[HPforGrownups] Re: The timeline on the DVD *confirms* canon;

[Shaun Hately]

No: HPFGUIDX 56326

On 23 Apr 2003 at 16:49, HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com wrote:

> Because early next week I should be able to find and provide citations on early entry 
> and acceleration in British primary schools during the 1980s - I have to do some 
> research and I'll be accessing a whole bunch of journals on the education of gifted kids 
> in the UK including (probably) a bunch from the 1980s. If this is a real issue of dispute, it 
> probably won't be very hard for me to find non-anecdotal published evidence that a child 
> in the UK in the 1980s could be ahead of the normal age for their years. I may even be 
> able to find statistics that indicates how common it was (not sure on that - I have seen 
> an article like that, but I can't remember it's precise details - it may have been talking 
> about one region).
> 
> I'm happy to do it, if there's any interest - I need to be going through the journals anyway 
> and I doubt this will add much to the time I will be spending. But I want to see if people 
> seriously want this stuff.

Last week, I offered to do a basic search through gifted and talented literature for any 
published evidence that could relate to the possibility that Hermione is 'younger than 
normal' upon starting at Hogwarts. Obviously, in the real world, this doesn't matter 
much, but as there seems to be some contention involved in the possibilities, and a lot 
of people throwing anecdotal stories about as evidence, I think it is useful to look at 
published research material as well. Anecdotal stories have value in that they can show 
if something is possible, but really doesn't address how common something was. I'm 
hoping that through going through the published research, I can get more useful 
information as to that.

Today I engaged in a fairly brief search - I am hoping I'll be able to do some more later 
(mostly for my own interest as a major fan of Hermione who would actually find it very 
useful if she was accelerated or an early entrant (-8 but I will happily share it.) I'm not 
expecting this to convince anyone - it's just more information that some people might 
find useful.

Basically I decided to look for evidence of early entry to school in the United Kingdom, 
or acceleration through school (skipping one or more years being the most common 
form), particularly in state schools, particularly in England, and particularly during the 
1980s or very early 1990s (the time most likely to be relevant to Hermione.)

If anyone sees anything wrong with all this, please let me know - I only have a passing 
familiarity with education systems in Britain.

Document #1: 'Gifted Education in England' by David George, published in Roeper 
Review, March 1992, page 200-201. At the time of writing, David George was Associate 
Director of Nene College, Northampton, President of the National Association for 
Curriculum Development, and a member of the Council for the National Association of 
Gifted Children. The article draws primarily on a 1989/90 national review of gifted 
education in the UK for its data. I haven't been able to get a copy of that, and may not 
be able to - I will look though.

Relevant quotes from the article:

"In 1989 the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC), with a grant from the 
Department of Education and Science, set up a survey of provision for able and talented 
children in the United Kingdom... This NAGC survey provide the best basis of a status 
report on the education of the gifted in the United Kingdom.

"Out of the 105 Local Education Authorities (LEA) approached, three-fifths responded 
and from those responses, 42 authorities said they made special provision for gifted and 
talented children...

"Acceleration of children is not encouraged unless the children are ready 
psychologically, socially, emotionally, and, of course, intellectually. The NAGC survey 
showed that 18 LEAs (29%) encouraged acceleration and early transfer to the next 
stage of education."

This is from a review undertaken in 1989 and it does suggest that acceleration and early 
transfer (though it doesn't specifically speak on early admission) may not have been as 
uncommon as many people seem to think. I am going to look for better data - but when 
18 LEAs out of 105 total say they encourage this, it's fairly likely it occurred a 
reasonable number of times - not certain, because I am well aware that policy does not 
always match reality, but I do think it is of interest. People in the apparent majority of 
LEAs that did not encourage acceleration or early entry may well have viewed it as rare 
with good reason, even if it was occurring quite commonly elsewhere.

Document #2: 'Aspects of Primary Education: The Education of Children Under Five by 
Her Majesty's Inspectorate, Department of Education and Science, 1989.

This is probably the clearest document I will be able to find on  the likelihood of a child 
starting early in British schools at about the right time (it's a few years late, but it's fairly 
close).

"1. Maintained educational provision for children under five includes nursery schools, 
designated nursery classes and units, and classes with under-fives admitted early to 
primary school...

"3. Of the under-fives receiving education in maintained provision approximately 24 
percent are in nursery schools or designated nursery classes and units, while 21 per 
cent are admitted early to primary school."

It doesn't give firm numbers there, but it does say that nearly as many kids were starting 
school early as are in nursery schools, and I would say that's a fairly significant number.

I do have some other material as well, but I need to look at it in more detail (and find out 
some information about British education on one - I can't work out if what is being 
described in it is abnormal or not), and I also don't want to overwhelm the list with 
material that is probably boring to most people 

Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
Shaun Hately |webpage: http://www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/thelab.html
(ISTJ)       |email: drednort at alphalink.com.au | ICQ: 6898200

                       "Almighty Ruler of the all;
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