[HPforGrownups] Muggleborn vs Pureblood

[Bart Lidofsky]

No: HPFGUIDX 168791

horridporrid03 wrote:
Betsy Hp:
> But JKR covers this issue in PS/SS.  Ron tries to do magic and can't 
> (turning Scabbers yellow) and Hermione tries to do magic and can (all 
> those spells she tried out that worked for her).  And I believe 
> someone (Hagrid?) says that all students start out on equal footing 
> as far as magical experience.

	Hermione has also read way ahead in her schoolbooks, and has more of 
the theory down than Ron. Notice, however, how she holds in a certain 
amount of contempt anything that isn't in the book; is it because her 
lack of experience keeps her from understanding it (although, by the 6th 
book, she FINALLY accepts that Fred & George are skilled and inventive).

	I recall a science fiction story about a society where people are given 
their advanced education by having the skills and knowledge implanted 
into their brains. One young man discovers that the machines won't work 
on him, and he's sent to a special school where students learn the old 
fashioned way, from books. He eventually discovers that it is the 
students from this school who are the innovators; it is the capacity for 
innovation and understanding and application of theory that gets 
students put into this school. Hermione is excellent at learning that 
which is already known, but she's not an innovator, and is suspicious of 
it. That is both her strength and weakness; she learns quickly, and 
accurately, but only that which is taught or available in books.

	And, for the reasons I put forward before, I do think that Muggleborns 
who excel at magical studies are the exception, not the rule.

	Bart