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Most of the wand-carriers that come from a non-Muggle family seem fairly uneducated when it comes to interacting with Muggles. This implies that they don't go to any type of Muggle school before entering into their education at Hogwarts (or whichever Wizarding school they go to), or else they would at least understand some Muggle culture.

What do children from magical families do before going to Hogwarts if they don't go to a traditional school? Is there any evidence that they're homeschooled?

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3 Answers

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It depends on the family. Some families send their kids to Muggle primary schools. Others home school them.

From an interview with JK Rowling:

Kai: "Where do wizarding children go to school before Hogwarts?"

JK Rowling: "They can either go to a Muggle primary school or they are educated at home. The Weasleys were taught by Mrs. Weasley."

And so were most of the children from wizarding families.

Also, J.K.Rowling's Official Site F.A.Q tells us:

With very young children, as you glimpsed at the wizards' camp before the Quidditch World Cup in 'Goblet of Fire', there is the constant danger that they will use magic, whether inadvertently or deliberately; they cannot be trusted to keep their true abilities hidden. Even Muggle-borns like Harry attract a certain amount of unwelcome attention at Muggle schools by re-growing their hair overnight and so on."

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I hate to point out, but there's a problem with the 2nd quote in the question's information. Harry isn't Muggle-born. He's a half-blood, as it repeated MANY times within the series. His mom was a muggle-born witch and his dad was a pure-blood wizard. – Anne Doe Aug 10 '12 at 13:45
Shouldn't that make him something like a 3/4 blood or something? – rsegal Aug 10 '12 at 15:05
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@AnneDoe Agreed. Should've been something like brought up by Muggles? – ykombinator Aug 10 '12 at 16:38
up vote 7 down vote

Per JKR, they can either go to a Muggle primary school, or they are home-schooled. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/was-harry-potters-education-an.html

The ones that seem to have no concept of the Muggle world must have been home-schooled. As you point out, it's the only rational explanation for why they would be so unaware of the Muggle world.

This is nothing but conjecture, but I would assume that home-schooling is preferred, since wizards under Hogwarts age are not able to fully control their magic. (Remember all the odd things that happened to Harry.) For the good of the Statute of Secrecy, home-schooling must have been encouraged.

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That's a really good point about them not being able to fully control their magic. This raises an interesting question about what home schooled wizards are taught. – Dason Feb 23 '12 at 4:22
Well, as a home schooled kid, I can answer that. :) Same things they teach in public schools, mostly, except I taught myself. Get textbooks, read, do homework, end of lesson. Passed ACT in the 99th percentile, and graduated college President's list. So don't knock homeschooling too much. :) Although, I must admit, I never took a class at home on Muggle Studies... – Gabe Willard Feb 23 '12 at 4:31
@GabeWillard You never took history or science? Those would be Muggle Studies in the wizarding world – Legion600 Feb 23 '12 at 5:04
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@Legion600 - I don't think Muggle Studies is science, even remotely. Likely, "social sciences" crap + History – DVK Feb 23 '12 at 11:26
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@Dason ...if the wizarding world know the scientific method, they're really bad at it. More likely they've just used primitive experimentation. Failing that, see fanfiction.net/s/5782108/1/… – Tynam Nov 14 '12 at 14:05
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up vote 2 down vote

I am sure they are all home schooled. The reason I say so is consider the "pure blood" kids in the book:

  1. Weasley Family
  2. Malfoy Family
  3. Seamus Finnigan
  4. Neville Longbottom and so on.

None of these seem to have attended any kind of school previously, probably because then their magic won't be under supervision.

Also facts like Ron Weasley knowing nothing about basketball (mentioned in first part) is significant to the fact that pure blood families are pretty conservative themselves and don't allow their children to readily mix with muggles .

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