CANON QUESTION

[dysonrules.livejournal.com]

I usually post these in my own journal, but I figured HEY, WE HAVE A COMM FOR THAT, so I'm asking here, instead.  I recently had an interesting discussion about GHOSTS (do they show up on the Marauder's Map - answer was YES) and obviously I am writing something set at Hogwarts, which brings me to my next question or request for discussion.

In the books, Harry's classes throughout his school year are pretty fucking sketchy.  The list of Harry's classes throughout SEVEN YEARS seem very slim, so I can only assume there are classes that JKR never bothered to mention.  I would assume there to be standard classes that every British student should have, Y/Y?  Here in the US, we are required to have four years of English, four years of Math, and four years of some sort of Social Studies and (I think) four years of Science.  On top of that we have elective classes like art, drama, business studies, choir, home economics, band, and so forth.  The HP movies have one scene with an obviously very-practiced choir, so I would love to assume Hogwarts has a thriving music division (never mentioned by Harry or his friends due to lack of musical interest or talent), probably a drama department, and most likely a set of core classes common to all British Muggle schools.  We can possibly substitute Arithmancy for mathematics, but Astronomy is the only Science mentioned.  So, my questions are:

1) Are there British "core" classes common to all schools?  If yes, what would those be?  Are there magical equivalents or do you think there would be equivalents at Hogwarts?

2) What other classes (or even elective clubs or groups) do you think Hogwarts would have?

LINK TO HOGWARTS CLASSES - ALL THIRTEEN OF THEM.  THAT'S IT.  SEEMS RATHER LIGHT FOR SEVEN YEARS. 

There have already been hundreds of spells created by fic writers.  I see no reason why we shouldn't create non-canon school programs.  HELP ME, F-LIST!  YOU'RE MY ONLY HOPE!  (Mods, if this sort of thing is disallowed, let me know and I will move it back to my journal.  THANKY!)

Comments

[red-cortina.livejournal.com]

So, I assumed that all those essays were meant to be writing practice and the teachers corrected spelling and grammar.

Yes, I was thinking this after posting my comment yesterday. You can imagine a teacher like Snape threatening to put in detention the next person unable to tell the difference between "effect" and "affect", for example. Even in my English Language lessons (in the UK) I don't remember much spelling and grammar being taught - most of my grammar comes from my German teacher who rightly thought that it would be impossible to learn German grammar without a better idea than we had of English grammar. The formal teaching of English grammar at secondary level seems to fade in and out of fashion (which seems completely mad). Eng lit does seem like a bit of a glaring omission for a writer of a book...!

[sleightlysoiled.livejournal.com]

Exactly! I don't think Snape would tolerate that sort of nonsense! Though he may be just as likely to write a big, red "abysmal" on a paper and not point out what was wrong. And, yeah, being a writer you'd think JK might include a class about it. Maybe it was just too mundane, compared to the fascinating, magical classes.

I didn't know how it worked in the UK. I live in America, and English class all through grade school included reading, writing and grammar. The grammar aspect lessened some with the higher levels, and even more so at university level at which point you should already know what you're doing.

[red-cortina.livejournal.com]

It might be more formally taught again now, I don't know. University lecturers here tend to get very annoyed at having to teach grammar - I remember a translation seminar when I was at uni (I studied German) basically turning into an English grammar class because while we were able to understand the German, not everyone was able to put it into correct English. It took the lecturer about 15mins to lead us into finally working out that "practice" is a noun and "practise" is a verb - and we were linguists!

Yeah, it's not like JK actually had to design the timetables or anything! I think you spend a lot more time thinking about it for fanfic because you spend all your time thinking "hang on, would this work?" and the more you follow things through to their logical conclusion, the more you realise quite possibly none of it actually would...