Lupin's bag - PROFESSOR

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 82346

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "hermionegallo"
<hermionegallo at y...> wrote:
> Mandy (ghinghapuss) said (snipped):
> 
> "[His] briefcase is his old school bag."
> 
> 
> hg replies:
> As I said in my post and in the quote from the book, the bag 
> says, "*Professor* R. J. Lupin."  
> hg.

bboy_mn:

Once again, you have unknowingly provided an invitation for me to
expound on my long rambling theories about Education after Hogwarts. 

How could Lupin be a Professor? 

Well, he could have had a job in education prior to working at
Hogwarts, but he has repeatedly said no one would give him a job
because he was a werewolf. And if someone did give him a job, it would
be extremely unlikely that they would have given him a job as teacher
of tasty morsels of savory children.

So here is my alternate explaination.

Being in a situation like Remus, a person has two choices; 1) become a
hopelessly depressed alcoholic, or 2) make productive use of your vast
amounts of free time. I think Lupin chose route number two. 

In the absents of any true canonal information on the subject, all
we/I can do is come up with a likely speculation that explains that
which is not explained.

I seems that Lupin mother is still alive, and I speculate that she has
encouraged him to make productive use of his time, to improve himself,
and to achieve something in his life. So instead of hiding in the
woods getting drunk every night, Lupin stays home with is mother and
studies. He reads books, he write reports, he does magical research,
etc....

Now to my theory on education after Hogwarts. JKR has already said
very clearly that there are no wizard Universities. I think mainly to
supress any false expectations that there may be books after the 7th
book. However, I do believe that there are ways of increasing your
academic standing and recognition in the wizard world. This is done by
independant study and research, and the submission of academic papers
and presentations for review by academic review boards.

These are private organizations that are publically recognised as
having some merit and standing in their judgement of academic papers.
For example, the International Confederation of Wizards might have an
academic review committee. Wizards submit papers and give
presentations of their research, and the review committee of qualified
wizards determines the merit of this magical research. 

Once you have established a certain degree of proficiency and working
knowledge in the field of magic, the review committee is empowered to
grant academic titles such as Professoriate and Doctoriate which would
grant the person the right to use the titles 'Professor' and 'Doctor'
of Magic.

I feel that this type of academic advancement is very consitent with
image the wizard world we are presented.

So, with nothing but time on his hand, Lupin would have nothing better
to do than magical study and research, and to give some value and
credibility to all that work, he would write and submit academic
papers, and perhaps additionally submit research into various forms of
magic. This would allow him to accumulate enough verifiable knowledge
to eventually earn him a the title of 'Professor'.

I certainly can't prove any of that, but, as I said, it seems like a
model that is reasonably consistent with the wizard world. Someone
suggested that this model is very close to Guilds in which, say a wand
maker, is certified as a Master Wand Maker by the review committee of
the British Wand Maker's Guild. 

Just a thought.

bboy_mn