Wizard Population and Other Schools

[finwitch]

No: HPFGUIDX 47187

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., jazmyn <jazmyn at p...> wrote:
 
> Harry went to a muggle grade school and one supposes that 'purebred'
> wizards are either home schooled or go to muggle schools, depending 
on
> how their parents feel about muggles.  Or there might be some sort 
of
> magic books that teach basic grade school stuff.  Could be any or 
all
> methods.
> I kinda get the idea that a wizards powers don't really start
> to kick in till they are at least 10-11 years old.  Or they would 
not
> dare let kids under 11 have wands!

They do not /give/ them wands until they're under 11! Little wizards 
*do* use magic when they're just little kids, look at 2-year-old 
Kevin (who was being scolded by his mother for *touching* Daddy's 
wand... it's not like he was /given/ that wand, mind you). Of course, 
it seems that magic does grow by age. Don't know how much magic Kevin 
can do without a wand... but anyway, every adult wizards supposedly 
knows all the counter-spells to anything their kids may accidentally 
do. It's even expected that wizarding-kid does accidental magic (as 
Neville's history with Uncle Algie shows).

And no, a wizard-born child wouldn't be attending a Muggle-school; A 
wizarding child in a Muggle-class would do so much accidental magic 
(We know Harry did even though he himself didn't at the time) against 
the helpless Muggles, that NO way is a wizard's magical kid going to 
go into Muggle school and scare all the teachers with his daring 
seeming jumps from high up (school roof?) to end with a miraculously 
safe landing where a Muggle kid would have at least broken a limb...

But I do think that a witch or wizard /might/ attend a Muggle 
professional school, particularly as no wizard ones exist. I think 
that some of the staff in St Mungos is educated in both Muggle and 
Wizard medics... And perhaps it was St Mungos where Dursleys took 
Dudley to get rid of the pig-tail, recommended by Mrs Figg (who may 
have /worked/ there in her youth and married a Muggle? At least she 
knows how long she must walk with a stick when she's broken a leg).

-- Finwitch