Jinxed Jobs /Teachers in the WW/ What standards are we using... LONG

[Ceridwen]

No: HPFGUIDX 144351

Alla:
> > Do you know how incredibly surprised I was when I came to USA to 
> > learn that kids are not allowed to stay home by themselves 
without 
> > adult looking after them till they are twelve or thirteen years 
> old? 
> > Erm... I 
*(snip)*
> >was staying home by myself when my mom needed to go shopping *
(snip)*
> > was hopping on a bus, then on a subway, then on the bus again by 
> > myself to go visit my grandmother *(snip)*
> > 
> > So, maybe by the standards of american kids wisarding kids seem
> > to be more independent, that is true, but I really see nothing
> > unusual, honestly.

La Gatta:
> Alla, I think this protectiveness (overprotectiveness, IMHO) in 
> American parents is a relatively late development, and I'm not sure 
> where it came from... *(snip)*

Ceridwen:
I snipped most of La Gatta's post, but I recall about the same 
thing.  I stayed home alone at seven, I played up and down the block 
until dark or after, prepubescent girls ran around in swimsuit 
bottoms only in the summer and no one thought a thing.  I was taught 
to run to the nearest house if someone tried to get me to enter their 
car, and taught how to ride the busses and count out my fare before I 
was ten.  I walked to school, until we moved to a place where I would 
have to walk down main thoroughfares that had no sidewalks.  My 
father taught me some self-defense, and gave me a whistle just in 
case.  Kids were taught to be more self-sufficient then.

Both parents working, and more news all the time, on both TV and 
radio, might have changed things.  Parents can't teach their kids 
about busses, for sure, and no one's home at the nearest house any 
more.  And, we hear more about kidnappings and child killings clear 
across the country all day and night, where back then, we only heard 
the local things at 6 p.m.

And this may be one of the ways the WW is different than our world.  
A WW mother or father can keep tabs on their kids with magical 
devices; they can put up charms or spells to hide their property from 
prying eyes.  And their kids have powers, unless the child is a 
Squib.  In OotP, when Harry is brought before the Wizengamot for his 
use of magic when he was attacked by Dementors, it was noted that use 
of magic in an emergency/dire situation was acceptable, even for 
underaged kids.  So, a spell or two might be taught even before they 
go to Hogwarts.

Ceridwen, who does think a seven year old is still capable of minding 
itself alone at home.