The Quality of a Hogwarts Education

[bboyminn]

No: HPFGUIDX 188158



---  "Rick H. Kennerly" <rhkennerly at ...> wrote:
>
> 
> > Bart:
> >    
> > However, I would suspect that the attitude of Muggle 
> > parents in finding out that their children are going to be
> > welcome in the WW is similar to what their attitude would 
> > be if they found out that their child was member of the 
> > aristocracy, and was offered a position and education 
> > befitting a member.
> >   
> 
> Ah, good.  He came up for air... ;->
> 
> First of all, Mudbloods weren't universally welcomed into the
> wizarding community. 
> 
> Hg would have made a brilliant academic or attorney in 
> Muggleville.  ... Hg could have led, I think, a fuller life 
> or more rewarding life on the Muggle side of the tracks. 
> 
> Granted, there is merit in what you write about the relative
> ease of life for an accomplished wizarding family. But I 
> suspect it was not as rewarding a life as Hg could have had. 
> 
> Ron, Ginny, et. al., had no possibility of being fully 
> functioning &  successful Muggles, despite Ron's driver's 
> license. HP fled that life.  But Hg could have chosen either. 
> 
> It's all speculation, of course. 
> -- 
> 
> Rick Kennerly
>

bboyminn:

I'm not so sure I agree with either of you, though, without a
doubt, you both make very good and very valid points. 

I see no reason why Hermione couldn't have gone on to a
muggle university. True, her formal educational background is
not up to the usual standards, but her informal education 
should be right up there with the best. Hermione is very
curious, and has no trouble learning things on her own. If she
wanted to go to a muggle university and live a productive
muggle professional life, I'm sure she could have made it 
happen. 

Further there are those with higher muggle educations who fail
in life, and those with low muggle educations who succeed. It
is more a matter of intelligence and ambition, than it is about
education, or at least formal education.

Harry and Ron are a different story. They could have both had
standard comprehensive public school educations, and still not
done any better in life, as so many who graduate from high
school equally live very modest lives. 

Again, it has more to do with motivation, than education. As
Ron and Harry are at Hogwarts, so to do many if not most 
students fail to take full advantage of the educational 
opportunity afforded to them. Many unmotivated students are
simply concerned with partying, and passing the most recent
test that has been presented to them; multiple choice not doubt.
They aren't really  looking to the future at all, and as a 
result, have very little future available to them. 

So, my point is that Ron and Harry could certainly learn to 
live and succeed in the muggle world if they were motivated to
do so. 

While we don't see formal English and literature classes at
Hogwarts, we also see that the school is far more essay driven
than most American schools. Most N.American schools have sunk
into a morass of multiple choice, or as it is more popularly
called multiple guess. 

They aren't required to think, to analyze, or logically and
clearly express themselves, and it is beginning to show. Be
cause of the lack of strong language and essay testing, the
USA is gradually losing its ability for analytical and critical
thinking and problem solving. Yet the wizard world seems very 
strong on these things. 

We see the students doing plenty of essay work, and plenty of 
research in the library for those essays. I seriously doubt 
that the teachers at Hogwarts allow sloppy poorly structure
English in those essays. So, while not formally taught as a
subject, the demand for competent English language structure
and communications skills are there. 

Art and music also seem to be lacking from the school, but 
they don't seem to be lacking from the wizard world. Plus, we
see there are many clubs at Hogwarts. Though we hear little
about them because Harry takes no interest. We know there is
a Gobstones club, and even a governing body for such clubs. 

We also know there is a Charms Club, as one of the Quidditch
candidates fears interference between the Charms Club schedule
and Quidditch training. 

Who is to say there are not music and art clubs? That fact that
Harry isn't aware of them, doesn't mean they don't exist. 

Further, while no formal universal training in math, the 
students don't seem to be lacking in basic arithmetic skills.
They seem to weigh out potion ingredients without a problem,
and I suspect to various degrees further need for math occurs.
Say for example in calculating star charts for Astrology, and
even to some degree star charts for Astronomy. 

Likely they would lack formal training in higher math skills, 
but I don't think they would be lacking in the underlying
logic required for higher math skills. Nor would they likely 
need higher math skills unless they were going into some
type of engineering field. 

So, yes, in a way, Hogwarts is lacking in higher broader forms
of muggle education, such as art, music, mathematics, literature,
national and European history from a muggle perspective. Though
they would certainly have national and European history from a
magical perspective. But, other than those with a serious 
interest in history, how many of us remember many of the details
from our own high school history classes? 

As to the level of modern education, I recently saw a YouTube
video that was of a kid trying to read a short passage from
Shakespeare, he spend the entire video, a full minute and a
half laughing and struggling with the first word, which was -
melancholy, and never getting it right. It seem a sad failure
that supposedly educated people are unaware of common words
like - melancholy. 

Modern wizard education may be failing to turn out well rounded
people, but it is failing no worse than common modern muggle
education.

Steve/bboyminn