Ilvermorny/US wizarding headcanons

[sapphicsunrise]

hey fam, i'm embarking on a new story (wizarding summer camp) set in the US, & i was hoping to crowdsource some ideas from Americans about what the wizarding world in the US is like, and particularly how you envisage Ilvermorny. full credit will be given for any ideas I use, so if you can help me out at all please drop those headcanons here!

[clevernotbrilliant]

So not really Ilvermony related, but I have a very extensive idea of the public school system in the US.

 

Since there is no possible way a Hogwarts-sized schol could reasonably fit in the entire magical population of the US, there have to be other similar privatized schools like Ilvermony throughout the US (possibly one in major cities in each region- Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, South, West).

 

That being said, there has to be a sort of public school system a la the No Maj system (which is shit tbh which opens up a whole new world of subpar wizarding education shitty standardized tests and all).

 

I also think that while MACUSA probably has similar regulations against interaction with No Majs as the Ministry, with a country the size of the US, many smaller towns and more rural states completely ignore the Statue and interact freely with No Majs with no concern for hiding their magic. This leads to many more relationships between No Majs and wizards, which means that there are few, if any pureblood wizards left.

 

I also have full curriculum ideas for a small town public high school which I am happy to share if you would like them. I'm currently writing a public high school Quidditch story set in the US (plus I'm also an American who suffered through both public school and summer camps), so I'd love to chat with you any time you want to!

[Margaret]

I'm not American, so obviously, those who are will have better advice, but one of the things that occurs to me is that American schools don't have terminal exams like the O.W.L.S. and N.E.W.T.S., right? Instead students whole record tends to be considered. So I would imagine a wizarding school might do the same and students might get grades for coursework and so on, rather than taking two major exams in their school years.

 

Also, perhaps they would have some kind of divide between middle and high school. I'm never sure exactly how American schools divide up and I think it might differ between states and stuff, but I think middle school/Junior High often starts around the age of 11. So the ages could be quite similar to Hogwarts.

[Vilja]

Hi sapphicsunrise such a lovely idea for a story!

 

I'm not American and never been to the US, so can only base my impressions on the few information that we know from Rowling

 

I guess you are more familiar with the Pottermore text on Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry than I am

but just to say that based on this line

The boys’ ideas of what a magical school ought to be like were based almost entirely on Hogwarts, so they insisted that it ought to have four houses.

I imagine Ilvermorny being very similar to Hogwarts, and less similar to American Muggle schools. But then again, this is just the founding and begining of the school, so since then many muggle-borns might have joined as professors, and they might have reformed the school.

 

I'm sorry, I don't seem to be very helpful...

 

I also like the idea of clevernotbrilliant

there have to be other similar privatized schools like Ilvermony throughout the US

[scooterbug8515]

American here - and I may not have the best advise or ideas because honestly what JKR has set up with Ilvermorny and how the US treats magic/interaction with no-majs (a term I still loath to this day) just does not match up with the rest of American culture at least to me.

 

I think there are several Americans, like myself, who felt that the lines between Muggles (sorry I prefer the term) and wizards was a little more blurred.  With the size of America I honestly feel that we would have several smaller schools Ilvermorny is just one and may even be considered a prestigious one as it was one of the first.

 

Also I think that majority of the American Wizarding schools couldn't be boarding ones as boarding schools are not overly common here. I mean I don't know a single person who went to a boarding school.  So think that students would transport to their school and then come home in the evenings or at least be home for the weekends.  I mean there would need to be a load of Hogsmeads in America for a magical boarding school to go unnoticed.

 

Anyway - I know you are doing a summer camp and honestly there are so many of those that you could easily have a kid gone all summer for camp and even learning magic there as there are soo many camps out there, the camp grounds could easily be hidden from muggles and easily missed.

 

Hope some of this helped (I saw your tweet about needing more of a US perspective and popped by).

[sapphicsunrise]

thanks so much for your responses everyone! i'm definitely seeing Ilvermorny as one of many schools bc there's no way one school could accommodate the entire wizarding population in the US - here's what i decided after talking a bit with Claire:

 

-Ilvermorny is the biggest school in the US, roughly the size of Hogwarts (around 1000 students). given that the population of the UK is about a fifth of the US, Ilvermorny would accomodate roughly a fifth of magical teenagers in the US

-It's a prestigious private school, with boarding and uniforms, modelled on Hogwarts. it draws students from all states, though typically from wealthier and/or pureblood families, aged 11-18

-Roughly ten percent of students attend very small, localised private schools attached to exclusively magical communities, again aged 11-18

-The rest attend public schools, divided into middle and high schools and by geographic region. these have no uniform and are day attendance only. they would probably need to be in quite isolated areas to avoid notice, due to the amount of magical transportation required at the beginning and end of each school day

[TreacleTart]

I think all of those ideas that you've just mentioned sound great.

 

I definitely agree with Ilvermony being a school for the absolute top of the uppercrust. Here in the US, only wealthy kids really go to schools like that.

 

That being said, you would be likely to find one or two children from poor families who go to the school on scholarship. I think wealth disparity would definitely play a part in their feelings about their education as scholarship students here can sometimes be treated unfairly.

 

For our schools in terms of years...

 

Pre-K & Kindergarten - usually a sort of day care/prep kids for school combo - ages 4-5

Elementary school -  grades 1-5 normally - ages 5-11

Middle School - grades 6-8 (occasionally includes 9th grade) - ages 12-14

High School - grades 9-12 - ages 14-18

 

For school, as Margaret pointed out, our grades are based on a cumulative score for all of our work in one semester. So basically we do two semesters per year and receive overall grades at the end of each semester. A lot of schools also do a citizenship grades, which reflects behavior in class. Grades go Excellent, Good, Satisfactory, Needs Improvement, or Unsatisfactory. They in no way reflect on our academic grades....solely based on things like attendance, in class behaviour, etc.

 

We do have a TON of standardized testing. It's common to have one major standardized test per semester. Usually, the testing process takes up to a week and you do 1-2 subjects per day. Sort of similar to how the O.W.L.s/N.E.W.T.s were handled in the HP series. Our tests have a lot to do with government/public funding. Schools that excel at testing tend to receive extra perks. Unfortunately, this leads to a lot of the schools teaching a rubric based on passing the standardized tests instead of teaching kids practical things.

 

We also have a high school exit exam. We sit for it the first time in 10th grade, but can retake it four times until we pass it.

 

Also...

9th grade = Freshman

10th grade = Sophmore

11th grade = Junior

12th grade = Senior

 

One thing to consider with the public schools in rural areas is that there are lots of states that don't have tons of rural areas or don't have rural areas nearby. For example, if you lived in Los Angeles, you'd be hard pressed to find a rural place to put a school. I think it would be more likely that a public magic school would be hidden similarly to the Ministry of Magic or St. Mungo's or Diagon Alley. Like to a passing Muggle it would look like a run down building, but to magical people they are able to see an entrance...or something like that.

 

We tend to get our driver's permit at 15.5 here and then a full on license at 16....so apparation would probably happen at a similar age.

 

Also, you'd have to have multiple magical schools per city....not just per state. For example, San Diego alone has 1.35 million people living in it. Even if only 10% of the population was magical, that means that 100,350 people would be magical. That would need more than one school.

 

[batsam]

I don't have much in the way of headcanons, but I did attend a private American high school with uniforms (catholic/all girls), so you can ask me questions/chat about that if you want specifics.

 

We didn't have standardized testing like public schools have, though we still took the big college admissions tests, SAT and ACT, normally in junior year. I think we may have also had more freedom in building our own schedules and choosing classes we wanted, but I'm not certain.

 

There was definitely a disparity between how we were seen from the outside and what we were really like. People have assumptions about private school kids (especially at a catholic all girls school), and despite the assumptions that we are prim or snooty or whatever, the environment was overall super friendly and relaxed.

 

A big perk of private school was having better funding for arts and other programs that get dramatically cut at public schools.

 

Depending on if you choose normal, honors, or advanced placement classes there is a stark difference in expectations and pressure. Either people expect very little of you or they expect everything from you - there's not much in between, so a lot of people end up feeling either under-challenged or like they're drowning.

 

Everyone wore boxers under their skirts so you can put your legs wherever you want. That seemed like an important fact. =P  Oh, and our socks weren't regulated by dress code, so people expressed lots of personality there. Sandals had to have a secure strap around the heel, so everyone ended up buying the same brand. They removed the pocket from the school sweatshirt design because everyone was using it to secretly text in class. Oh, and they made a rule that you weren't allowed to bring blankets to school because the aforementioned factors of casual + stress meant that was happening a lot.

 

Welp, that was more random words than I intended to make.

[TreacleTart]

BTW, I kinda forgot to mention, I'm sort of old, so my info is based on school over ten years ago. 

 

Ooh. Public School dress code was sleeves on shirts had to be at least 2 inches wide, no bra straps, boxers, or underwear showing, no cut outs or super low cut shirts, no midriffs showing, no bandanas (cause they could be a gang related thing), no facial jewelry (So earrings only), skirts could only come up 4 inches above the knee, shorts had to come to 4 inches below the butt cheek, no clothing with drug or alcohol images, no chains of any sort (like the decorative sort a guy might hook from his wallet to his belt loop), no see through clothing, etc.

 

Also, we have free meal programs at all of our public schools. If a family is under a certain income level, the children receive free lunch and sometimes free breakfast too.

 

For advanced classes in public school, you usually have to test into them. We have the Gates Program which is for gifted students. I believe you test into it in 4th grade. In high school, we also have what are called AP classes, which are college level courses you can take in high school that will give you college credits towards a degree.

[TidalDragon]

Kaitlin and Sam have provided pretty great advice already and I think you would want to mold the testing, etc., requirements to fit a uniform standard since MACUSA is probably more stringent in that way than our federal government. However it's important to note that schools in the US can have widely disparate curricula and graduation requirements by state and sometimes even by school district (usually city or county-sized, though rural areas sometimes combine counties).

 

Also, many schools in the last year of middle school (students usually 13-14) administer "aptitude tests". They aren't binding in any way, but are supposed to help suggest to students suitable future career paths. Some also still give a similar test (I forget its name) in high school that was developed by the military to help them... we'll say "gain insight" into how one (1) might best serve one's country occupation-wise. Whether this is administered or not, top students in the United States also often get letters from military service academies encouraging them to seek a commission to go there (unlike other schools, which never do that).

 

Finally, re: summer camps, there truly are a motherlode of options. I'm assuming you're looking for a stay-all-summer type, but we also have camps that last a week or a month over here. Cabins often feature prominently and tents at shorter camps for shelter. Depending on the age you're writing it at, the counselors would be either older kids (often former campers), overseen by adults or adults (primarily younger) overseen by a smaller number of older adults. I can provide more details from specific experience if you want, just PM me.

[scooterbug8515]

Back again as what everyone has posted struck a few memories for me.  I went to a private school that was boys and girls.  It did have a uniform but girls could wear pants or skirts.  I actually spent most of my academic career in a uniform from plaid jumpers and peter pan collar shirts to skirts, squarts and pants with blouses, button up shirts and polos.  Almost every shirt has the school letters or emblem on it. 

 

Also I was the poor kid in the rich private school so if you want the poor kid perspective you are welcome to hit me up.  I didn't go on scholar ship but 90% of the time my family afforded my attendance as my mom taught at the school. (The other 10% my parents sacrificed a lot to give me a 'higher' education as private schools have less standardized tests and more freedom in teaching subject matter).

 

Anyway as to present public schools, they do have a type of uniform now (My mom was a teacher in the public school system not to long ago)  The uniform was kakkai or navy blue pants and a collard shirt - some schools did go so far to dictate color choices of the collard shirts.  (Chiefly white, blue, yellow - and like the schools color)  Also education is very focused now - in a lot of public schools teachers quite literally teach to the test.  A teacher can literally get in trouble if they cannot state the exact standard they are teaching at that moment.  Also when I was student teaching at the elementary level (10 years ago - not a teacher now for various reasons) about 75% of the day was focused on reading.  Then 15% was on mathematics the remaining 10% was a touch of science, PE, lunch and maybe art class/music class.  The latter 3 were on a rotation kids would go to PE 2-3 times a week Art and Music about once a week.  These times gave the main teacher about a 30 minute planning period in the day.

 

Also my schools demanded closed toed shoes but instead of socks being the thing that people expressed individuality with the uniform it was shoes.  At my middle school you were not in unless you had a pair of Nike's.  (Not easy to acquire as the poor kid as they were helluva expensive then.)

 

Also on Kevin's remark on camps many if you are working on a teen/highschool camp usually the counselors were/are college age students because they are cool and teens are more apt many times to listen to someone just a few years younger than themselves than a middle aged adult.

[mydearfoxy]

Just adding my thoughts on a few points about public education--

 

Just to clarify, public schools may or may not have uniforms. The elementary school where I'm currently working does, and many others do, but plenty of elementary schools don't. It's less common at the high school level, I think, but regardless of age it varies by school. Actually, the sort of "fancy all summer traditional camp" I mentioned before also sometimes requires uniforms.

 

I would also say that the quality of schools varies a lot by where you are because the primary funding for schools in the US comes from property taxes, so the wealthier and more valuable the homes are, the more money the schools will have. (This is hugely problematic imo, but that's a discussion for another time.) States also make a lot of decisions about school funding. My state is relatively progressive, and I really don't see teachers "teaching to the test" so much anymore, although I think that did happen a lot under the Bush administration in particular.  If you have characters who were in elementary school in the early/mid 2000s, it would apply.

 

As far as teaching to standards, that is quite different from teaching to the test. But I suppose that's getting off track. (sorry, currently student teaching so this is all right at the front of my brain )