What's the point of Hogwarts? The Dursleys were right.

[sandra87b]

No: HPFGUIDX 127747


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Ladi lyndi 
<ladilyndi at y...> wrote:
> So, I guess what you are saying is that the middle and high 
school we know today is nothing more than summer camp and 
we should abandon it becuase after all these centuries we still 
haven't thought through its purpose?

Sandra replies: .......and that misses my point. Middle and High 
schools educate students to give them a platform for any 
number of university courses and in turn, jobs. The kids leave 
Hogwarts with a very limited range of options ahead of them (as 
you put it yourself with your own job suggestions), and in my 
view, a thoroughly medieval path to tread. If you read one or two 
of my other replies, you'll see this in more detail. I'm sure the 
regulator-elves here won't appreciate me repeating myself a lot! 
Neither would I, come to think of it.

>Lynn also wrote:
Perhaps it is just my imagination that allows me to see a full and 
complete magical world without JKR having to dot every i and 
cross every t for me to see it.
> 


Sandra replies:
Creating an imaginary world can make for a good book as a 
one-off, but stretch it out to seven and the gaps really show 
unless, like Tolkein, there's a huge amount of respect for the 
readers. But these days the public's attitude seems to be "Who 
cares, just read it, it's Harry Potter - hooray!!!," which is exactly 
what a Marketing Department dreams of.
My main point here is that in order for the wizard world to be the 
setting for this series of books, it just needs a little credibility 
which could have been tackled in the first book. But the actual 
purpose of them being there  has ever been addressed, and I 
probably wouldn't have given this a second thought if careers 
hadn't been so flippantly touched upon in the stories.

So try and understand that I'm not undermining the stories by 
wondering what the whole point of training to be a wizard is, I'm 
just trying to see what lies ahead for the mighty Harry once his 
years at Hogwarts are over and done with. I see Hogwarts 
equipping its students with very little - and hence the invitation to 
the school in book one deserves all the derision that the 
Dursleys heaped upon it. There - I've said it.

Sandra (seeing it in a different light these days)