I have fairly regular bouts of insomnia. This is bad for several reasons, but chief amongst these is that it means I’m lying awake in the middle of the night thinking about things. After I’ve exhausted all the things about which I must anxiously and obsessively worry, my brain starts going to weird places.
Last night, I spent about a half-hour mulling over how unschoolers would respond to their children receiving letters from Hogwarts.
Seriously. These are the kinds of things that go through my sleep-deprived brain.
If we did live in the Harry Potter ‘verse, though, how would an unschooling parent react if his/her child received an invitation to attend Hogwarts?
Would it change based on whether or not the parents themselves had magical ability? Would the wizard unschoolers keep their children home and expect that they would learn through going about a magical life with their parents? Would the muggle unschoolers expect the magical abilities to unfold naturally if their children weren’t forced to channel them through specific incantations? Would they leave it entirely to the child’s choice, try to influence them, or make the decision for them?
And what about those unfortunate incidents that occur when the latent magical powers reveal themselves (like Harry disappearing the glass on the snake cage, Lily flying through the air off the swing, or Neville bouncing when dropped out of the window)? Without guidance, wouldn’t those incidents continue, putting the child at risk of some sort of magical legal trouble? Can magic be learned through modeling and real-world application only, especially with the legal limitations placed on underage wizards?
Would magic be viewed as something completely different from academic education, due to the potential danger of inadvertently blowing up one’s aunt, and unschoolers would have no problem sending their children off to Hogwarts? Would those who opted to home-magicschool their children use a more formal curriculum for it? Would they still allow the child’s interests to be more self-guided (no need to learn potions if they don’t show interest) or expect a basic level of proficiency in all areas?
Inquiring minds want to know. If you are an unschooler, how would you respond if your child received an invitation to Hogwarts (outside of the “OMG, I can’t believe Hogwarts really exists!!!” response)?
