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Hello, everyone!
I would like to get your opinions on whether Severus attended a Muggle school before going to Hogwarts or was he home-schooled (by his mother)? Or perhaps he mainly taught himself?
Everyone attends Hogwarts at age 11 or 12. By this age, students know how to read and write, etc. Given that Severus is a half-blood and resided in a Muggle town, do you think he went to Muggle school? If so, he should've met Lily there and need not introduce himself in the playground (it is possible, of course, that their town has more than one school and they went to different ones). He seems to be totally into his wizarding roots that he dislikes anything Muggle. His mother could've taught him the basics (along with his quite extensive knowledge of magic, etc.). On the other hand, he seems to be very neglected so I'm not very convinced that his mother or father spent a lot of time with him (besides Tobias not liking anything much as he put it)....
I'm very interested to hear your take on this.
I would like to get your opinions on whether Severus attended a Muggle school before going to Hogwarts or was he home-schooled (by his mother)? Or perhaps he mainly taught himself?
Everyone attends Hogwarts at age 11 or 12. By this age, students know how to read and write, etc. Given that Severus is a half-blood and resided in a Muggle town, do you think he went to Muggle school? If so, he should've met Lily there and need not introduce himself in the playground (it is possible, of course, that their town has more than one school and they went to different ones). He seems to be totally into his wizarding roots that he dislikes anything Muggle. His mother could've taught him the basics (along with his quite extensive knowledge of magic, etc.). On the other hand, he seems to be very neglected so I'm not very convinced that his mother or father spent a lot of time with him (besides Tobias not liking anything much as he put it)....
I'm very interested to hear your take on this.
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Like Melusin, I grew up in a northern industrial town (at the same time as Snape, in my case) and while a few of my acquaintances went to private schools, it was pretty unusual even in my prosperous neighbourhood, especially at primary age. As far as I can remember, it tended to be the children of small industrialists rather than 'healthcare professionals' who used private schools - the doctor's daughter went to my state primary, but a drill manufacturer's child might well have gone to the prep (as did our next-door neighbour's kids - he made aluminium window sections).
A Petunia would have stood out in my day (but not as much as my name did) and I knew one Lily (and a Ginevra - the only one I've ever met). All definitely middle-class, though I have a feeling that names weren't so socially stratified as they are now, and a Lily Evans could have been belonged to a family of any social standing.
However, the big divide wouldn't have been household income but *religion* - Catholic kids went to Catholic primaries. Protestants, non-believers and (outside big cities) Jewish kids went to ordinary local schools. So, the most pertinent question is - what were Eileen Prince's and Tobias Snape's religions, if any?
Several people have posited that Eileen Prince might have been Jewish - it's not an unusual Jewish name; Severus has characteristic Jewish features; and it adds an interesting dimension to the Prince/Snape marriage.
The name Snape is unusual - there seem to be two families with that name on JewishGen compared to 3,219 hits in the 1901 census, most from Lancashire and Cumberland. (There, I knew he was from the proper side of the Pennines!) The locations and names definitely don't suggest Jewishness. I'll have a look if there is any evidence of Catholicism (sounds like CSI) - there's a large Catholic minority in Lancashire.
Evans, now, boyoh - they've got to be chapel. So - different primary schools seems the most likely explanation, and different religions or social circumstances the reason.
I'll have a look if there is any evidence of Catholicism (sounds like CSI) - there's a large Catholic minority in Lancashire.
Please do, because I find it very interesting. Also I find a lot of fan fics that has the Snapes as Catholic, so I have been wondering if it was possible.
I'm astonished to hear that because I've come across many posts by British HP fans who explained that Britain is rather secular, i.e. people might belong to a church but don't really act upon it.
Was it still different in the 1960s? Or do people attend confessional schools despite the fact that they ignore their religion at all other times?
The local Catholic secondary school was on the other side of the field behind our garden, and I can remember sitting on the top of their fence and wondering what they were taught that was different from the County High School for Girls - all I knew (from my Latin teacher) is that they wrote AMDG (Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam?) at the top of their exam papers.
Back to the original question - I always thought Severus went to a Muggle primary, and was bullied and made unhappy there. That he and the Evans girls would have gone to different schools makes a lot of sense - thanks for explaining that this is typical for different religions. We don't get that so much in America.
I wonder, though - could you do the same analysis on the name "Prince" that you did on "Snape"? I don't have access to these old British census records, so I tried a modern-day online phonebook and got tons of "Princes" in the Leeds area-
(and I do realize I'm wildly off topic now. Sorry! I'll stop-)