British culture viewed through the Potterverse

[Lynda Sappington]

No: HPFGUIDX 58488

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "catherinemckiernan" 
<catherinemck at h...> wrote:

<Large snip> 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. 
> 
Kirby grips?  Are those like bobby pins?  Wavy metal things that hold 
small amounts of hair, or hold hats to your hair?  Our graduation 
gowns are polyester for high school, a bit heavier for college 
(bachelor's degree).  You can buy a heavier, higher quality one for 
your Master's or Doctorate graduation if you want, and some PhD grads 
wear a soft velvet hat like a tam (or a floppy beret) rather than a 
mortarboard.  Here, college graduates have taken to decorating their 
mortarboards.  Nurses, in particular, do very silly things like tie 
balloons to their mortarboards.  Others will write message on top 
("Thanks, Mom & Dad!" things like that), or decorate them with 
pictures and glitter.  At least that's how it was at Wright State 
University, where our daughter got her B.S. and M.S, and at 
University of Dayton, where my hubby got his M.S. (both near Dayton, 
Ohio).  So if I understand you correctly, British kids may wind up 
out of school and out in the job market when they finish their 
O.W.L.'s (well, the real equivalent), at age 16 or so?  Yikes, so 
young!  Thanks for the info!

Lynda