they're financed. 

Lucius Malfoy wants  Hogwarts to be  classist, and used  the 
board as a means to that end.  Remember, he would have 
preferred to send Draco to Durmstrang, which has a more 
selective admissions policy. 

Pippin