HOM-301 Lessons

Welcome back to a new week of History of Magic. I hope you’re feeling up to par-- let’s begin the lesson. Last week, we covered the topic of ancient Europe. I have heard that many of you are still groaning in mental pain from the assignment and lesson. As such, today’s lesson will be slightly more relaxing (but we can’t eliminate all challenges). Today we will be discussing the topics of education and sports in Europe. Particularly, we will discuss the necessity of education in general, as well as a few specific schools in Europe we have not yet covered, and finally take a look at sports in Europe (naturally, magic ones).

Education and its Necessity

Whenever anyone thinks of education, be it Muggles or wizards, they likely immediately associate it with school, books, studying, practicals, and assessments of various sorts. However, is that really what education is, or is it just what we perceive it to be? Instead of thinking that way, we may want to ponder the other aspects of education, regardless of how we see it on the surface. 

The word “education” is derived from the Latin word “Educatum,” whose direct translation and interpretation would be to teach or to train. However, some may argue that they may come from another Latin word “Educare,” which means to raise or to bring up. Whereas others might still disagree and believe that it comes from the Latin term “Educere,” defined as to lead forth or to come out. What do these all have in common? New discoveries and self-improvement.

The red arrow shows what we are looking for. Education is believed to bring out the best qualities and seeks to provide knowledge to each individual by teaching them in a way that will enhance their innate abilities. Hold on a minute. Innateness? Yes. I hope you’re thinking about whether knowledge is inherently within us or if we acquire knowledge from others who teach us. For now, keep that question tumbling around in your head. Let it sink in a little as we move back to the history of European magical systems of education.

Education of Old

The formal Council of European Magical Education was formed quite recently in the early 18th century. However, that does not mean that education itself started at that point in time (as we well know)! In fact, the informal education system began even before the creation of Hogwarts. As I’ve mentioned previously, we always associate education with schools and actual buildings, but is that really the case? I’m hearing a few “Nos” from those of you sitting in the front. Exactly the case! The earliest informal education system started in villages and was not even considered formal education as there wasn’t much lecturing or classrooms involved. Unlike what we are doing right at this very moment, the earliest magical folk would not have had time to just sit around listening to someone ramble on about what they know. Instead, it was full of practical applications and actions, which some would find more interesting than what we have nowadays.

In this way someone could become an expert in their field after apprenticeship, and could learn from a master. However, there were limitations to this approach as well. If learning from a master wandcrafter, while you would certainly learn a lot about identifying trees, magical cores, and even identifying magical traces, any knowledge of creatures would likely be missing very large holes (for example, how to approach a Hippogriff, or what a Salamander eats), as would their knowledge of herbology or potions. Granted, one might argue they didn’t need it, but perhaps they might have wanted it. The broad range of courses you cover is something that is a direct benefit of the formal education system, for all its flaws. 

So which way is the best? Is formal education necessary at all? And, in fact, is education in and of itself necessary at all? To further complicate matters, we must return to the idea of education as the practice of drawing out innate knowledge, rather than imparting knowledge from one educated person to an uneducated one.

This was the exact problem that was faced by Plato, who actually set up his own informal wizarding school called The Academy, where he challenged education and teaching. In Meno, Socrates (a mouthpiece for Plato’s own beliefs) tells the titular character Meno that there is no such thing as teaching, as he believed that knowledge is all deep within oneself. All one must do is retrieve this information that is already ours. He demonstrated this concept on an uneducated servant boy by asking him a series of questions (using the Socratic Method) which eventually led the boy to answer a difficult question. He then concluded that the boy knew as much as Pythias the Rational (who, as we discussed earlier, was no slouch in the intelligence department). Here we have a re-enactment of this very scene from Meno.

Here we have the full dramatised version of the conversation between Meno, Socrates, and the boy in question in order to give you an idea of what the Socratic Method entailed, and what he meant by innate knowledge rather than learning. But for now, we will move on without truly answering which form of education (if any) is necessary, as this will be something you will have a chance to weigh in on later.

(Some) Magical Schools in Europe

There are more than a dozen magical schools that exist all around the European continent, though there are few established (recognized by international governmental bodies) magical schools. Since we are obviously unable to cover all the schools in one lesson, I’ve selected two schools that you may or may not be familiar with. These schools, with Hogwarts, make up all of the established schools on this continent: namely Beauxbatons Academy of Magic and Durmstrang Institute.

Most of these schools have similar features to Hogwarts. I will be only briefly covering these features in the history of each school, but you’ll have to connect the dots to create a fuller picture of each of the schools’ marvellous backgrounds. 

Beauxbatons Academy of Magic

Beauxbatons Academy of Magic is located in the southern region of France, where the French border meets the Spanish border in the Pyrenees range. The area is filled with mountains and the exact location of the school cannot be determined. This is pretty standard for a magical school, but one interesting fact about Beauxbatons is that even magical beings have trouble finding the school. The only way into the grounds is if you know someone from the inside, or to have another person tell you how to get in. This fact alone makes entering the school both highly prestigious and, practically, very difficult. 

Unlike most schools which use a castle as the focal point of the school compound, Beauxbatons Academy of Magic prides itself by using a palace as the school, aptly calling it “The Palace of Beauxbatons.” 

The name “Beauxbatons” can be directly translated as “beautiful sticks”  or “beautiful wands,” why was that name chosen? Among locals to the region, there exists a myth about where the name came from. Whether or not it is factually correct, no one really knows. Nonetheless, it is an interesting tale!

There once lived two wizards and a witch who were extremely close friends. Their names were Pascal Roux, Clement Durand, and Monique Bernard. They grew up together as childhood friends in a village and, unsurprisingly, played together all the time. As teenagers, Pascal and Clement started to both grow fond of Monique and vyed for her attention. However Monique was uninterested in either of their affections. She had a much greater plan in her mind: that she would one day be the greatest witch in all of France. She started to practice her skills with the mediocre wand her parents got her on her 12th birthday. It was neither precise nor powerful. In fact, it was an extremely basic wand that would only just get her by. Thus, she made a wish to own a powerful wand made from a mysterious magical tree from the Pyrenees. There was only one problem, no one could get to that mysterious tree as it was far up into the snowy mountains and it would take an incredibly skilled person to be able to come anywhere close to it.

For years, both Pascal and Clement trained their physique and stamina to win her heart by fulfilling her wish. Finally, after ten years, in 1290, they began this adventure that might win over Monique’s affections. It took a total of four weeks to reach their destination. To their surprise, instead of one, there were two different types of trees that were growing in the vicinity. Pascal believed that it was the glowing tree that had green leaves that shimmered in the light. Clement believed that it was the other tree with solid black leaves that brought about darkness in the area around it. Thus, both men decided to remove a piece of their chosen tree to make a wand for Monique. They made a pact that whoever’s wand she chose would be the one that would be considered to have won her heart.

And that’s what they did. 

Oddly, the story stops there. No one knows what really happened but it is believed that the two wands made from the two pieces of wood collected by Pascal and Clement are the “beautiful wands” that Beauxbatons is named for. Personally, I find it rather odd that the story ended abruptly and without a tangible connection towards the formation of the school. But myths are often fickle things.

The facts of the matter are as follows: Beauxbatons Academy of Magic is believed to have been founded in the late 1290s by three magical persons whose names are not confirmed. The school is about 330,003 m2 in size, housing male and female students aged 11 to 19. In the beginning, it started off with as few as 20 students with ages ranging from 12 to 15 and slowly accepted more students over the next 80 years. Their education is comparable to that of Hogwarts (owing to the fact that it has received its accreditation from international bodies) though the school naturally has its own focuses, mainly on tricky and precise charms as well as wandless and/or nonverbal magic. 

Durmstrang Institute

Another established magical school present in Europe is Durmstrang Institute. I’m sure many of you are familiar with the existence of this school as they are some of our fiercest competitors during the historical Triwizard Tournament. Some people believe that this school is located in Norway, whereas others debate that it is actually in Sweden. The actual location of the school is unknown to most, although many have guessed that it is most likely near an ocean or large body of water because their main mode of transport is an enormous ship.

Founded in 1294 by Professor Nerida Vulchanova, the school is notoriously known to focus on the Dark Arts, as its current staff believe that to curb and fight Dark forces, one has to have intimate knowledge of that darkness. 

Controversially, the school is also known for rejecting any Muggle-born applicants. Some of you might remember Gellert Grindelwald from our lesson last year. He was an alumni of Durmstrang Institute and entered the school in the late 1800s. However, as he was practicing and experimenting with dark magic that surpassed his abilities, he was expelled from the school after four dangerous years. To this day, Grindelwald still has many followers in the compound of the school as they believe that he was a beacon of power and truth, particularly because of his magical prowess. 

The school itself has quite an unsolved mystery. The death of their first headteacher, Professor Nerida Vulchanova, was never fully investigated and was merely reported as a mysterious death whose cause could not be determined. There were suspected reports that Professor Harfang Munter, the wizard who succeeded Professor Vulchanova, murdered his predecessor in order to take over the position. In doing so, he wanted to change the school’s direction even more toward the Dark Arts, duelling, and martial magic. Still, though many might disagree with this curriculum and the system put in place by Professor Munter, it is difficult to dispute the abilities and advantages that this curriculum has fostered for its students.

One question to leave you with before we change topics… if Durmstrang Institute seems to focus on the dark arts as their concentration, and Beauxbatons’ curriculum centers on charms and wandless magic, what is our school’s area of focus?

History of Sports

There are a number of sports and games that are currently practised in magical circles, but today we will focus only on two of the most widely practiced ones.             

Quidditch

Most of you are familiar with Quidditch, as you have noticed that we have a few members in this class that are also players in the school Quidditch teams for their house. 

But did you know that Quidditch is the most played sport in the wizarding world? Furthermore, did you know that what we know about the current game of Quidditch was not at all what it was like at the very beginning when it first started? This is all thanks to our predecessors who helped tweak the game and rules to suit the times and eventually created what we have today. If you would like to know even more about the history of Quidditch after today’s lesson, feel free to pick up a copy of Quidditch Through the Ages. I am not going into the details of the gameplay but I will be touching on the historical aspect of the sport instead. 

Quidditch as a sport started in the mid 1000s (roughly 1050) by a group of people from some nearby villages. Little is known about these people but the game they played was recorded as a basic game between friends instead of the competition it is today.

As mentioned previously, the game started off simply, using balls and broomsticks where players attempted to score goals in hoops that were about ten feet wide using a leather ball, now known as a Quaffle. It was only in 1150, about one hundred years later, that people started enhancing the game by tweaking it to be an amalgamation of several traditional games played across Europe. In short, it was a little bit of everything, such as Stichstock, Aingingein, Creaothceann, Shuntbumps, and Swivenhodge; all of which are ancient games played in the past.

The first actual recording of Quidditch in 1298 showed this to be true, Quidditch initially started off as a ground marsh game and there wasn’t too much human contact in the game itself. However, the slow evolution of the game has allowed the inclusion of Beaters and Seekers.

In 2005, Quidditch became popular in the Muggle world as well, starting in the State of Vermont. Many Muggles attempted to carry broomsticks to look like they were flying, but of course to no avail. Still, the rules remained largely the same and they had to move around a small field with a broomstick between their legs. It became so popular that in 2007, just two years after, there was the formation of the International Quidditch Association (IQA) and the Quidditch World Cup started. This is, as you might imagine, a point of deep frustration and concern for the various Ministries and MACUSA, as they are frantically attempting to trace how knowledge of this sport was leaked. However, it is believed that one too many Quidditch Cups was hosted near Muggle families who eventually built up a tolerance to the Memory Modification Charms and conceived of a close replica to something they hazily remembered. Overall, it is not considered a threat to wizarding secrecy, but the existence of “Muggle Quidditch” is monitored very closely.

Triwizard Tournament

Happening every five years since 1299, the Triwizard Tournament is held between three of the largest magical schools in Europe: Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang. Each school selects a small contingent of students to send, eventually narrowed down to one representative, who attempts to complete three different tasks that test their level of knowledge, courage, and, of course, magical ability. Records have shown that the game began as a friendly competition between the three schools instead of its current hyper-aggressive status. However, that is not to say that it has ever been all roses and sunshine for the players. 

The game quickly became too dangerous when students began dying during tasks. The tasks given were known to be highly dangerous and life-threatening as they were used to test the level of courage of each champion. Sadly, things got out of hand when more than nine champions died in the span of six cycles of the games between 1689 and 1719. That is to say, about 50% of the participants in that short period of 30 years perished. After such significant losses,the Triwizard Tournament came to a standstill in 1792. 

The Ministry was particularly worried about the tournament and was tempted to actually ban it once and for all due to the high risk level that could cause more preventable deaths. However, in 1823, Thomas Hobert, a high ranking wizard in the Department of Magical Games and Sports brought out the argument that the students should not be penalised and not allowed to play the tournament just because the creators and planning committee did not put in place suitable preventive measures when they considered the tasks given to the champions. 

It was revived once more in 1994 after strict rules and regulations were put in place, such as the requirement of a minimum age of 17 in order for one to compete. Unfortunately, this didn’t last long and was discontinued due to the death of one of the competitors. There are frequent talks of starting up the competition anew, or similar competitions, but ultimately even the few that were actually hosted have not yet gained any traction or widespread popularity.

That’s all for our segment on education and sports, and indeed our entire lesson this week. I hope you enjoyed it! In addition to the normal quiz, there will be three essays for today’s lesson, all of which are extra credit, so feel free to take your pick and decide whether you want to do one, two, or even all three. You may even choose to do none, if you really want to. Take your time with these essays and think about the questions I raised during the lesson, which should help you with the work.

Original lesson written by Professor Autumn Maddox
Image credits here, here, here, and here