Late Start to Magical Education (Was: Re: WQ)

[persephone_kore <persephone_kore@yahoo.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 53107

Manawydan wrote:
> Canon doesn't really help us with what happens to WW children before
> the age of 11. One interesting point is that although WW children
> will have grown up in an environment where magical methods for doing
> everything are the norm, the muggle raised students don't seem to
> have any problem keeping up with the wizard born, even though
> absolutely all the concepts are totally new to them. I'm not sure
> why this should be.

I (Persephone) reply: 
>From a literary sense, I'm inclined to think that this is an effort to
avoid giving the anti-Muggleborn crowd ammunition. 

>From within the universe, I still have theories, of course.... There
is the interesting but rather unlikely possibility that given their
ability to keep up without any prior experience, Muggle-born wizards
and witches are in fact superior to the witch-born, at least in the
sense of being mentally quicker and more flexible. 

Counter to this is the fact that Harry is in fact born to a witch and
wizard, but Muggle-raised, and also keeps up decently well. This,
however, would merely require moving the argument over to some sort of
advantage to being *raised* Muggle -- perhaps wizard-raised children
tend to be complacent about magic? Take it for granted, much as some
(most?) of us do electronics and so on?

I'm inclined to doubt my own proposals above, however, as they seem
rather shaky. Instead, I find the following line of reasoning somewhat
more plausible....

Obviously Ron's assertion that everyone will be at the same level,
starting out, is not *strictly* true in all respects. He has
experience with living in the wizarding world for eleven years. Fred
turned Ron's teddy into a spider when he was what, six? Hermione, on
the other hand, has read through all her textbooks, and this appears
to be an impressive, even intimidating level of preparation even to
people who have been living around magic all their lives; it also
seems to work fairly well for her in terms of academic success. Snape
impressed and alarmed his classmates by arriving for his first year
with an extensive knowledge of curses. 

I'm inclined to think that what Ron's statement actually reflects,
therefore, is that Hogwarts's curriculum is set up for people who are
starting magic at the very beginning. They might be assumed to have
thought of its existence, even if they didn't believe in it, but the
classes start with the basics, with no prior knowledge assumed (except
for Snape's, perhaps, and it appears that his questions can be
answered adequately based on the first-year textbooks). How to hold a
broomstick, even if you've been flying for years. Correct
wand-motion. 

Two things based on this: 

1. Arguably, Hogwarts caters to Muggle-borns. No matter what a student
has had the chance to learn ahead of time, everyone starts at the
beginning. This is useful in terms of being sure that *everyone* knows
what you want them to, but one might imagine that unless it's somehow
impossible to control magic adequately before around age eleven then a
school made up entirely of children with magical parents might start a
little further along. As it is, students from magical families have an
advantage in that whatever they do know (unless they learned it
another way and the school insists on their breaking the habit) should
be easier -- but they still have to do the work, and it seems intended
that with enough practice one should be able to go from no experience
whatsoever to at least the ability to meet passing criteria, at best
to excellence in the same time-frame. (Granted, I am basing this on
the fact that students have *done* this -- even if they are
exceptional ones such as Hermione Granger or Tom Riddle -- and that it
seems likelier, in my mind, that it is supposed to be possible than
that they are unpredicted flukes and Muggle-raised students are
expected to flunk!)

Then again... it's not as if it's impossible for the children of
literate or numerate parents to teach them reading and arithmetic
before age four or six, and I understand learning to read is still on
kindergarten curricula. There would certainly be justifications for
beginning at the beginning even without the presence of Muggle-borns
who would otherwise need, in essence, remedial work.

I'm inclined to think that starting further along and assigning
remedial work is regarded a less palatable option due in part to the
likelihood that certain parties would look down on them for having an
excellent reason to need to catch up. 

2. Most children born to magical parents do not actually receive
magical education prior to coming to Hogwarts. Some do, clearly.
Equally clearly, they tend to have more experience with being around
magic -- though since, to them, this is How the World Works it is
possible (though not directly supported, that I can recall) that they
may not really have thought about just *how* one uses magic to
accomplish various things. They're still officially restricted from
performing underage magic, though this appears to be given rather
limited enforcement -- I'm inclined to suspect that it's intended
primarily as a security measure against Muggles' learning things.
Still, if Fred and George are being sent home with letters about it,
it's at least supposed to apply to them in theory. The child poking a
slug with his daddy's wand is scolded and has it taken away.

To me, nearly all the evidence suggests that the expected thing is for
parents to leave actually *teaching* magic (as opposed to general
awareness of it) to Hogwarts -- I imagine the rationale goes something
along the lines of, "After all, it's there and the children have to
start at the beginning anyway... and it isn't *safe* for someone so
young to be practicing. Much better to wait until they're *there* and
all their practice can be supervised by people who are trained for
it."

Kids with a good deal of initiative who live in a magical family, like
the twins and perhaps Snape, might be able to get away with indulging
their curiosity and practicing ahead of time -- if their parents
approve or at least don't catch them, perhaps there would be no
consequences, as magic is expected at their household and thus their
experimentation could in theory be camouflaged. 

Persephone