US Wizard Education

[mamadeb]

ladysorka started a discussion about Wizard education in the US, and neotoma also made a post on the subject, so I thought I'd join the fun.



But first, I think I need to make US education a little more plain because it's so different from British.

Public school = publicly funded education. Parents are not directly charged for tuition or books, although they're expected to purchase supplies such as notebooks and writing supplies for their own children. There's been an increasingly movement towards having students wear uniforms in some areas, but this is very new. For the most part, children attend in their own school district or catchment area. A district can have several elementary schools, fewer junior high schools and one high school, or the high school maybe shared among several districts (or towns) or even serve an entire county (administrative area smaller than a state) if the population is low enough. This is why Americans get very confused - the British meaning of "private, exclusive boarding schools" makes no sense to us. All children are eligible for a free public education. If they have special needs, the local school district has to provide for these. If it cannot do so itself, it has to find a place that can do so. Special needs do not include religious restrictions, and technically there is no religious education permitted in the public schools.

Elementary school is either K(indergarten)-6 or K-5, depending on the school district. There may be some K-4s as well. Curricula is decided on the state (the minimum requirements of basic knowledge for advancement) and district (what extras they want/can afford) levels. Kindergarten starts at age five, and the kids are supposed to master some subset of basic skills, such as colors, alphabet, writing their names and counting to some specific number. Elementary school classes have one main teacher, who spends most of the day with them and teaches most of the required subjects, although, depending on the finances of the district, there may be specialty teachers for science, art, music, reading, computers, and languages. The physical education - phys. ed. or gym - teachers are always trained for this subject. Depending on the subject and the school, students may stay in their main classrooms or get herded to a specialty classroom. All students are expected to master reading, writing, social studies (history, civics, community) and mathematics to certain levels. These are tested via standardized tests of the fill-in-the-dot variety. Special help is available for students with problems and extra funding is given for this.

The next level is junior high school. It can also be called Intermediate School or Middle School, but they refer to the same thing, more or less. Again, depending on district, it can begin as early as fifth grade and as late as seventh, and it can end as early as eighth grade and as late as ninth. The only true generalization I can make is that 7th and 8th grades (more or less ages 12 and 13) are always included. In my experience as a student, I moved between 7th and 8th grade to a different state, and from 7-9 JHS to a 6-8 JHS. I felt like I'd lost a year. In my experience as a teacher - *sigh*. Not a time of life conducive to learning.

These schools are organized like high schools - there is generally a homeroom (usually first thing in the morning) for daily attendance, handouts, pledge of allegiance, and general announcements before the students go off to their daily classes - each subject in its own classroom with its own teacher. Depending on the size of the school, students have either individual schedules to suit their needs or go with their classes as a unit.

Again, there are state minimum academic requirements - usually English, history, math and science, with a phys ed requirement. I think daily schedules (the same classes in the same order every day) are most common, but I've experienced weekly schedules (more like in Hogwarts, when you had different subjects in different orders on different days of the week.) There will probably home economics (sewing/cooking) and shop (woodworking, etc) classes and computers.

In HP terms, Harry begins at junior high school age.

High school is usually 9th -12th grade, although there are some 10th - 12th schools. We also call those years freshman, sophomore, junior and senior. It's possible to "drop out" at age 16, but it's highly discouraged. At this point, students start making some decisions about their futures - if they intend to go to college (note: college and university are interchangeable at this level. The major difference between them is that universities can grant degrees beyond bachelors. So can some colleges, though.), they usually take the "college prep" track, with classes on levels and subjects that colleges want to see in their applicants. While it's possible to double up on some courses - I took two sciences, for example - there is no further specialization at this level. A student wishing to major in English in college will take pretty much the same classes as a potential future engineer. Students who are certain they do not want to go to college can take technical tracks or even attend specialized high schools to get training in technical/service careers. However, even these high schools have to follow state and local academic requirements.

This one reason many USans are shocked that Hogwarts seems to have no academic subjects besides History of Magic. While we understand the rigor needed for magic classes, it feels to us that these kids are being short-changed - even more so for students like Hermione and Percy. Even our least academic tracks/high schools have that.

We have nothing analogous to O- or A-levels. At 10th grade, college bound students will take the PSATs, and in 11th and 12th, they'll take the SATs, which are standardized fill-in-the-dot tests (the SATs just this weekend gave their first exam with an essay portion.) These have no bearing on their grades or their coursework - they're a tool administered by a private firm given during non-school time to be used when applying to colleges. PSATs are also means of getting college scholarships. Students pay to take them and they are administered on Saturday mornings - non-school hours. They test knowledge of language and mathematics and nothing else, and one can take SATs more than once. There are more specialized boards, but these also only have meaning for college entrance committees, not for grades.

This is one reason I'm looking forward to Book 6 - I haven't the faintest idea as how classes would be organized after OWLs.



Just as Wizarding Britain has a lot in common with Muggle Britain, I assume Wizarding US has a lot in common in with Muggle US. In fact, I assume it has *more* - that American Wizards have found ways of incorporating or copying technology into magic. Those magic globes used in St. Mungo's? American Wizarding invention. There may be more contact between wizards and Muggle relatives.

I'm going to assume there is a reason why magical training doesn't begin until age eleven, even if I don't know what it is. So.

The children of wizarding families would go to wizarding elementary schools because they *do* have magic and it's just safer that way. These schools would be functionally identical to standard US private elementary schools - basic state curriculum plus whatever extra the schools wanted/could afford to teach. If there were standardized tests to be given in that state, the wizarding kids would also take the test. At the age of eleven, they'd go to one of three schools - East, Middle and West. East is, obviously, Salem. They probably have a choice as to which one to attend. And they'd be boarding schools just for logistical reasons. They'd also meet fairly often for mixers and quodpot and Quidditch games.

Muggleborn kids would get their letters at the beginning of summer, and they'd be offered a chance to go to a summer camp where they can get introduced to magic and the wizarding culture, so they wouldn't be so lost at the beginning of term. There would also be support groups for their parents and shopping expeditions into wizarding areas.

The schools would have to meet state academic criteria as well as magical requirements, although some classes might be able to do double duty. There would be no OWLs or NEWTs - just the same sort of tests and grades and homework as the other subjects. There would also be at least one wizarding university, with graduate school, law school and medical school attached. Possibly another, but I really don't see the population supporting more than one - maybe a two year institution or a small college for those who prefer such things. There would also be the possibility of entering Muggle institutions - I suspect there are wizard clubs in the major ones, plus they'd get summer credit from the wizard college.

Hmm, maybe that's what Salem is.

And US wizards? Do NOT wear robes except for formal occasions. 

Comments

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

Excellent piece. I would just add that in the Midwest it is more common to take the ACT than the SAT. In some regions, especially the South, there are programs through universities to identify early talent before it gets itself killed by the schools. My seventh grade daughter just took the ACT this year. She'll take it again in 4 years (spring of her junior year) for effect.

I like your idea of stealth wizards at major universities.

I think Salem might require the robes for class, but allow street clothes most of the time.
The midwestern school (which I see as somewhere in the Black Hills) would be less formal and wear a lot of parkas (when that Dakota wind gets going in December we're talking frozen mercury thermometers).
The West Coast school (Berkeley?), well for them formal means "wearing clothes." (Sorry, California is so laid back formal means "wearing a shirt")

[gittygiggles.livejournal.com]

i dont know how i feel about that. it seems like once ppl find out they're wizards, they cut themselves off from the muggle world. hogwarts seems to be independant of britan's standards and such.

[azurelunatic]

Perhaps, in that case, American Wizarding society might be something more akin to the Colonial or post-Revolutionary culture? In that case, I'd see them making heavy emphasis on a good education in Latin and Greek, and practical tinkering of the sort that would make Arthur Weasley green with envy. It's pretty much a given that Ben Franklin had to have been a Wizard.

However, I can't see American wizards being able to cut themselves off from the rest of society as completely as British and other European wizards, not in the days of westward expansion. When there are so few people spread out over such a broad expanse of land, you probably wind up socializing with whoever's there to socialize with, whether they're Wizard or Muggle.

Now I'm getting mental images of wizards in the California Gold Rush. Wizards taking the Oregon Trail. Wizard steamboat captains up and down the Mississippi.

[tanacawyr.livejournal.com]

This is interesting ... I'd pondered this question a while back and figured that american wizarding schools were started by Ben Franklin. (Discovering electricity my butt -- no one who wasn't a wizard would be flying a kite in a thunderstorm.) He ensorcelled an island in middle of the Schuylkil River to make it invisible and built a school there called the Franklin Institute of Magic, and them promptly made a Muggle version in the city as well. :-)

Magic may have existed in Salem, but I'd see the organized education of American witches and wizards starting in Philadelphia, and of course it'd be Ben Frnaklin who started it -- he started the post office, the lending library, and the fire department there as well. Given that he was constantly inventing and playing with gadgets, he'd be a natural for the founding father of American wizardry. :-)

I can see school houses (Hamilton, Washington, Jefferson, and Madison), only you don't get sent to a house, you have to "pledge" a house, and you can pick which one you pledge. (Madison House was going to be named Adams House, but since Frnaklin and Adams got along like oil and water he decided to name it Madison instead, which pissed off Adams to no end.)

Ditto on the American magical community's love of technology as well. They'd know as much about cell phones and computers as they would spells and charms.

This is fun!

[tanacawyr.livejournal.com]

It's pretty much a given that Ben Franklin had to have been a Wizard.

GMTA. :-)

[gittygiggles.livejournal.com]

if you wrote a book about it, i'd love to read it. i'm going to be needing a lot of reading material in the next few days :)

[iroshi.livejournal.com]

American schools wouldn't have houses, dear; the reason Hogwarts has them is that most European boarding schools are set up that way. American boarding schools generally aren't. It's not a *magical* thing, it's a *British* thing. *grin*

[tanacawyr.livejournal.com]

American shcools might indeed have houses, dear. Some college have houses in their dormitories, and many others have fraternities and sororities. No reason why they wouldn't follow the "house" model, given that they would be among the oldest educational institutions in the United States if they were started up before the break with England.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Houses *are* a Wizarding thing. They were invented before the Norman Conquest by the Founders of Hogwarts.

I believe a wizard with well-beloved Squib sons founded Eton on the Hogwarts model. :)

[iroshi.livejournal.com]

Oh, I stand corrected! *bows before Mama's greater wizarding knowledge*

[maya-a.livejournal.com]

Burr instead of Hamilton?

[tanacawyr.livejournal.com]

There's also no reason not to have Houses if they're British, really. Assuming, as I am (more or less) that the school was founded around 1750 or so, it was a British school. The American boarding school model wasn't developed yet; wealthy people in the colonies sent their kids to England to school.

[tanacawyr.livejournal.com]

Any reason for Burr? You've got me curious ... I admit that I can see a bit of a comparison between the personalities of the various houses in Hogwarts and the ones at the hypothetical FIM.

Washington: the house for hard workers
Jefferson: the house for the cheerful extroverts
Madison: the house for the intellectuals
Hamilton: the house for the cynical pragmatists

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

I meant robes in general, though. Just as the ordinary British adult wizard or witch wears robes for daily wear, US witches and wizards do *not*.

Unlike British wizards, they don't want to be separate. There may be more half bloods, too.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

I absolutely see that. I can't see why wizards wouldn't have the same wanderlust as other Americans. They'd just have an easier time on their journeys west.

And if we walked into a wizard's house, we wouldn't know it was magic that lit the lights, worked the fridge or transmitted the tv and radio. It would *look* more or less like a Muggle house. Maybe it would be slightly off in ways we couldn't quite touch and there would be parchment and quills somewhere, and the owls and the pot of Floo powder, but to casual guests, it's just a house.

And it's a serious question if they'd have House Elves. I'm thinking the sort of wizards who'd immigrate wouldn't have them, and so they wouldn't get a foothold here.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Isn't it fun?

If the wizarding university isn't actually Salem, that's just where it would be.


Yeah, old Ben's a wizard. There weren't schools yet, so he'd have apprenticed and he made a lot of contacts with the European wizards and witches - especially the witches. :)

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Oh, re: houses.

Despite what I said to Iro, I doubt it. Franklin wouldn't have been educated in Britain. Maybe if the other boarding schools in the US did, he would, but more than likely, they'd be more, well. American about it. Houseparents, but not Houses.

And if there *were*, it would only be for the New England school. The other schools, which would have happened after American Independence, would be more like other American boarding schools - no houses.

And how shocked would the parents of Southern Muggleborns be when they discovered that the schools were fully integrated? Because *that* I do believe. Any slave child who turned out to be magical would be purchased at the age of eleven and freed and educated.

[azurelunatic]

Magic dishwashers. I can see them being the sorts of families that never has any trouble with their Roomba. I'm sure some of them actually have electricity for the stuff they haven't charmed over yet, because electricity is probably cheaper than expending personal energy for a lot of things ... I wonder which is easier to maintain, an air conditioner or a proper cooling charm?

I wouldn't think that most Americans would have Floo Powder in a pot -- it would probably wind up in perhaps a shaker or some other clever dispenser that gives just the right amount, or little pre-packaged packets.

Pop Rocks are the Muggle version of a wizarding candy, of course. They had to come up with a Muggle version after some of the (unsafe) wizarding ones got leaked onto the Muggle market back in the '80s. That one was a major scandal, and people were sacked.

I was reading up on my Finnish wizarding roots, and it looks like that's where House Elves actually come from! They're the guardians associated with any house or building, naturally. They can be very, very tricky if you aren't on good terms with them and don't leave offerings regularly, so it would make pragmatic sense to get them under control if you were exporting them to anywhere outside of the country. At a guess, Finnish House Elves are completely free, or perhaps they've got a treaty with the humans there, but almost all other House Elves outside of Finland are probably enslaved, with the exception of Dobby and those who have been involuntarily freed.

I'd think that any House Elves in America would be via Finnish immigrants, rather than from the sorts of people who would own them, so they'd probably wind up in some of the more northerly states and parts of Canada, and no one would notice unless they were looking. I'd imagine that American House Elves would have been freed by decree at or before the time of the Civil War, because of the humans' priorities, and the American House Elves would probably have shrugged, said, "Eh, if it makes you happy," and then continued about their own business.

[azurelunatic]

For whatever reason, I'm suddenly seeing magical fraternities and sororities. A whole lot of them.

And in California, there's an "invisible", 6th college at the 5C, though it doesn't really exist, because it's the double major of a lot of the students. No wonder eastdorm is so very ... Odd.

And it's really Massachusetts Institute of Technology & Technomancy. Really.

[mecurtin.livejournal.com]

The midwestern school (which I see as somewhere in the Black Hills)

I disagree completely. The fundamental division in US muggle society is between North(east) and South. The question is, where is the Southern Wizarding school located? New Orleans is the obvious, and that would have a *very* different culture than Salem. But a school might well have been established in Virginia only a little later than the one in Salem. They might still be in Williamsburg, blending in.

There might well be House Elves in Southern US Wizarding households, and the overtones of slavery would be even more overt than in Wizarding Britain.

[maya-a.livejournal.com]

Well, only that Burr was even more cynical and ambitious than Hamilton, AFAICT. I was thinking of that house as sort of paralleling Slytherin, I suppose. The substitution of Burr for Hamilton in that case was irresistible, given how they are inextricably linked in history.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

I see there being 4 basic schools, but I was going with Deb's idea.

The Northeastern in Salem. Very traditionalist. Much more like Hogwarts than any of the others.

The Southern. I really like your idea of Williamburg or New Orleans. The Williamsburg would be much like Salem, but more snobbish. In MA, they'll snub you. In VA, they will be sweet as syrup to your face and cut you behind your back, bless your heart.

The Middle. This would be more old-fashioned and plain folks. A bit stodgy. Hufflepuffs in America, so to speak, with a few Ravenclaw sorts. It would be located near a Site of Power (hence my Black Hills idea) and cover everything north from Missouri and Oklahoma, East from Ohio and West from Colorado.

The West. Laid back, more open than any of the others.

[p-o-u-n-c-e-r.livejournal.com]

The Ozarks.

[cheshyre]

three schools - East, Middle and West. East is, obviously, Salem

I'd guess the West is either San Francisco or somewhere in the New Mexico desert with heavy Native American influences.

And now I'm suddenly picturing voucher programs for wizarding schools, and LNWB (Leave No Witch/Wizard Behind)

[azurelunatic]

Approximately as shocked as the students, who might protest at having to learn fully integrated magical styles from a variety of teachers, until they were given a thorough talking-to.

You've got to be carefully taught, and eleven is definitely old enough to have learned that Us and Them are different.