Boarding school (WAS: Re: No Sex, Please, We're British (was ethics in the WW )

[adsong16]

No: HPFGUIDX 83295

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Arya" <dequardo at w...> wrote:
> >  "Przemyslaw Plaskowicki" <przepla at i...> wrote:
> 
> >You missed two other examples: the pair caught by Snape in the bushes 
> > during Yule Ball, and Patil's horror when she realised that Crouch/Moody 
> > can see through clothes ("Nice socks, Potter!").
> > 
> > But I don't think, that Hogwarts is "awfully innocent". For 15 years 
> > old, sex in count-legs-and-divide-by-two sense is quite remote. I mean, 
> > for females much more important is all that romantic nonsense: hugging, 
> > holding hands, sharing emotions etc. As for boys, most of them at this 
> > age are still not sure what the heck is happening with them.
> 
> ME: This a sterostype where girls are good and boys are horny at best, if 
that 
> is, if they manage to figure out what they want.  I think I might offer my own 
> testimonial that girls, even at the ages of 15 thru 17, do indeed want and 
think 
> about sex and *gasp* are doing it. Divide the legs, and way more than that.  
> And I do in fact speak of my own personal experience when I was in high 
> school between 1990-1994.  
> 
> I will grant you that boys this age are more clueless--the norm was usually 
for 
> girls to date older guys--(think about Hermione/Krum--not that i think they 
> were doing it).  
[snipped rest of post]

I think we may be having a cultural difference here, either between Britain and 
the US, or between those of us who have been to high school recently and 
those who, er, have not. 

Personally, I went to high school in the early 90s in Mexico and although 
some people were having sex, it was quite rare. Most of us just talked and 
thought about it non-stop... 

Now, more recently I taught at a boarding school and also at a sleepaway 
camp over the summer, and I can tell you that in fact the staff did have to 
basically keep the kids away from each other with cattle prods. 
Understandably there are many reasons why Rowling is keeping away from 
this issue for now and possibly for the rest of the series, as you all have 
already pointed out. But this is only one of the things I wanted to draw 
attention to.

JKR has said that she never went to boarding school, and I must say it shows.
I particularly note the long stretches of unsupervised time that kids have 
(evenings after dinner, say 6 pm or so, and all of Saturday and Sunday, not to 
mention holidays). In American boarding schools there is rarely unsupervised 
time for the kids, with the thought that "idle hands are the devil's playground." 
Usually after dinner there is a study hall, during which the staff makes sure the 
kids are doing their homework, and no more than an hour or so until lights-out 
(kids must be in bed and quiet). During weekends and holidays there are 
supervised "fun" activities: going to the movies, bowling, games, etc. At some 
schools there are Saturday morning classes, and/or at least one evening a 
week devoted to community service. 

The same tight schedule applies to sleepaway camps, again with only an 
hour at most at a time to spend unsupervised. Of course this being a litigious 
society, schools don't want to be open to law suits in case the little darlings 
get into trouble when there's no adult around...

To bring this back to canon, I notice that staff at Hogwarts are considerable 
more empowered to hand out punishments than in my experience, Mr. Filch's 
frustrations notwithstanding. Not only is there the point system, which adds 
peer pressure to the mix, but also the fact that they can hand out detentions 
and can determine when and how such a detention will be served. In my 
experience a student would need to accumulate a certain number of demerits 
("bad" points) before they were assigned detention, which would always be at 
the same time, same activity, and would not normally be supervised by the 
teacher who handed out the detention.

I wonder if there are any listies who have attended boarding school in Britain 
in recent decades and who can comment on the differences between their 
experience and the Hogwarts view? (I'm talking about disciplinary differences, 
but if you want to comment on the social life...er... we won't complain ;-))

Gorda