British school children and sterotypes (was many other things - long thread)

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 184069

 
> Goddlefrood:
snip
 As an aside, I did wonder 
> why there were no day students at Hogwarts, given that the denizens 
> of Hogsmeade presumably had a child or two amongst them. Maybe 
> they all boarded at Hogwarts, or maybe they were simply never 
> mentioned.

Potioncat:
Good point.

There have been many questions about life at Hogwarts over the years. 
One of the big ones is why all the students go to London to ride the 
Express to Hogwarts. Certainly some of those students live closer to 
Hogwarts than to London.

If the series had been about Hogwarts the details would have been 
different. Both in which details we read about and in how they played 
out. JKR was writing about Harry Potter; Hogwarts was part of his 
experience. She only had to concentrate on those aspects of the 
school that impacted Harry. And actually, to make the details of the 
school work to Harry's story. If the story had been 'about' a 
wizarding school--even with Harry as the main character--the facts 
and events would have been different.

This difference hit home with me when I read two other school-based 
novels. "To Serve Them All My Days"  is about school life from a 
teacher's point of view. "Gentlemen and Players" is told from both a 
student's point of view, and a teacher's.