Vague Thoughts on Apparation - Conclusion Confusion

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 93536

I (Carol) wrote:
We know that the Twins turned seventeen in April of their sixth 
year. I had assumed that they practiced at home over the summer, 
maybe under their father's supervision, before taking their tests.
 
bboy_mn responded:
OK, in GoF, we find out from Mr Weasley that Apparation is difficult
and dangerous. If that's true, and we have no reason to doubt him,
then why would the wizard world leave something this difficult and
dangerous up to the parents to teach their children?
 
To me that doesn't make sense, all other necessary magic it taught at
school, why would apparation be excluded from this?

Carol again:
Steve, please note "had assumed" in my previous response, which
indicates that until I read your post, that was what I had thought.
Now I'm no longer making that assumption but presenting the existing
(very scanty) evidence and exploring possibilities. As for why
apparation *might* be excluded from the Hogwarts curriculum, if you
were McGonagall, would you want to teach Fred and George to apparate?
It's like giving them a license to leave the grounds at any time.

I (Carol) wrote:
Of course, we don't know when his birthday is, but I think he [Percy}
must not have turned seventeen until just before his seventh year or
he would have taken his test the previous summer.

bboy_mn responded:
One of the points I tried to make is that I don't understand why
everyone is so obsessed with the idea that you absolutely under no
circumstances can Apparate until you are 17 years old?

Carol again:
I was just trying to establish Percy's age, when he learned to
apparate, and why he hadn't taken his test the previous summer. No
indication that I'm obsessed about how old you can be when you
apparate. I admit I'm obsessed about getting my facts straight, which
is all I was trying to do here--as in, okay, here's what we know about
Percy and the Twins learning to apparate. I wasn't actually arguing
here, just--again--presenting the available evidence.

bboy_mn: 
You can't do any kind of magic outside of school until you are 17
years old. Or as Carol pointed out, you can't do any 'cast' or wand
magic out side of school. Yet we see the kids doing all kinds of cast
wand magic inside of school; in class and out. 

Carol again:
I'm not sure who made that comment, but it wasn't me. Maybe the person
who made the remark will identify herself?

bboy_mn: 
Apparation is a difficult and dangerous form of magic, the teaching of
which is best left to professionals in my opinion.

Carol responds:
I'm not arguing with you here. In fact, I suggested the possibility
that Madam Hooch *might* be available to teach such a course in her
spare time. I'm only saying that I don't see any evidence that such a
course is taught. (As a side note, I don't see any reason why an MoM
employee like Arthur wouldn't be sufficiently skilled at apparating to
teach his own children. He does it every day and presumably has done
so for years. A Muggle parent, OTOH, would know nothing about
apparation but would be concerned about teaching his or her teenager
to drive. So maybe the Muggle-borns can get special, extracurricular
apparating lessons at Hogwarts. If so, we can be sure that Hermione
will take advantage of them in the next book if she's really older
than the boys.)

bboy_mn:  
My next point, is that everyone seem to take their Apparation test
during the Summer. People seem to have taken that to indicate they
couldn't possibly learn Apparation at school. Sorry, I don't follow
that line of thought.

Carol responds:
As I said, I *was* making that assumption, but your post caused me to
consider the possibility that I might be wrong. Thanks for the
suggestion. Your point that "You learn at school, the school year
ends, you go to the Ministry, and take the test [is] a log[i]cal
sequence of events" does make sense as a possibility I hadn't
previously considered. We just don't have any evidence that students
are taught apparation (apparition?). There's no known Apparation
teacher and, as I noted, you'd think that Fred and George would make a
big deal about it if they were learning it.

bboy_mn:   
The last point is Hermione's continued insistance that you can't
Apparate at Hogwarts. But just outside the gate of Hogwarts, one must
assume, you can Apparate. Why is that a problem? Students go into
Hogmeade on Hogsmeade weekends and seem to survive the effort. Why
would it be such a terrible stuggle for them to walk into town for
Apparation lessons? Actually, why even bother to walk all the way into
town, when you can just step outside the gate?

Carol:
OTOH, why go to all the trouble of protecting the school and grounds
with anti-apparation and disapparation spells (which limit the
movements of the staff as well as the students) if the older students
can just escape those limits by either sneaking out of school using
one of the passages DD, Filch, and Snape know to exist or apparating
and disapparating on a Hogsmeade holiday? I think it makes sense not
to routinely teach students a skill that could so easily be abused by
the likes of MWPP, Fred and George, or Draco and his friends. I can
see DD making an exception for Harry and possibly for Ron and Hermione
in the next book, but the safety of the students and the ability to
account for their whereabouts seems to me a good enough reason for not
teaching it. (Again, I'm not arguing that it *isn't* taught, just
exploring possibilities.) 

 
Certainly, it seems that it could and would very logically be taught
during 6th year so that students would be ready to take the test as
soon as they turned 17 and had a break from school.

Carol responds:
I'm not so sure. If parents or the MoM for some reason insist that
Apparation must be taught, at least as an elective, it would make
sense to restrict it to the seventh year, when all students are at
least seventeen--old enough, I would hope, not to abuse the
privilege--and too focused (unless they're Fred and George) on their
NEWTs to think about escaping the grounds to make mischief. That seems
to me to be a greater danger than splinching.

bboy_mn:
More importantly, I WANT it taught during 6th year and AT school
because I want to find out all the details on how it works and what it
feels like. 

Carol responds:
Ah, the truth comes out. Now I know why it was so important to you to
argue with me when in fact I was only exploring both sides of the
argument. I'll try to make that clearer in future.

Carol, who, for the record, is NOT making a clear stand on this issue
but *leans toward* the idea that it isn't taught at Hogwarts because
there's no evidence to the contrary