Particularly in the first few books, there seems to be an unrealistic lack of regard for the safety of students at the school by the professors and parents alike. An example just off the top of my head is Hermione and the troll in book one, would other parents of muggleborn children not care about potentially life threatening situations like this. Does he school have no professional obligation to inform parents about situations like this that have occurred? What do you think? It just seems to be a tad unrealistic to me (ignoring the fact that so is magic!)

 

I don't think anyone wants to read Harry Potter and the Concerned Parents.

 

I think young wizards are probably much hardier than muggle children (think Neville dropped out of a window), and even muggle children can be surprisingly resilient and/or tough.

So with stuff like Quidditch, I think very few if any students ever die. Stuff like Troll, maybe less rare, but even then I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say that even if she had taken a hit, she might still have survived sans rescue.

One student died because of the basilisk, and they were ready to shut it down, which makes me think that short of murder, a wizarding child will probably pull through most any injury.

Also, as a wise member once posted, there may be protections for the students at Hogwarts more subtle than big glowing shields.

* Typed on my phone - apologies for errors.

 

The school in general just comes off as a pretty shitty place, as a school. Even minimal estimates for student population around ~240-280 makes for a seriously understaffed place, with a student:staff ratio for core classes around 1:35-40, which is awful even for a public school. Of those core classes, one professor is viciously abusive, one is literally dead, and one changes every year.

But then, that's part of aesthetic.

 

(Sigh) Here we go again.

(USER WAS WARNED FOR THIS POST)

 

I think you're less worried about students getting hurt when you can literally heal them with magic. I think the books were also written before the modern ideas of health and safety got so oppressive.

 

I think that we just had this discussion a while ago.

Magic healing fixes anything short of death, and the school was about to close when there was a presumed student death in Chamber of Secrets, no?

It's magic. Stuff happens. Hexes in the corridors. Potions mishaps. Weird magical items. Just general magical accidents. Wizard children appear to be hardier, and stuff like this just happens and is fixed by the healer pretty quick. Nobody raises a fuss.

Obviously, the troll was a big deal. But no one got actually injured, and it was a major plot event anyways. Plot necessity fucks over your welfare needs.

 

You have hundreds of teenagers with potentially lethal tools, stuff is bound to happen. Besides, answer me honestly, do you think you could survive a quidditch game? Well, magical kids can, and in no game someone was crippled or worse. Not only magical beings seem to be tougher than muggles, there is also the healing spells and potions that can do some pretty miraculous things. Therefore, their opinion on what is safety may be slightly different from ours.

Or did your dad ever warn you to never trust anything that you can't see where it keeps its brains? Mine didn't. Such irresponsability.

 

Well, Harry did break his arm, and then Lockhart vanished all the bones in it. Still, all that that did was earn him a night in the hospital wing and a dose of Skele-Gro. I think it kinda takes away from the concern when you've got the equivalent of the best hospital in the world condensed into a single person working at the school.

 

If we were to go slightly beyond whats known from canon, I've suggest that muggle parents probably don't receive live updates of any and all injuries sustained at Hogwarts. Otherwise they'd freak out. Didn't Neville accidentally once switch his ears onto a cactus. How would a muggle react to that happening to their child? Let alone their child being hit by a stinging hex making their face swell up? Or them falling off a broom from 20 feet and breaking their arm?

Communication home seems to be reserved for rare occasions, such as when Dumbledore writes to Harry and Ron's families in book 2.

Don't you think Hermione's parents would have pulled her out of Hogwarts if they heard about her being attached by a troll? Or nearly being strangled to death by a plant? Or being petrified by a giant snake?

 

If you start delving into that side of the books and trying to apply muggle safety standards to wizarding situations then you're going nowhere.

You may as well ask why submitting prisoners to dementors for years isn't regarded as torture.

 

A good portion of the wizarding world does consider submitting prisoner to dementors to prisoners as torture.

 

I believe you can read any Harmony fic and you will find chapters of angst and Harry waxing about it in the Great Hall to the Most Evil Dumbledore.

 

When you say that wizards are tougher than muggles, do you mean that literally in that it takes more for them to get hurt, the fact that accidental magic often protects them, or the fact that magical healing can fix most things? I've often wondered about that when people mention magical people being tougher than muggles.

 

Probably a combination of all three. When Hagrid scoffed at the plausibility of Lily and James dying in a car crash, it's likely due to the possibility that wizards are either hardier or inherently avoid damage for whatever reason.

 

In book 4 the Irish seeker flew face first into the ground and after some time got back in the air. Also when you look at accidents in the HP books most of them happen to Harry, Ron, or Hermione. Lets be honest here they were looking for trouble. If they had followed the rules implemented by the staff they would have been pretty safe actually just as the rest of the students were pretty safe.

 

I mean, we've seen kids be hit in the head by iron balls flying at hundreds of miles an hour and not die instantly, so there seems to be a certain level of innate toughness in addition to the effectiveness of magical healing.

But yeah, in general I think the wizarding world has a much more liberal approach to danger and children. There seems to be a wider belief that children should be allowed some measure of independence and the risk that comes with it. Part of that may be because of the higher level of toughness and healing, but I think a big part of it is also cultural - wizards seem to have a libertarian streak that Muggles often lack, and reject standardisation and regulation wherever possible.

 

Or, they just have an old-fashioned way of raising children.

"You dead?"

"Nope."

"Huh, bet you'll never do that again."

"Probably not."

"Good, now go clean the barn."