Colin Greevy and Social Promotion

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 93147

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Robert Jones"
<jones.r.h.j at w...> wrote:

> Here in New York City, there is a big argument right now about "social
> promotion" of failing students, and since I am rereading COS I thought
> of Colin Creevy.  He was a first-year who got petrified early in the 
> school year and unpetrified only at the end of the year, and yet in 
> POA he is in year two.  Shouldn't he have had to repeat the first 
> year?
>
> Robert J.

bboy_mn:

The problem with 'social promotion' in the real world is that it never
stops. If they passed a marginal student on to the next year that
might be OK if he pulled it together and performed better the next
year. But schools keep passing them again and again with no
accountability, consequently, we get high school graduates who can't
read or write, or if they do, they are doing so on a grade school level.

Part of that problem is the blame game, no one in the school wants to
accept responsibility, and therefore, push the blame off onto anyone
and everyone but themselves. The teachers lack support in the form of
adequate classroom financing, and support from the administration. If
a student fails, the teachers blame the administration and the
administration blames the teachers. In the meantime, no one has time,
or takes the risk of actually trying to teach a marginal student.

However, I guess we could say that Hogwarts is 'old school'. Teachers
like McGonagall and Snape do not let students slide by from year to
year without measuring up. Even though Colin missed most of a year of
school, McGonagall and Snape are going to demand that he bring himself
up to scratch the next school year. The student may not learn
everything that was studied in the missed year, but certainly teachers
like Snape and McGonagall are going to make the students do enough
extra work to cover the most important aspects of that year.

Plus, in the next year, Hogwarts teachers are not going to let the
student slide by again. In that next year, teachers are going to
demand that the student perform on a par with the other students. If
they don't, they will be given extra work, and pushed until they do
make the grade.

In addition, the wizard world has standardized tests (OWLS & NEWTS),
the teachers know that unlike the real world (USA) student can't keep
sliding until they are slide unseen right out of the system. At some
point, there will be a day of reckoning, and that day of reckoning
(OWLs) reflects as much on the teachers and school as it does on the
students.

Hermione is no problem, she is already far ahead of the rest of her
class. Colin, I'm quite convinced, was given extra work and help until
he was sufficiently capable of measuring up to the other students, and
demands were made of him to continue to perform adequately in all
subsequent years. 

That's the big difference between Colin's 'social promotion' and
social promotion in the real world. Hogwarts most certainly demanded
that Colin catch up and keep up.

Just a thought.

bboy_mn