That’s true, but when you put in all that time to produce a memory, you’re making something that can only be used by one person at a time, albeit an indefinite number of times. A video takes less time and money to reproduce, and can be watched by many people simultaneously.
I don’t think viewing a pensieve memory guarantees understanding of the contents. In canon, when Harry first viewed one, his reaction was essentially “what the hell is this?” A star pupil who puts their memories of their classes into a pensieve may not produce something that confers any more comprehension than a video of the lecture. You can’t ask a pensieve memory or a video questions when you’re confused.
That’s true, but when you put in all that time to produce a memory, you’re making something that can only be used by one person at a time, albeit an indefinite number of times. A video takes less time and money to reproduce, and can be watched by many people simultaneously....You can’t ask a pensieve memory or a video questions when you’re confused.
So you have multiple Pensieves and each student does a different memory at a time, and when they get confused they ask another student No different than books or ‘flipped’ classrooms.
Faster (at least in the movies, wasn’t a time-speedup implied?)
I don’t know, I’ve only watched a couple of them, but I’m pretty sure that it wasn’t in the books.
I think wizards can probably produce 3d sound and audio via illusions without needing pensieves anyway.
A pensieve puts you in the memory, so you can’t focus on something outside it, but I don’t think there’s anything that prevents you from zoning out or dozing off in someone else’s memory. Of course, in the books, everyone perusing a pensieve memory had enough reason to pay rapt attention that it wasn’t an issue.
I think wizards can probably produce 3d sound and audio via illusions without needing pensieves anyway.
To reuse the argument from silence which everyone is using on the pensieves: we don’t see the wizards produce 3D sound and audio via illusions for educational purposes despite the obvious utility in such classes as History of Magic, therefore they cannot.
We can produce 3D images now, and we don’t use them for education even in well funded private schools. Why would we? I disagree that there’s obvious utility in using such methods, I don’t think it’s very likely to improve students’ educations.
Our 3D images cost a fortune to program, for starters, but I can weaken the argument: they don’t produce any 2D images with sound either, and we certainly do that a ton.
They produce moving, talking paintings capable of carrying a conversation. The whole castle is full of them. A wizard painting probably could teach a class.
Also, at least some textbooks in canon contain moving illustrations, and unlike the paintings, we know those are mass produced, and at least one book in the forbidden section of the library in the first book could scream.
I believe newspapers also contain talking images, although I may be remembering movie canon for that.
The whole castle is full of them. A wizard painting probably could teach a class....and at least one book in the forbidden section of the library in the first book could scream.
I’m glad you’re coming around to my conspiracy theory! And let’s not forget that Voldemort’s diary could teach quite well, it seems.
I believe newspapers also contain talking images, although I may be remembering movie canon for that.
I don’t remember them talking; in any case, the photos are even more brainless than portraits.
If the schools are conspiring to keep elite education expensive, they’re not doing a very good job, seeing as the Weasleys managed to send all their numerous children to the most prestigious (and maybe only, it seemed like Rowling never really made up her mind) school in Britain, despite being poor.
Even if there are theoretically more effective ways to teach students, the students don’t want to lose the prestige of studying at an ancient university founded by some of the greatest wizards ever, where some of the best wizards in history have taught, and the professors don’t want to lose the prestige of being able to teach at said university.
If the schools are conspiring to keep elite education expensive, they’re not doing a very good job, seeing as the Weasleys managed to send all their numerous children to the most prestigious (and maybe only, it seemed like Rowling never really made up her mind) school in Britain, despite being poor.
The Weasleys aren’t a good example if that’s what you’re trying to show: they’re shown rendered poor and unable to replace Ron’s wand despite this being a known near-lethal danger and badly injurious to his studies; it’d be like breaking your glasses and your family being too poor to buy you replacements because school tuition has to be paid—anyone who told you that obviously your education can’t be expensive because you’re actually there...
the students don’t want to lose the prestige of studying at an ancient university founded by some of the greatest wizards ever, where some of the best wizards in history have taught, and the professors don’t want to lose the prestige of being able to teach at said university.
Yes, hence my original conspiracy theory comment: the incentives are there to preserve the status quo.
The Weasleys aren’t a good example if that’s what you’re trying to show: they’re shown rendered poor and unable to replace Ron’s wand despite this being a known near-lethal danger and badly injurious to his studies; it’d be like breaking your glasses and your family being too poor to buy you replacements because school tuition has to be paid—anyone who told you that obviously your education can’t be expensive because you’re actually there...
I don’t recall any mention in canon of Hogwarts even having tuition.
A family with only a single low pay government job for income generally can’t afford to put seven children through seven years of boarding school each. If Hogwarts had the tuition and board costs of top boarding schools in Britain, the Weasleys would be spending more than a hundred thousand pounds a year on the four children they’re putting through school simultaneously.
Considering they have a pretty captive market, if Hogwarts wanted to maximize revenues, they would probably have to be well outside the means of a low pay government employee to put seven kids through before they reached a point where they started losing more money due to lost students than they were making in increased revenue per student.
And following incentives to preserve a status quo doesn’t require a conspiracy. If the students and the faculty both don’t want something, nobody has to conspire to keep it from them.
In Canon, Dumbledore gives Tom Riddle a few galleons to pay for his books and school supplies first year, saying there’s a fund for that sort of thing. Basically implying the fund is only for books and school supplies, so tuition+room/board is free.
It’s a whole lot of man-hours to produce education the old-fashioned way too—think of how much of the economy education makes up.
That’s true, but when you put in all that time to produce a memory, you’re making something that can only be used by one person at a time, albeit an indefinite number of times. A video takes less time and money to reproduce, and can be watched by many people simultaneously.
I don’t think viewing a pensieve memory guarantees understanding of the contents. In canon, when Harry first viewed one, his reaction was essentially “what the hell is this?” A star pupil who puts their memories of their classes into a pensieve may not produce something that confers any more comprehension than a video of the lecture. You can’t ask a pensieve memory or a video questions when you’re confused.
So you have multiple Pensieves and each student does a different memory at a time, and when they get confused they ask another student No different than books or ‘flipped’ classrooms.
If the pensieve memories don’t confer greater understanding though, why not just use books instead? They’re cheaper.
Faster (at least in the movies, wasn’t a time-speedup implied?), 3D sound & audio, literally immersive, forced attention...
I don’t know, I’ve only watched a couple of them, but I’m pretty sure that it wasn’t in the books.
I think wizards can probably produce 3d sound and audio via illusions without needing pensieves anyway.
A pensieve puts you in the memory, so you can’t focus on something outside it, but I don’t think there’s anything that prevents you from zoning out or dozing off in someone else’s memory. Of course, in the books, everyone perusing a pensieve memory had enough reason to pay rapt attention that it wasn’t an issue.
To reuse the argument from silence which everyone is using on the pensieves: we don’t see the wizards produce 3D sound and audio via illusions for educational purposes despite the obvious utility in such classes as History of Magic, therefore they cannot.
We can produce 3D images now, and we don’t use them for education even in well funded private schools. Why would we? I disagree that there’s obvious utility in using such methods, I don’t think it’s very likely to improve students’ educations.
Our 3D images cost a fortune to program, for starters, but I can weaken the argument: they don’t produce any 2D images with sound either, and we certainly do that a ton.
They produce moving, talking paintings capable of carrying a conversation. The whole castle is full of them. A wizard painting probably could teach a class.
Also, at least some textbooks in canon contain moving illustrations, and unlike the paintings, we know those are mass produced, and at least one book in the forbidden section of the library in the first book could scream.
I believe newspapers also contain talking images, although I may be remembering movie canon for that.
I’m glad you’re coming around to my conspiracy theory! And let’s not forget that Voldemort’s diary could teach quite well, it seems.
I don’t remember them talking; in any case, the photos are even more brainless than portraits.
If the schools are conspiring to keep elite education expensive, they’re not doing a very good job, seeing as the Weasleys managed to send all their numerous children to the most prestigious (and maybe only, it seemed like Rowling never really made up her mind) school in Britain, despite being poor.
Even if there are theoretically more effective ways to teach students, the students don’t want to lose the prestige of studying at an ancient university founded by some of the greatest wizards ever, where some of the best wizards in history have taught, and the professors don’t want to lose the prestige of being able to teach at said university.
The Weasleys aren’t a good example if that’s what you’re trying to show: they’re shown rendered poor and unable to replace Ron’s wand despite this being a known near-lethal danger and badly injurious to his studies; it’d be like breaking your glasses and your family being too poor to buy you replacements because school tuition has to be paid—anyone who told you that obviously your education can’t be expensive because you’re actually there...
Yes, hence my original conspiracy theory comment: the incentives are there to preserve the status quo.
I don’t recall any mention in canon of Hogwarts even having tuition.
A family with only a single low pay government job for income generally can’t afford to put seven children through seven years of boarding school each. If Hogwarts had the tuition and board costs of top boarding schools in Britain, the Weasleys would be spending more than a hundred thousand pounds a year on the four children they’re putting through school simultaneously.
Considering they have a pretty captive market, if Hogwarts wanted to maximize revenues, they would probably have to be well outside the means of a low pay government employee to put seven kids through before they reached a point where they started losing more money due to lost students than they were making in increased revenue per student.
And following incentives to preserve a status quo doesn’t require a conspiracy. If the students and the faculty both don’t want something, nobody has to conspire to keep it from them.
In Canon, Dumbledore gives Tom Riddle a few galleons to pay for his books and school supplies first year, saying there’s a fund for that sort of thing. Basically implying the fund is only for books and school supplies, so tuition+room/board is free.