[HPforGrownups] Hogwarts: A tight schedule

[Barb P]

No: HPFGUIDX 43442


grey_wolf_c wrote: 
 
They are really one and the same. The total number of groups in the school is 4 groups/year * 7 years = 28. Thus, Snape teaches 14 groups (since he doubles), 4 hours/week to a total of 56 hours. The DADA also teaches 56 hours/week (28 * 2). Most listees will probably know that the number of hours a week is 40, and recently, sindicates ask for 35, but that's not the worst of it.

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I don't know that this really helps poor Professor Snape very much, but I seem to recall that, on one occasion, breakfast was mentioned as being around 8:30 in the morning, leading one to believe that classes couldn't begin much before 9:00 am.  (I believe that, in third year, when Hermione has her overlapping schedule, she has more than one class listed at 9:00 am, and nothing as early as 8:00 am.)  If lunch is at noon, and, as has also been mentioned, there is a morning break between the first and second classes, it seems that most classes are only about ninety minutes long, minus a little time for those breaks (so maybe 80 minutes or so).
 
This would mean multiplying Snape's fourteen groups by three hours, not four, reducing his teaching time to 42 hours from 56.  An improvement, to be sure, but still not terrific.  I also have gotten the impression that, as before lunch, there are only two class periods after lunch each day (when they have Double Potions or Double Divination, that seems to last the entire afternoon, and I doubt classes are longer in the afternoon than the morning, so that would be about three hours also).  
 
However--since this would give four class periods per day over five days, that would give each instructor only 20 class periods.  This would mean that Snape could teach each class once and only six classes twice.  I strongly suspect that every year is not getting as much instruction as you might think (I don't remember the first years being in class all that much) and it's possible that sixth and seventh years are actually only in class for one period a week and otherwise expected to do a lot of work outside the class time, perhaps signing up to use the Potions dungeon during the evening and on weekends for potions that take a very long time to prepare and simmer.
 
Or (and I hate to fall back on this yet again, but it's really very reliable), the problem once again could be that JKR didn't really work out how the the teachers would manage to teach all of the students and didn't really care since we only ever see Harry in class.  I strongly suspect that no matter how one cruches the numbers, it would still be out of whack, and that the author's basic innumeracy means it might be rather headache-inducing to even try.  (And yet I, too, have thought about this, obviously.  Ah, well.  A glutton for punishment..... <g>)  
 
Personally, I'm not really upset that most of JKR's brain is not given over to numbers and is instead given over to being able to invent these books.  There are plenty of mathematicians in the world, IMHO, and not nearly enough people who are able to give so many people so much consistent enjoyment.
 
--Barb
 
 


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