timetable problem

[Mike]

No: HPFGUIDX 183088

> > Potioncat:
> > There's no way one teacher could teach enough 
> > classes for all the students at Hogwarts, even if 
> > we only imagine the 40 or so per year that we know 
> > about. (Long running debate on the actual number 
> > of students at Hogwarts.)<snip>
> 
> Jerri
> Yes, the "maths" of Hogwarts schedules can't work out. 
> <SNIP>

Mike:
I'm certainly not one to defend JKR's maths, as it's indefensible. 
But I never had the problem with class schedule that others seem to 
have. <This is all pre-Newt classroom speculation>

We've had this debate on class size, and I've always stuck with the 
figure of around 10 students per House per year. Harry's year might 
have been on the smaller side because VWI was going in high gear 
around the time of his birth. Still, I like the idea of around a 
40-50 student class size making the total student population around 
300-350. 

Some say that we need a lot more (including JKR herself) to fill the 
Quidditch staduim to the amount we were shown. I say go to a Texas 
high school football game and tell me if you think all the people in 
the stands are students. Remember, this is virtually the only sport 
in the WW, and there are only six matches the entire year, and they 
are always played on Saturdays. I'd say the Hogwarts Quidditch 
matches get a lot of alums attending, especially when the Gryff and 
Slyth alums find out their postponed match in year 3 is for all the 
marbles.

Back to the classroom size. Random mentions that only the once-a-week 
double-Potions class is two hours, which doesn't change the maths. I 
think we were shown that all the classes that are mixed stay mixed 
for every class, not just the *double* sessions, which I take as 
equalivent to labs. Besides, Gryffs and Slyths have Potions and CoMC 
together, Gryffs and Huffs have Herbology together. 

As to Umbridge's DADA class, Harry says he never intended to tell his 
Cedric story in front of "30 eagerly listening classmates". When 
Lupin taught the Boggart lesson he said "5 points to *Gryffindor* for 
every person to tackle the Boggart." There were 20-odd tables in 
Trelawney's room and the Trio fit at one table. HRH sit in the back 
of Charms class and gossip together, which they can do because Charms 
is so noisy. Would Charms be that noisy if 3 out of the 10 kids are 
speaking in hushed tones in the back of the class? Could 3 out of 10 
kids go unnoticed for long periods of time? We know Hermione took 
Muggle Studies with Ernie the Huff. And I bet many of the elective 
classes don't have near full rosters from each House.

In short, I think every classroom has at least two Houses in it. 
Meaning each teacher has two sessions per lesson per Class, or 10 
sessions per lesson for the OWL levels. If each discipline meets 
twice per week, that would mean 20 lessons per week for each teacher. 
IOW, 5 Years/Classes times 2 sessions per Year times 2 lessons per 
week = 20 sessions-lessons per week. (again Owl Year levels 1-5).

If there are 6 class periods per day, then 5 days gives the teachers 
30 class periods available per week. Those 10 extra periods could be 
for their double/lab days (don't they start getting *double* sessions 
in their fourth year?) and their NEWT classes, knowing that they 
probably only have one NEWT class for all of the sixth-years and one 
for all of the seventh-years. 
<or 6th lower half and 6th upper half as Geoff would explain ;-)>

Lastly, if Snape can fill in for Lupin, I venture other teachers with 
lighter loads (elective teachers, for instance) could fill-in for 
those with heavier loads.

How's my maths?

Mike, who forgives JKR for only showing Gryff students in many of the 
classes while still knowing that Harry should be able to tell the 
difference between 9 other Gryff classmates and 30 eager classmates 
in Umbridge's classroom, even if 30 is an exaggeration.