Home-Schooling in the Wizard World (long)

[greenfirespike]

No: HPFGUIDX 127428





After following several wonderful threads from the past week, a 
question began to reemerge regarding education within the WW.  Are 
any wizards home-schooled?  If this at all interests you, please 
follow along.  

JKR states on her website that Hogwarts is the only magical school in 
England.  We also know there are a few other schools in other 
countries.  However, it appears that the wizarding community is much 
lager than the population of students at Hogwarts (estimated by JKR 
as about 1000 students, or roughly 143 students per year, and 47 
students per house
roughly) suggests.  This could be due to a few 
factors, which I have discussed below. (see aside on National Wizard 
Schooling Systems below for more)

Squibs all around

I am going to assume that the occurrence of Squibs is low (although 
large enough to create a market, even if it's a sham, to teach magic 
to Squibs).  To assume a high rate of Squibs would slowly dwindle the 
WW population down to extinction level.  I am also going to assume 
that there are only slightly more occurrences of a magical children 
being born into a Muggle family than the occurrence of Squibs.  I 
don't assume a large number of magical children born of Muggle 
parents to replace a large number of Squibs because it undermines the 
likelihood that the WW could remain fairly hidden from the MW.  I 
base this on no particular piece of cannon, and for that I 
apologize.     

A population boom
then decline

Another reason there may be more adults in the WW than present levels 
of kids at Hogwarts would suggest is the idea of a population boom 
and sudden decline in the number of wizards.  This is likely, as 
there was a pervious war between LV and OofP and MofM, and lots of 
people die in a war.  Secondly, LV's rise to power and the actions of 
DE's may have caused wizards to refrain from having children for 
dozens of very good reasons.  I have seen this theory suggested 
before on the Lexicon and I agree with it.  

In the alternative

However, if the wizard population remains about the same has it has 
always been, we are left with only a few logical alternatives for 
schooling options based on my estimated population of the WW.  

1) Not every magical child attends a wizarding school.  If every 
magical child in Britain attends Hogwarts, or is at the very least 
given the opportunity to attend, not every child does.  

Perhaps home-schooling is common in the WW.  This doesn't seem like 
an unrealistic concept, especially for children born from magical 
parents.  Assuming Hogwarts costs some amount of money, perhaps home-
schooling is a reasonable alternative.  Assuming that Hogwarts can 
afford to give income based scholarships; parents may prefer to 
educate their child at regardless.  Finally, Assuming Hogwarts is 
free, magical parents may decide they would rather educate their 
children by a private tutor rather than trust them to DD and staff at 
a school where the poor populate the ranks.  (I submit this is the 
actual case, where Hogwarts is free to attend for all students)    

Alternatively, some of the wealthy wizard families may chose to have 
their children tutored in the arts of magic privately.  Again, I see 
no cannon to support this, but nothing that makes this an outlandish 
claim.  A strong point against this is the Malfoy family.  With 
wealth, family pedigree, and significant amounts of influence, they 
still choose to send their only child to Hogwarts.  

2) Not all who attend Hogwarts graduate, I'm banking that there must 
be a few out there who have failed N.E.W.T.'s.  Hagrid was expelled 
and JKR once explained Marcs Flint's second seventh year was perhaps 
because he failed his N.E.W.T.'s, implying that you are allowed to 
retake your N.E.W.T.'s if you fail them.  But there must come some 
point when a 27 year old wizard just gives up and decides to get a 
job without their N.E.W.T. degree.  

3) The successful Dresuley's; aka the Muggle family who successfully 
hides the Hogwarts acceptance letter from their child.  While DD and 
others insisted that HP get notice of his acceptance and that he 
attend Hogwarts, there is no guarantee that every magical child 
receives such treatment.  It is possible that a letter alone suffices 
as notice for non famous magical children, and the Muggle parents (no 
doubt ashamed by this new discovery) hide the letter and never allows 
the child to know of the existence of the WW.  



The National School System
  
We know that Hogwarts is the only school in Britain, and we know of a 
few other schools located in other Countries, but that is all.  This 
leaves me to speculate that each County has its own national school 
and government (aka what we see in the HP novels).  The idea of a 
state sponsored school system is supported by cannon where the 
Ministry of Magic has governing powers over Hogwarts.  The MofM can 
remove headmasters, arrange to kill beasts who are arguably Hogwarts 
property, and summon children who violate the no magic over the 
summer rule via a rather large and ornate trial.  


In summation
.
I just wanted to put out a few of the major options that exist to 
explain alternatives to a Hogwarts education.  I believe that most 
magical children attend Hogwarts, and the home-schooled magical child 
is rare indeed.  

Greenfirespike