So many fics rail at Hogwarts and Dumbledore for offering what the author believes to be a sub-par education. These are the types of fics which fetishise health and safety, standardised curriculums and so on. They tend to try to thoroughly Muggleise magical education. Well, now the shoe's on the other foot. I present to you, ladies and gentlemen, a wizard's thoughts on Harry's Muggle "education"!

Just a random drabble I was compelled to write.

 

The education itself may not be the best but what (in my opinion) makes Hogwarts the best is the so-called "Hogwarts Experience"
That 7 year journey (which begins with the sorting) will form a very large base for the rest of your life

 

The meta irony you seem to be going for didn't work for me. To me, this reads like an actual letter an only slightly AU!Dumbledore in cohorts with Grindelwald could've written. Hogwarts as Napola.

(Original: Hitler's speech to the german youth, September 21, 1935)

 

The Hogwarts curriculum may be the best not because it is the most academically rigorous for all who enroll, but because it can be scaled up or down in difficulty depending on the skill of the wizard. Essentially, Hogwarts will give you at least as much as you put in, meeting and maximizing the potential of each student.

Hence, an idiot could pass through Hogwarts and learn no more than the basics of day-to-day, hand-to-mouth existence with magic, whereas a student like Albus or Tom could become what they became, all in one place, within the same castle walls. If you have the potential to be a decent wizard, Hogwarts will work for you, and if you have the potential to be a great wizard, Hogwarts will still work for you.

 

I would be wary of assigning any particular authorial intent to the letter.

Is it a serious defence of Hogwarts so-called failings, proposing that the type of educational environment suitable for magic is not the same as that as mathematics and chemistry?

Is it a tongue-in-cheek mockery of Hogwarts' absurdity?

Is it a humour drabble designed to draw a laugh at the idea of Dumbledore suggesting Hogwarts-level antics in a Muggle school?

Is it a plot bunny wherein Hogwarts is exactly as mentioned, and all of Harry's adventures are taking place in a kind of Truman Show style simulation designed to extract maximum potential from wizards and witches?

Is it all of the above simultaneously?

Or is it just a random idea that popped into my head that made me think "heh", and nothing more?

 

Hence the "seem". It indicates that this was my interpretation of your intend, but shows that I'm aware of the limitations of my own analysis. I did a seminar in Gadamerian hermeneutics once, so I'm not totally ignorant of the problems involved.

I could go on and try to describe the reasons for my perception of the text, but I'm not *that* interested.

 

I agree with this.

I've never really seen Hogwarts as being a bad school curriculum wise, partly because it was the school that produced Dumbledore, Voldemort, Lily, James, Flitwick, McGonagall, Snape and numerous other canon characters who are generally described as being kick ass witches and wizards.

The other reason is the Triwizard Tournament. Cedric Diggory is shown to be at least as good as Fleur and Viktor, his approaches to the First and Second Tasks aren't inferior to theirs, suggesting a level of parity between the various education systems.

 

Hogwarts is the best because anything else probably isn't Harry Potter.

I mean, you could send Harry to the godamned CIA-equivalent secret wizard agent training school run by the best bushido unicorn krav maga hit wizards and japanese batman necromancers and whatever the fucking hell you want to make up but Harry Potter - the story - is simply not about making Harry into the best assassin wizard of all time. It's about a stupid average kid with average skills dealing with an immortal self-described embodiment of death and terror. Harry Potter isn't Dragonball Z or The Hobbit. It's not Harry Goes to Wizarding University (because surely that's where any actually intelligent wizards go, as you might expect - Hogwarts is literally just general education; there's still a lot of youth left in the graduates that leave Hogwarts, so it's fair to say there should exist many more opportunities, probably in the form of apprenticeships, to actually become skilled in something) and trying to do something like that AND maintain the canon conflicts, themes and relationships, unless handled by an excellent author, will probably read stupidly -- and it does.

Hogwarts is the best, simply because anything else is clearly an indication of the author trying way too hard to make his story live on the edge.

 

This.

I think Hogwarts was always the universe-defining trait in my mind. In fact, that might have been the worst part of DH for me, or at least the most lost potential.

That should have been the year that Harry really got into the bowels of the castle to learn its secrets the way previous generations did.

 

Or, to some extent, all of the above? I wouldn't put anything past your brain, Taure.

 

Knowing you, Taure, this was my first expectation. While reading I thought it might be satirical, but then I said to myself 'no, it's Taure defending canon with absolutely no self-awareness, this is what he does. Birds fly, grass grows, Taure desperately tries to patch the gaping plot-holes in canon.'

 

Education is fucked up anywhere you go. I wouldn't expect anything less in a magical community. The idea that Harry should be attending some other school, or that there should exist a school better than Hogwarts, doesn't still understand the kind of community described in the books.

 

Durmstrang in HP&BWL was a pretty good alternative to Hogwarts.

 

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is what happens when Taure overdoes it with the alcohol.

 

Most of the people we see in the books are Hogwarts students or Hogwarts alumni. They obviously have a lot of pride in this background and are likely going to talk up the school - that's where we keep hearing about it being the 'best'.

Also, Albus Dumbledore is there. Despite the fact he is not personally teaching the students, there is probably some reputation that comes from someone that big being in charge of education - deserved, or not. Kinda like how Universities are ranked based on their published research, but people use that ranking when deciding where to go for education.

 

Really, Hogwarts makes more sense through a Victorian lens.

The teachers are there to teach, not to be surrogate parents or any crap like that. The purpose of school is to meld buys into men (and girls into ladies), the teaching is part of that, but there are also more esoteric lessons to learn about the nature of the world.

Snape's attitude is irrelevant, even if we say he intentionally marks Harry (and others) down we have to accept that those marks are actually unrelated to their results at the end. He's there to teach potions, not play happy families with some snot nosed kids. Favouratism isn't a problem, it teaches an important life lesson because, you know what kids? Life Isn't Fair.

McGonagall, Flitwick and the others are non entities because all they are there for is teaching and, perhaps, a little bit of discipline. There is no positive enforcement, just assured punishment for breaking rules. They are also not particularly expected to care about people breaking rules. The important lesson is not that rules should be obeyed, but that breaking them has consequences. An adult must weigh the consequences and decide for themselves. This is why they are simultaniously harsh and lenient on rule-breakers. The idea isn't so much to discourage rule-breaking but more to encourage a sense of personal responsibility.

The whole life threatening situation thing every year I prefer to put down to the unforseen consequences of admitting the one man chaos inducement parade that is Harry Potter.

Overall, if I don't try and judge Hogwarts by a modern set of values I don't see much wrong with it. The majority of the teachers are scrupulously fair and disciplined, and all seem to be world renowned experts in their area. Nothing wrong with that at all.

 

W/e dudes. It was entertaining.

 

....I'm conflicted. Is it weird that I found myself agreeing a bit with Dumbledore? Because honestly, those are some well thought out plans.

Great job Taure lol.