Hogwarts: A tight schedule

[grey_wolf_c]

No: HPFGUIDX 43527

Megan Carlin wrote:
> I have been reading along this thread for awhile, and something occurred to mean. It really doesn't have to do specifically with Penny Lane's post but it was a sort of catalyst for me to actually post to it.
> 
> Alright here's a short question, in regards to all the 
> mathematics going on in this thread (I always was bad at maths 
> hehe). My question is, who's to say that the students only go to 
> school five days a week? I can't remember offhand, so I'll read 
> into it and maybe some people can inform me on the thread that 
> I'm wrong. But I can't seem to recall any evidence that there were 
> only five school days. That would certainly give the teachers 
> more time to spend teaching even more classes. 

If you read my original post (#43419) of this thread, you may notice 
that one of the possibilities I did the math for was for a 6-day week. 
No indication is given that they have class on Sunday, but I would 
findly increadible if it happened that they DID have class on Sunday. 
None of the countries I know in Europe (and least of them, England) 
have class on Sundays, and I'd find it very strange in did if JKR had 
introduced that particular idea.

The problem, however, goes further. Canon points out that clases don't 
happen on Saturdays either (or at least, they get some of them free), 
since Quidditch matches happen on Saturday mornings, and Harry visits 
Hagrid on Saturday afternoons. It only stands to reason. AFAIK, the 
only country that has class on Saturdays is France, and is only 
half-day anyway, and yet they have the same number of hours the other 
coutries have, because they get a half-day one of the week-days 
(Wednesday, in my case).

Olivia wrote:
> I also have been reading along with this thread since it was started
> and think it's a fascinating topic. I can only offer two suggestions:
> 
> 1. I believe this has been brought up, but it's very possible that 
> Ms. Rowling simply didn't take the time to go through the math. As a
> writer myself, I can vouch for the fact that not all authors plan out
> every detail such as this.

Olivia, we KNOW for sure that he didn't go over the maths: she has said 
so herself any number of times in interviews. However, some of the 
people on the list (like myself) like to try and iron out all the 
blatant errors of the books by setting up theories to explain what is 
going on as if it was a non-fiction instead of a fantasy. Check the 
thread on the number of students and Hogwarts, for example, to see 
those people in action, trying to come up with ways of Hogwarts having 
280 students and 1000 students at the same time.

> 2. We don't know all the teachers at Hogwarts. Some of them have been
> mentioned only very briefly like Professor Sinistra -- we don't even
> know if it's a man or a woman -- and it's possible that there may be
> more teachers who aren't even talked about. We're seeing Hogwarts
> from Harry's fairly limited point-of-view. He's only been through
> four years and obviously doesn't take all the classes that are 
> available.

Sinistra is a woman in my translated edition, if that helps. And don't 
think there are that many teachers. In fact, we know how many there 
probably are: 12.

> As I was reading Goblet of Fire this evening, I caught something that
> makes me think that there are more teachers. As Harry is looking over
> the staff table at the Start-of-Term feast, he describes Professor
> Sinistra as the "head of the Astronomy department." Maybe the staff
> table is for the heads of departments and there are in fact more
> teachers at Hogwarts that teach under the other teachers. There isn't 
> A LOT of information to support this,but I don't think it can't be 
> entirely ruled out.
>
> Olivia

Other people have suggested that the teachers we know of are only heads 
of departments and that the classes are given out by lesser teachers so 
they can find time. However, this clashes directly with the fact that 
Harry has NEVER been teached by any other teacher than the ones 
attending the parties and ceremonies. If there are, indeed, other 
teachers at Hogwarts, they are very well hidden.

Hope that helps,

Grey Wolf, who can accept that no-one mentions other campus at 
Hogwarts, because he sees it happen in his own school and University, 
but cannot accept that Harry has missed mentioning he had different 
teachers for the same class.