The only thing that disturbs me about Hogwarts is that the school does not offer writing, literature, art or music classes. The cirriculum seems to be short changed when it comes to the liberal arts. Has Rowling indicated there is a Hogwarts version of college?
Ancient runes
Arithmancy, if I knew what the heck that was. ^^;
Care of Magical Creatures
Defense Against the Dark Arts (or, DADA, as I like to call it )
History of Magic
Potions
It does seem like Hogwarts is more like a technical school offering specialized classes than a college/university. But the “mundane” studies don’t make for as interesting storywriting, or something.
How many class periods are there at Hogwarts? Also, I think some of these are required classes, at least for the first five years…
I think I’d need a time-turner - I want:
Ancient Runes
Astronomy
Charms
DADA
Herbology
History of Magic
Transfiguration
and Potions…if Alan Rickman is teaching it. ::Opens book to page 394:: Yowza.
and Care of Magical Creatures, if I could fit it in.
Maybe there are lit classes. The problem is that we only see Hogwarts and the wizard world through Harry’s eyes. Perhaps Harry and those around him just haven’t taken those classes? If there are classes like that, it’s sad that they haven’t been required (yet). Although I’m sure that if they were offered, Hermione would have taken a writing or literature class by now.
As for myself, I would take Herbology and Muggle Studies (I agree with Hermione in that it would be interesting to see how the wizards approach the Muggle world in their studies). Also: Defense Against the Dark Arts, and maybe Potions (I would not be happy with Snape as a teacher).
I think Charms would be the most fun, especially with good ol’ Flitwick instructing. Transfiguration would also be nifty.
I’ve wondered about the lack of “normal” classes as well. It seems like Harry and his peers would be awfully dumb in areas like literature and (regular) history, especially since Muggle Studies isn’t required. And remember, they began this cirriculum when they were only eleven, so it’s not like they’ve even had much of a background in these normal subjects.
Arithmancy. I’ve always wondered what it really was though. It sounds like a math class or something.
Charms
Defense against the dark arts
Herbology
Tranfiguration. This one was really hard. I would be like Hermionie in Hogwarts, and I would totally need a time turner. I would love to take Potions and Muggle Studies.
I think that they don’t have much literature and musical classes because you don’t exactly need that in the magic world. You don’t exactly need to know your country’s history if your an Auror or something.
Arithmancy is the same thing as numerology. In the real world, it’s a steaming load of bullshit, but at Hogwarts, there’s probably something to it. I’d definitely go for that one and Muggle studies. Beyond that, I dunno.
Regarding Hogwarts version of college, I believe there is at least one and presumably many. My reading comprehension is a little sketchy when it comes to exact names and things (pretty good with the overall plot though). When Ron stays at hogwarts for christmas it mentions how his family is visiting Ron’s older brother in Egypt (I think) where he is studying dragons or something along that lines. I took that to mean he is in college.
Regarding the specialization and not studying anything normal…I’m a little sketchy on this but they not go to a normal school before they are old enough to go to hogwarts? They’d get a decent base there.
As for what I’d study…
Ancient Runes
Care of magical creatures
Charms
Defense against the dark arts
Potions
Transfiguration
Right at the top would be Defense Against the Dark Arts. After that Potions, in spite of Snape. Then Herbology, Transfiguration, Arithmancy, andCharms.
Transfiguration would be cool, but between the other classes it seems to me that most of what it could do would be taken care of in other ways.
Nobody’s said they would take Astronomy, so I’ll be the first.
I would also take Divination, and might take Arithmancy.
There are no math classes at Hogwarts, either (unless you count Arithmancy), or science classes other than Astronomy. You’d think foreign languages might be handy in a wizarding career, too.
I think Charms, DADA, Potions, Herbology, and Transfiguration are required, at least through O.W.L. level. I’m pretty sure History of Magic is, too, or most of the students would have dropped it long ago.
As for electives, I’d go for Care of Magical Creatures, Astronomy, and (since I’m the language-geeky type) Ancient Runes. However, Muggle Studies does sound like it would be a hoot, given the general level of Muggle-literacy among wizards. (“Kids, this is a car. That’s short for ‘Muggle Flying Carpet,’ only most of the Muggles don’t know it can fly because they mistake the wings for doors. It drinks a potion known as ‘petrol’ and wears rubber shoes…”)
Ancient runes, cause well, that’d be cool, and I like learning languages, so ancient runes sounds fascinating.
Arithmancy - just because.
Defense against the dark arts - well, quite frankly, it’d be damned useful.
Potions - just to annoy Snape.
History of Magic - well, if its anything like my History of Science course I did, it’ll be choc-a-block full of interesting stuff.
Transfiguration - well, who wouldn’t like to be able to change stuff into other stuff, and I’d want to be an animagus as well. I wonder what my animal’d be? Wolf?
I would definitely, absolutely take Arithmancy. It would be interesting to see what happens when one applies traditional Muggle mathematical techniques to the wizarding subject, and vice-versa. Astronomy I’d also take, though I’m not sure how much the wizarding approach would differ from the Muggle, in that case (aside from astrology, which is covered in a different class).
After that, I would want to take Potions, but I would prefer another teacher over Snape. And Charms and, to a lesser extent, Transfigurations, seem to get to the heart of a lot of the fundamentals of magic, so I would probably want those as well.
Herbology has its points, but mostly I’d be interested in plants as reagents, which would be more in line with Potions. Likewise, Defense against the Dark Arts seems to be special cases of Charms, Magical Creatures, and other subjects, as they apply to dark-fighting . But I’m a scholar, not a warrior, so I wouldn’t be particularly interested in those special cases. I’d love to know ancient runes, but I’d hate to actually learn them, so count that out. And as fond as I am of Hagrid, Care of Magical Creatures doesn’t particularly appeal to me.
Not quite. Egypt is where Bill was working for a living (curse-breaker for Gringotts). Charlie was studying dragons in Romania. This does seem to imply some form of academia iin the wizarding world, but it doesn’t lock it in. Researchers can be employed in the private sector in the Muggle world (I believe pharmaceutical companies use them, for instance), and the same could be true of the magical community.
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