website SPOILERS . Who goes to Hogwarts

[davewitley]

No: HPFGUIDX 119793


> Lexicon Steve:

> What I immediately noticed is that she only half-way answered the 
> question. So did Stan Shunpike go to Hogwarts? How common is it 
for 
> people NOT to go? 

Alla:

> Yes, you are right, but I got the answer to the question I was 
> interested the most in light of the discussions we had earlier - 
how 
> easy it is to get admitted to Hogwarts, how elitistic the 
admission 
> system is, etc.
> 
> I am also glad that as long as magical child shows spark of magic 
> he/she considered to be a wizard.

That is true, but it is not the whole truth.

As far as *Hogwarts* is concerned, all that matters is that you are 
magical, but, IMO, JKR's answer manages to leave wide open the 
question of how much role class plays in the wizarding world.

(As a historical aside, I think analysis of class was the original 
motivation for creating the Shunpike question, though I may be 
missing some of the story.)

People may choose not to send their children to Hogwarts because 
they would feel socially uncomfortable doing so; they may feel that 
to do so would be to be a class traitor; they may be intimidated or 
bribed by those who did go to Hogwarts; they may positively support 
a class system that Hogwarts (and Dumbledore) opposes.

It's noteworthy that Dumbledore's ethos (as far as we can judge by 
the Sorting Hat's songs) seems broadly in line with that of Hogwarts 
through its history, yet it seems to have had little success in a 
wider wizarding world which supposedly has mostly passed through 
Hogwarts.

Then there's the whole issue of money.  I feel that the evidence is 
that there are no tuition fees (Molly, for example, never complains 
of this though she does worry about textbook costs), but perhaps 
many families rely on children going into the family business in 
their teenage years?  Alternatively there may be scholarships for 
the children of MOM employees, whose effect is to keep MOM jobs in 
the hands of a small elite.

An effective system of class manipulation (this is Britain we are 
talking about, remember) will make it seem as if its class-based 
outcomes are the result of free choice.

David