British culture viewed through the Potterverse

[catherinemckiernan]

No: HPFGUIDX 58436


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, artsylynda at a... wrote:
> Ali:
> 
> > I never cease to cringe when posters mention Harry's 
> > graduation; British kids don't graduate from school, so if Harry 
> > graduates from Hogwarts that will be another first!
> 
Me: Joining you in cringe.
Lynda then responded:
> I have trouble keeping up with these boards, so I may have missed
something 
> somewhere -- if so, please accept my apologies!  But if British
students don't 
> "graduate," what happens at the end of their schooling?  Do they
just stop 
> going to school with no "ceremonial ending" to their years of
education (those 
> who aren't going on to college, anyway)?  I've read all the posts I
could find 
> on the British education system, trying to understand it clearly,
and this 
> non-graduation thing escaped me somehow.  Thanks for clearing it up
for me!

Me again: Yes, we just stop going to school. At the end of the fifth
year, we have GCSEs (OWLs). Pupils finish the course then go away on
study leave, ie. work at home, returning to take the exams on odd
mornings and afternoons. Then you either don?t come back or you turn
up for the 6th Form 9 (two years), at the end of which you finish the
course, go on study leave and take A-levels (NEWTs), coming in to
school on odd mornings and afternoons to take your exams. There?s no
Graduation ceremony at all, but pupils who?ve taken these
fate-determining exams all turn up at school, get their little
envelope, look at the notice board, and go to the pub to celebrate or
mourn. Some schools might have a party, I suppose, at the end of the
summer term, but most don?t. Everyone is too traumatised. So Harry is
highly unlikely to graduate from Hogwarts.

We do graduate at the end of university, in very heavy silk/wool gown
and wool/silk.fur hoods (the USA school graduations I?ve seen on USA
TV programmes seem to use artificial silk?), and often bits of latin
and trumpets. If you?re really lucky, you get to do it in a cathedral.
Everyone worries about tripping over their gown and their mortar board
falling off. All the boys borrow kirby grips off the girls. 

It is tricky, reading about almost-but-not-quiet-the-same cultures. I
had always wondered about the?base? systme, until it was explained on
the boards! 

Catherine McK