Hermione's social skills (was: poor Grangers)

[perdita_granger]

No: HPFGUIDX 130716

<larriepam2000 at y...> wrote:
> Hermione is an excellent example of the only child. 
> Book smart but lacking in any social skills what so ever, 
> understandable, who would she ever practice on?

I think that Hermione's lack of social skills has more to do with her
intelligence than whether she has or doesn't have any siblings. 
(Personally, I think JKR could have kept the sister if she'd made her
older, already away at university ;-)

Judging by her academic success, she probably qualifies as profoundly
gifted.  That sets her apart from the average child her age almost as
much as being that far in the other direction.  When they're young,
kids like her don't realize how differently others think.  She'd
understand things in a flash and be impatient with her peers when they
needed things explained to them.  And her peers would get tired of
always feeling stupid when they're around her, so they'd start
avoiding her, kind of in self-defense.  She probably got along with
her teachers and other adults a lot better than with her classmates,
except of course for the adults who felt threatened by a child who
knew more than she did.

By the time she got to Hogwarts, she was probably used to her status
as a "weird kid" and, though she might have had high hopes of changing
her image, making new friends and finally fitting in, they probably
included the old gifted standby of "and it won't be primary school any
more, the other kids will be more mature," and disappointment when
they're basically the same kids they were the previous spring, just
with wands.  Her social skills would still be more geared towards
adults and she'd make many of the same mistakes, have many of the same
misunderstandings.  And the other kids would still take it personally
when she knew more than they did, for "making them look bad," not
realizing she wasn't thinking about them at all, only responding to
the teacher who was asking the question.

Despite being *intelligent*, Hermione is still *emotionally* young,
perhaps even younger than many of her classmates.  People have a very
difficult time reconciling a child with an impressive vocabulary, who
can talk like an adult about history or politics or whatever, with the
fact that the child can still *react* like a child, with unreasonable
expectations, emotional outbursts, resentful sulks, eagerness to
please adults, etc.

Hermione has actually done quite well for a profoundly gifted child. 
She's learned how to read other people fairly well, as evidenced by
her understanding of Cho's complex emotions.  She's remarkably patient
with Harry's emotional outbursts and with putting up with teasing and
taunting, perhaps through long practice.  I can't help but expect her
to have an academic understanding of psychology, but not necessarily
be able to apply that understanding to herself; she'll still act like
a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old in book 6.


- Perdita Granger
aka Hermiones_Sister -- the Mycroft of the Granger family
"Dullard: someone who can open an encyclopedia or dictionary and only
read what they'd planned to"