Hogwarts classes and textbooks

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 182634

Jerri/Dan Chase wrote:
>
> All the discussions of Harry's academic abilities (or lack thereof)
 and how the students who attended Hogwarts learned the basics like 
reading and maths (which I recall JKR said that some went to muggle
elementary type schools and others were home schooled), has reminded
me of a question in my mind about one of the classes that Harry and
apparently all Hogwart's students took every year for the first 5 
years of school.  And that is Astronomy.
> 
> And my question is:
> 
> Why do they take Astronomy, for FIVE years, when there is so much 
> other stuff that they don't have time to study?
<snip>

Carol responds:
They don't take Astronomy for five years. The core curriculum,
required for all first- and second-years, is Potions, Transfiguration,
Herbology, Charms (classes taught, perhaps coincidentally, perhaps
not, by the Four Heads of Houses), Defense Against the Dark Arts, and
History of Magic.

In third year, the students are allowed to add optional subjects
(electives, as we Americans call them) to their course of study. Harry
and Ron, without any real knowledge to inform their choices, select
Divination, COMC, and Divination. Hermione chooses, in addition to the
same subjects, Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, and Muggle Studies (IOW,
everything that's offered, so that she needs a Time-Turner to attend
all her classes).

Jerri:
> And, why is Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them a required text
for first year students at Hogwarts, when they don't take Care of 
Magical Creatures classes until third year?  And isn't it supposed to
be an optional class, even then?  Every other book on their list is 
directly related to a class.

Carol responds:
Not quite every other book. There's also "Magical Theory" by Adalbert
Waffling, which perhaps is used in the students' essay writing for
various classes, most of which have a theoretical element as well as a
practical one. Probably only the most motivated students, the Hermione
Grangers and the Severus Snapes, or those, like the Marauders and the
Twins, who want to create their own magical products, ever read that
book, which, IIRC, is not mentioned again. (Maybe JKR just liked the
name Adalbert Waffling and wanted to use it in relation to theory, for
which she apparently doesn't have much use.)

It appears that the students retain many of their textbooks from year
to year, with only the Charms text and the DADA text changing every
year and the Transfiguration text changing as they advance from
beginning through intermediate to advanced. The Potions text changes
when they reach NEWT year (what Snape would have assigned, we don't
know, but I expect it would have been more up-to-date than the
Libatius Borage text--or he'd have continued putting his Potions
instructions on the board and assigned the book only for out-of-class
reading).

As for FB, possibly it's intended as a reference book for students,
just as high-school and college students in the U.S. would be expected
to buy a dictionary. And it's one of the rare textbooks that they
would actually read for fun. (Hagrid resorts to using it when he finds
that "The Monster Book of Monsters" isn't working quite as well as he
expected. All the students would already have it.)

Jerri: 
> And if the Weasley family is hard up for money, do they really need
a complete set of Lockhart books for each of their five children at
Hogwarts that year?  Can't they share at all?

Carol responds:
I can see Fred and George sharing, as they're always together, but
Ginny is in a different dorm, being a girl, and Percy isn't likely to
share his books with his younger brothers and sisters. Ron would feel
left out, and even more resentful of his family's relative poverty,
than he does already without his own set. (At least Harry gives Ginny
the ones that Lockhart gave him free and buys his own, which means
that they would have to buy only three sets: Percy, the Twins, and Ron.

Still, egomaniac Lockhart *is* putting a huge financial strain on
families like the Weasleys. I suppose that, if worst came to worst,
they could apply to the school for help buying books. DD tells Tom
Riddle that there's a fund to help students to buy books and robes.
And all their books except the Lockhart books are second-hand.

Carol, who thinks that the Weasleys aren't quite as poor as Ron thinks
they are, given that they don't have mortgage payments or utility
bills and apparently grow or produce most of their own food