[HPforGrownups] Re: Scottish school cut-off dates- Hermione's birthday riddle solved?

[Shaun Hately]

No: HPFGUIDX 109639

On 10 Aug 2004 at 22:01, serenadust wrote:

> In spite of the timeline in the Lexicon and the CoS video, I still 
> think that Hermione is the oldest of the trio.  It's not really very 
> important, but unless JKR can explain that Hermione received a 
> special exception to enter Hogwarts a year ahead of schedule, or 
> says that Hogwarts cut-off is October 1, then that timeline is yet 
> another Flint.

The things is... early entry or acceleration of various sorts isn't 
that uncommon. It was less common in British schools in the early 
1990s than it was in many places, but it's really not *that* 
unusual. I work with gifted kids, and I have a lot of contact with 
the way education works around the world. This just isn't that 
uncommon. It's not at all an unreasonable assumption to make the 
timeline work.

Further - with British independent schools, historically, it's even 
more common - recently I sent a long post to the list outlining the 
similarities between the way Hogwarts is presented and the British 
Public Schools. I think that is the 'correct' model to be looking 
at, in as much as there is any correct model for comparing muggle 
schools to Hogwarts. Basically, historically, in such schools, age 
limits, and cut offs were very much guidelines. While most students 
were about the same age in the same year - by no means all were.

Evidence for this - Stephen Fry's (British comedian who 
incidentally read the British version of the Harry Potter Audio 
books), autobiography 'Moab Is My Washpot'. He attended a British 
public school (Uppingham), which he entered a year earlier than was 
'normal', and went through the school, a year ahead of the norm. He 
says this at one stage:

"I will be taking my O levels this year. Fourteen seems a young age 
for them, but in those days, if they reckoned you could do them, 
you did them. I would take my A levels two years later and leave 
school at sixteen, then university at seventeen, that was my 
future, all chartered out before me. That was how things were done 
then." (page 209).

I could find other examples - I still haven't returned the twenty 
or so books on public schools I borrowed to write my long post (-8, 
but this one has at least some Harry Potter relevance, so it seemed 
the best choice.

Now, admittedly, Fry is talking about when he was at school (early 
1970s) but Hogwarts does seem a little behind the Muggle world in a 
lot of ways, especially when it comes to social and educational 
trends.

The idea that Hermione started at Hogwarts a year earlier than 
normal is simply not that surprising. If the other evidence 
indicates that it's the case, there is no reason to doubt that 
other evidence.

Hogwarts needs to be seen in the context of the type of school it 
seems to be. Now, while not everyone will necessarily agree with my 
view of what type of school that is (although I think I've made the 
case well in the past), I think most people are very well aware 
that it's not exactly a 'normal' school and so while some things 
may certainly be similar, it shouldn't surprise us at all, when 
Hogwarts seems a little different.


Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
Shaun Hately | www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/thelab.html
(ISTJ)       | drednort at alphalink.com.au | ICQ: 6898200 
"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one
thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the 
facts. They alter the facts to fit the views. Which can be 
uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that 
need altering." The Doctor - Doctor Who: The Face of Evil
Where am I: Frankston, Victoria, Australia