On Why Hogwarts is a Terrible School

So I've just read the Harry Potter Books ... for the first time. It's 2014. I know I've been late to the party - as usual. I had my reasons. Anyway, now that I've read the books, liked them and look at the fandom, I kind of wonder ... am I the only person who wouldn't want to go to Hogwarts?

I just don't think it would be such a nice place to be if one actually went there. For one thing, there is the division into different houses. What does that do, besides creating animosity - especially since they have them competing against each other for the House and Quidditch Cup. I guess some would argue that shared goals and responsibilities make the students within every one house bond and look after one another. But we see in the books that it doesn't work quite like that - as was to be expected. Because, you see, when somebody messes up and jeopardizes the victory they're gonna have a pretty hard time in their own house. And inter-house friendships prove to be rather difficult to maintain, since there hardly is any neutral place to hang out. You're likely not going to sit with people from other houses during meals. You can hardly have a conversation in the library. And besides that, where in the castle could people from different houses hang out? You're left with the grounds or the toilets, maybe the Room of Requirement.

And this is, I think, where the crux of the matter lies. You're not really supposed to mingle. The division of the houses is really sort of a divide and conquer strategy. One that has clearly gotten out of hand, since the teachers are as invested in the rivalry as the students are and even the parents. Because to many parents it is very important that their children end up in the "right" house - as illustrated by Sirius Black. And though the Weasley's wouldn't have been quite as harsh as that, had any one of the kids ended up in a different house, it would have surely impacted his status in the family. Because this isn't just about where you're dormitory is, it's basically a stigma. If you end up in Slytherin, people from other houses are going to assume that you're a criminal in the making. And people from your own house are going to make sure that your believes line up, if they don't already do. I think this system was largely responsible for the failure of Snape and Lily's friendship and why he ultimately ended up with the Death Eaters.

The other things that really bothers me about Hogwarts are the curriculum and the teaching methods. I find the curriculum rather narrow. It's almost entirely devoted to the use of magic (or magical creatures and substances), whereas the questions of understanding magic, ones own origins or the world at large hardly get touched - even in such subjects as History of Magic, Care of Magical Creatures and Muggle Studies. Neither seems critical reasoning much encouraged. It is not surprising therefore that even "good" wizards such as Ron hold some rather alarming believes and attitudes. And that despite the fact that most wizards have Muggle relations, not even the people from the ministry's Muggle related departments understand the most fundamental things about them or other magical creatures for that matter.

In general there seems to be hardly anyone concerned about ethics. The teachers only make their students brew the potions, practice the charms and what not. They hardly provide any context or caution. The best wizard according to Hogwarts standards is the one who can use magic to the greatest extent and in the most complicated ways - not the one who uses it most wisely. There is no real discourse on the line between use and abuse, which also makes the subject of Defence Against the Dark Arts hard to define, since the Dark Arts themselves are kind of a wishy-washy concept. There is some general idea that they are magical implements that are clearly intended to be used to somebody's disadvantage. But that could be said about most magical practice. And it is clear that even the unforgivable curses are not exclusively used by bad people. Hell, Harry himself uses two of the three.

Then there are the teaching methods. In general Hogwarts seems to operate under the false assumption that when you are good at something you are also good at teaching it. That is obviously not the case as nicely illustrated by Professor Binns, who holds his History of Magic monologues barely even aware of the students' presence, as well as Snape, who just writes the potions recipes on the blackboard and makes them hand in the results at the end of each lesson. And the essays they have to do for almost every subject are usually not more than senseless occupational therapy. Though, to be fair, on that particular account Hogwarts probably doesn't differ all that much from regular schools, but for the fact that the essays are for the most part mere practical recitations of the how-to-variety rather than critical reflections. The other very Hogwarts-specific problem is that the teachers - especially the heads of houses - have got an underlying agenda and hardly even make a show of treating students equally fair to put it mildly.

All in all I think Hogwarts, though certainly a fascinating place, is not a great environment if your ambition is to become a well educated and responsible wizard. In a way it is like our schools on steroids, but we at least get taught where we come from and how we work - usually that is.

On New Year's Resolutions

The Year is already a couple of days old by now and I still keep getting bombarded with New Year's Resolutions left and right. Though I find some people's resolutions rather interesting to know, I'm not a big fan of them. I've never made any actually. I have goals, all right, but they tend to kind of evolve rather naturally all year round and I adjust them once I see how things are going. Because with most goals you tend to under- or overestimate the difficulties you'll be facing. There are always things you just can't foresee and you need your goals to be flexible enough to take that into consideration.

That's also one of the reasons I don't like telling people about my goals at first. It puts you in that all or nothing mindset, because they'll hold you to what you said.  So that instead of being proud of the progress you have made towards your goal, you'll feel like you failed and give up all together. And then there's also some evidence that suggests that for people who are in it for the social appraisal - or whatever you want to call it – the declaration of the goal and the ensuing admiration from other people are satisfying enough and they might not even bother to get started. Like displaying pretentious books that you never intend to read on your shelves. I don't know, if I ever done something of that kind. I don't think so, but my adolescent self was kind … well, I don't get what she was thinking most of the time. And people tell me things that I can hardly believe. So I wouldn't entirely rule it out. It's like I've been possessed for a really long time. Evil spirit be gone.

However, I didn't achieve everything I wanted to before the New Year, but I don't see that as a failure. It's not like I haven't achieved anything. It just means that it's an ongoing process. And considering the circumstances, I'm actually quite satisfied with what I've managed to accomplish last year.