If Muggles are unaware of Wizards, why do they agree to send their kids to Wizarding schools?

Jeana <jayemelle@earthlink.net> jayemelle at earthlink.net
Sun Jan 12 09:35:45 UTC 2003


No: HPFGUIDX 49665

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Peter Shea <bebche2 at y...> wrote:
> If muggles are protected from knowledge of the wizarding world, why 
do muggle parents (like those of Hermione Granger and Lily Evans 
Potter) appear to accept so easily the existence of magic? And, more 
incredibly, why do they agree to the education of their children in 
wizarding schools where the children are prepared to live in 
clandestine wizard communities rather than participate in the wider 
muggle world?
> Peter the Couch Elf

I'd guess there are probably plenty of Muggle parents who, when their 
children's school letters arrive, figure the whole thing is a joke 
and toss them (the letters, not the children) out the window.  In 
that case, we'd never hear about the "lost students" whose magical 
careers were over before they began.  (This assumes Hogwarts' single-
minded pursuit of Harry in PS/SS was a one-time extra effort to reach 
someone who was at once helpless to fend for himself and so obviously 
integral in the WW.)  Perhaps the ones who allow their kids to enroll 
are merely the most open-minded of the nonmagical bunch--and maybe 
they welcome the idea of their children being part of a more 
cloistered world, although clearly it's not exactly a safe 
alternative to the Muggle world.

Besides, who's to say all magical children, even the ones from 
wizarding families, do get magical education?  We know about the 
existence of Squibs, and apparently there's a possiblity of a child 
being "not magic enough" (cf. Neville's family's fears about him) to 
be accepted into Hogwarts.  And, as addressed (I think) somewhere in 
the FAQs, there seems to be some sort of class distinction in terms 
of who's offered the education in the first place (Stan Shunpike and 
Madam Rosmerta don't seem to be alumni, although they're clearly 
magical).  However, I believe that among children who are 
sufficiently magical and socioeconomically qualified, there have to 
be some who are accepted to wizarding school but, for some reason or 
another, don't or can't attend (I'm thinking of economic hardships, 
family difficulties, illness, etc.).  If an accepted child doesn't 
show up, I can't see the school having any authority to influence the 
family's decision, or to alter the circumstances that led to that 
decision--whether those circumstances are nonbelieving Muggle parents 
or abject WW poverty.

So IMO, it's quite possible that there are many people from Muggle 
families out in the non-WW who do, in fact, have some measure of 
magical ability that was just never allowed to develop.  I imagine 
these "lost students" living their whole lives in the kind of pre-
1991 cluelessness Harry himself exhibited--occasionally seeming 
to "make" strange things happen, but never really understanding how 
or why.  Of course, in this scenario, uneducated magical students 
from wizarding families wouldn't be quite the same--they'd still have 
and be able to use their powers, but they wouldn't have a formal 
wizarding school education to back them up (again, characters like 
Stan and Rosmerta).

By the way, I'm new here and from what I can tell, this is a great 
group.  Congratulations to all who have worked to make it what it is!

Tess






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