# Harry Potter and the Amulet of Lax Educational Standards (spoilers through book 6) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 20, 2005, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-and-the-amulet-of-lax-educational-standards-spoilers-through-book-6/313344 "2005-07-20T20:19:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Tenar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@Tenar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tenar)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-and-the-amulet-of-lax-educational-standards-spoilers-through-book-6/313344/61 "2005-07-22T02:30:16Z")
> [@eleanorigby](#): > > I think that every young wizard or witch is given the CHOICE of attending Hogwarts–whether they do or not depends on them. I doubt that Stan on the Knight bus attended–or Mudungus, for that matter. Do we have any evidence that Stan even **use** s magic? AFAIK, (and I’m probably wrong, as usual) Stan might as well be a Squib! This, of course, would make his little problem in Book 6 even more improbable. ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-and-the-amulet-of-lax-educational-standards-spoilers-through-book-6/313344/62 "2005-07-22T02:51:42Z")
> [@Shalmanese](#): > > Yes, but that’s just marketing double speak. Technically, Harvard accepts anyone too without regard for income yet overwhelmingly, the people there are from the upper echelons with a few poor people sprinkled through for diversity. While they may claim to be open to anyone, the sad fact of the wizarding world is that family and resources matter. Wizards who have been intensively pampered sinch childhood are more likely to fully exploit their magical aptitude. > > I still maintain that the reason for so many inconstancies is that the entire wizarding world we’ve been exposed to is built on the polite fiction of egalatarianism but everyone knows that the high living standards they enjoy relies on ruthlessly exploiting the prolatateriat worker. Except that Hogwarts charges no money and admits any magical student. Students aren’t expected to “fully exploit their magical aptitude” prior to attendence. And we’ve _seen_ them admit, on numerous occasions, students with no supportive families or financial wherewithal, including Muggle-borns whose families don’t even know magic exists. Unless you can find a way to explain away the fact that students don’t have to pay and are admitted no matter how little magical talent they might end up possessing, this seems baseless. It’s quite clear that even the seemingly least-skilled magic users are admitted - Dumbledore himself has stated that it’s open to anyone who can do magic. In the case of Harvard, admission is contingent upon being able to pay an enormous amount of money (whether by being wealthy or by substantially impressing scholarship committees) and having excellent test scores and high school or undergraduate records. It is simply not the case that Hogwarts excludes students on that basis. If they do, it goes contrary to things that have been clearly explained in the book. There’s a good deal of evidence to suggest that, indeed, Hogwarts is pretty open to all. And there just isn’t any evidence to explain all that away. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-and-the-amulet-of-lax-educational-standards-spoilers-through-book-6/313344/63 "2005-07-22T02:59:43Z")
> [@eleanorigby](#): > > I have a question: why are the wizards all celebrating Christmas? It strikes me as bizarre, to say the least…now Saturnalia, I’m all over. But Christmas? Well, in HP, magic isn’t a religion, it’s an ability. So I don’t really see why you couldn’t have witches and wizards of any religion. I just assumed most of the the HP characters are either Church of England or no specific religion. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/harry-potter-and-the-amulet-of-lax-educational-standards-spoilers-through-book-6/313344.md?page=3)