[HPforGrownups] Re: Vague Thoughts on Apparation - Conclusion Confusion

[Shaun Hately]

No: HPFGUIDX 93501

On 20 Mar 2004 at 8:47, Steve wrote:

> So the key points I need resolved are-
> 
> 1.) Why do people feel that students can practice other magic at
> school, but for some reason are forbidden to practice Apparation even
> while under the supervision of teachers?

I think most of this is purely and simply tied up with the fact 
that this is seen as similar to the way driving is handled in 
Britain.

Now, I don't have first hand knowledge of the UK - but it's my 
impression that unlike the US where Driver's Ed is a reasonably 
common high school course, British students do not have an 
equivalent subject in their schools. Kids do not learn to drive at 
school.

The same thing, BTW, applies in Australia - schools are just seen 
as having absolutely no involvement whatsoever in teaching kids to 
drive. It's something to be done completely, outside of school - 
not something to waste valuable school time on.

>From Americans I know, I have the impression that in the US, senior 
high school students (maybe not all - but a lot of them) tend to 
know if they have been accepted to a college or not sometime fairly 
early in their final year of high school. Their admissions to 
college are primarily based on the grades they receive *before* 
their final year of high school. They may well have to maintain the 
same standard to keep the place they've been offered - but the 
hardest work of getting a place has already been done.

In the UK - and it's this way in Australia as well, so I remember 
the pressure - your final results at the end of your final year of 
secondary schooling are the most *critical* determinant of your 
access to higher education.

What this means is that schools make the academic studies their 
students are doing, the single most critical part of their final 
school years. Time spent teaching kids to drive would be seen as a 
severe waste of the valuable resource of *time* that could be spent 
on studies that matter.

Now, while Hogwarts, isn't a typical British school in many ways, 
and the career paths are not the same, I think these deeply 
ingrained attitudes may be one reason why people find it simply 
hard to believe a school will waste its time on teaching students 
the skill that is analogous to driving. That's not the place of a 
school - a school will be concentrating on grades in the subjects 
that matter.

Hogwarts will be concentrating on NEWTS - and *everything* else will be a luxury.

> 2.) Tied in with above, why are people so rigid about the age 17
> restriction for Apparation, yet the school is not that rigid when it
> comes to other magic?

Maybe because of the legal status.

Look - my school - not British, Australian - played hard and loose 
with many of the age restrictions normally imposed in Australian 
society.

We were actually *encouraged* to drink in moderation in our final 
year - even though we were nearly all still underage (drinking age 
is 18 in Australia). At one stage, smoking had even been tolerated 
as well in the oldest students - but they'd stopped tolerating that 
by the time I was that age. We routinely saw films with R 
certification (not to be shown to anyone under 18) from age 14 and 
15.

But under *no* circumstances would the school have tolerated us 
driving underage. I'm not sure exactly why that was - but it was 
treated entirely differently.

And I think that's a fairly common experience. It may influence 
some people.
 
> 3.) Why would something this difficult and dangerous NOT be taught at
> school? The difficulty and danger would seem to imply that it MUST be
> taught at school; taught by professionals.

Well - the same could be said about driving.

And in the US, Driver's Ed does seem to be quite routine.

But it's not elsewhere. It's not part of the culture - and I think 
a lot of the reason for that comes down to the reasons I mentioned 
earlier.

Just culturally, this is *NOT* something schools waste their time 
with - and whether it really is a waste of time, or not - that is 
the common attitude.

Believe me, I know - my office has made several attempts over 
recent years to get some sort of Driver Education into Victorian 
schools - because we think it would improve driver safety. The 
Education Department gives us only the barest, most lukewarm signs 
of any encouragemment whatsoever.

That's the way it is. Schools are for academic pursuits. The final 
years of school are to prepare students for such pursuits. Driving 
is something to be done elsewhere.
 
> 4.) Why would summer tests rule out the course being taught at the school?

I don't think it would.

> In conclusion, from previous discussion on this matter, most people
> seem to take the same position that Annemehr and Carol are taking, but
> frankly, the logic of it escapes me. My own logic tells me it must be
> taught at school, and the very same evidence they are using to argue
> against it, is the evidence I use to argue for it.

I think it's cultural - rightly or wrongly, people are viewing this 
situation as analagous to driving lessons - and in most places, 
those are not things that schools concern themselves with.

Besides that... look, I honestly can't believe that any boarding 
school with a duty of care to its students would sanguinely teach 
them a skill they could use to travel vast distances without any 
hope of adult supervision (and yes, at 17, the students may be 
legally adults in the Wizarding World - but somehow I doubt 
Hogwarts really thinks of them that way). In that sense, it's not 
exactly equivalent to driving - with driving the skill alone isn't 
enough - you have to have a vehicle.

Some students are going to be old enough and qualified anyway - but 
I think you'd want to keep the numbers as controllable as possible 
(-8


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