Yes, but some of their classmates have absolutely no idea what football is, or that people in mundane posters don’t move. They may be getting educated, but they’re sadly missing out on a lot of the culture. Like Mr. Weasley not understanding the significance of a rubber duck… it’s a freakin’ TOY, for Christ’s sake! How hard is that to figure out?
This strikes me as a bit of a problem if Hogwarts is the only wizard school in the UK. Perhaps everyone doesn’t need to study art, or language, or higher math, or politics, but shouldn’t these subjects be available somewhere in the wizard world to those who might find them interesting or useful? Perhaps some wizards attend Muggle universities, although given the general lack of knowledge about the Muggle world in the wizard community I doubt this is common.
Perhaps by the end of the series the barriers between the Muggle and wizard worlds will be coming down. I can easily imagine Muggles and wizards having to join forces against Voldemort.
Possible, but consider that just about everything that wizards do is impossible according to what Muggles consider to be proven science. Perhaps the wizarding world knows that Muggle science is wrong, but doesn’t know exactly why? If that was the case, you wouldn’t want to teach them our science, because our science directly contradicts what they know to be reality. But they can’t teach the "real"sciences, because they just don’t know them.
I recall reading in book 4 that Hogwarts isn’t the only wizarding school in England, it’s just the most prestigious. Something to the effect of the Tri-Wizard Tournament is organized by the most prestigious school in each of their respective nations (England, France, and I can’t remember the third).
My own take on the matter is that the courses not covered are just considered less valuable in the wizard world. Perhaps wizards don’t value literature, art, or the like as much as Muggles. Science isn’t taught for reasons given above, and math, to the extent it’s needed, is covered prior to attending a wizarding school. Really, if you don’t use science, the need for advanced mathematics is greatly reduced. And as someone else mentioned, this over-reliance of wizardry in lieu of other subjects could explain why the wizard community is such a mess.
Jeff
Posted by ElJeffe:
Not so. In a world such as Rowling’s, where magic works but Muggle technology also works, Muggle science obviously is not wrong, merely incomplete. There are certain phenomena and forces in the universe, falling under the general heading of “magic,” of which Muggle scientists are ignorant; but these scientists still are perfectly correct when they describe the motions of heavenly bodies or the chemical processes of living organisms.
Excellent point, BrainGlutton. We still teach Newtonian physics, even though they’re technically “wrong”, because they’re a close approximation, and still work. I guess wizards could do the same.
My guess, then, is that Rowlings eschews normal classes at Hogwarts simply to make the school seem more exotic. “Defense Against the Dark Arts” certainly sounds much cooler than “Biology”.
Jeff
Nitpick: The third nation is never mentioned, but it is somewhere cold as the students dress in a lot of furs. I assumed Russia, but it could be Canada or Alaska or something. As for Fleur’s school, they just speak with French accents. They could be from Beligum or the castle from the end of Monty Phtyon and the Grail for that matter. The only school who’s country is mentioned is Hogwarts in the “wilds” of England.
I though the third school was Bulgarian, but that may be just cause Krum is from Bulgaria (or played in their Quidditch team, at least).
Really? I thought it was German, but attracted Eastern Europeans.
I figured -very- northern Scotland or Scandinavia. Someplace near the North Sea.
The name “Durmstrang” is obviously a derivative of the German expression “Sturm und drang” so I’d be inclined to agree. But I suppose that’s not really conclusive evidence. It seems likely enough that the wizard community has its own states that do not correspond to Muggle nations. To wizards, much of northern Europe might be considered one country, and Durmstrang is their local school. If that’s the case, Durmstrang could even be someplace like Iceland.
Addendum: for purposes of Quidditch teams, the wizard world does seem to divide itself up according to Muggle nations, but it is unclear whether the wizard government and school districts follow the same system. Since there are far fewer wizards than Muggles, it would make sense if they had states that covered a larger territory.
It doesn’t seem so. Of course, all we really know about is the UK, but in addition to Quidditch teams being Muggle nation specific, the governing body of the English and Scottish wizarding world is the Ministry of Magic, which is part of the government of the UK.
Also, in the new book:
The Ministry of Magic contains the offices of Britain’s representatives to international wizardry organizations.
So, it seems like, in the UK at least, muggle and wizard boundries are the same.
About literature not being taught–I always assumed it was because the wizarding world is essentially medieval, before fictional narrative was invented–yes, they had lots of great stories, but they were generally told in earnest. Okay. A specialist in medieval literature may now shoot me down, but that’s what I always thought.
Is it? The MoM can obviously get in contact with and cooperate with the British Muggle government when it needs to, but I’ve seen nothing in books 1-4 to indicate that the MoM is part of the government of the United Kingdom. It seems to operate independantly. Again, I haven’t read Order of the Phoenix, so if things are clarified there I don’t know about it yet.
I think this does seem true for the British Isles, but this may be for geographical reasons as much as anything else. There’s a clear natural boundary between the British Isles and continental Europe, but the boundaries between many nations are there for purely political reasons…Muggle political reasons.
Since wizards don’t have to muck about with Muggle passports and borderguards their community is probably unaffected by things like, say, the Berlin Wall. Would wizards living in Germany suddenly decide to divide themselves into a politically distinct East and West just because the Muggles thought it was a good idea, and reunite the minute the Muggles decided that was what they wanted to do instead? That seems inconsistent with a group that doesn’t even understand how to use the postal service.
Of course, the political boundaries of the wizard world may have very little to do with their “school districts”. Hogwarts probably predates the MoM by centuries, and the relationship between them is rather shakey. The same is probably true of many other schools and their respective local governments. So even if the wizard world recognizes Austria and Germany as distinct states just as in the Muggle world, there’s no reason why the Durmstrang district couldn’t encompass both countries and beyond.