Harry Potter Goes to School: Learning In and Out of Hogwarts

For the most part these are really small pieces of leftovers, smaller than what I call Bits & Bobs, so I’m calling this episode Chips & Snips. Bits & Bobs is a British English idiom, but as far as I know, I have invented the idiom Chips & Snips. You’re welcome. I also considered calling this episode The Speed Round. You’ll see why.

So many bits and bobs are left over in these chapters, things I didn’t talk about in previous episodes because there were other things to talk about. So I’ll talk about them now, and see if I can exhaust the possibilities for education-relevant ideas here before I exhaust myself and you too, kind listener. Harry's broom, Neville's trauma, Snape's assessment plan, and Peeves's linguistic brain teaser are all here. 

I used to think that Hermione’s big change happened in the moment between her rescue from the troll and her lie to Professor McGonagall about why she, Harry, Ron, and a troll were in the girls’ bathroom together. But now I think that Hermione’s big change happened gradually over the two months she was at Hogwarts. Clever as she is, she must have noticed that her social approach wasn’t working very well.

Maybe I didn’t go to the right kind of school, or maybe I didn’t run with the wrong kind of kids, but I never, never thought I was about to be expelled from school. I can’t even remember thinking that anyone I knew was at risk of being expelled from school. Whether it be expulsion, detention, losing house points, or just getting caught breaking rules and whatever comes from that, Gryffindor first years seem to think about avoiding punishment a lot.

Harry’s hidden talent is flying, and he, Draco, Minerva, and Oliver are about to discover it. Neville, Ron, and Pavarti Patil have a little bit of the spotlight in this chapter too, but their hidden talents or non-talents stay kind of hidden.

Just like the Hogwarts recruiting brochure promises, Harry’s classes are all about magic, but they don’t have the same enchanting appeal as Harry’s trip to Diagon Alley. To modify Gildeory’s famous exclamation from Chamber of Secrets, Harry must think, “Amazing! This is just like…school!” Even though the curriculum is different from that of Stonewall High, the structure is the same—separate classes for separate subjects, scheduled out through the week, complete with lectures, notes, homework, and tests.

Since Harry is just entering Hogwarts, everything is new to him, and it’s new to us too. And since Hogwarts is a school, there is a lot of school-relevant material in these chapters. This episode is dedicated to the odds and ends of more and less school-relevant ideas, the items that don’t fit into big themes, like fear and sorting, but are interesting nevertheless.

Many teachers I know are especially keen to create an atmosphere that is welcoming, warm, and safe, especially on the first days of school. This is not the case at Hogwarts. 

We have double fear in this chapter. First, in a magical-mystery-adventure-type book series, we anticipate a good amount of tension and fear—because we have experience reading or knowing about magical-mystery-adventure-type stories. Second, as Harry prepares for his first day of school at Hogwarts, we anticipate a good amount of tension and fear—because we have been to school.

So many new things happen to Harry in the next few chapters as he—and we—are introduced to Hogwarts and the magical world. This episode will survey a few of the magical and not magical new things that Harry experiences as he takes his first trip to Hogwarts.