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athousanderrorsvia http://ift.tt/2pJqHOP:
kippurbird:
ceescedasticity:
caecilius-est-pater:
crowtoed:
omgthatdress:
breeze-y:
cwnerd12:
A northern school, a southern school, a historically Black school, a Native school, and a Spanish missionary school on the west coast.
Or just something that fits in with American history.
as a side, I also think Canada would have at least four: one in Québec where everything is taught primarily in French (it serves the Acadian population in the Maritimes too, but anyone can attend the school so long as they’re fluent); one in Ontario (serves everything east of Manitoba); one on the west coast (either in the forests in BC or in the Rockies); and one in the northern territories, on one of the shitload of islands.
All the schools would look like the railroad hotels, bc those are the closest things we have to castles here. The one in the territories looks like Château Montebello though.
(Saskatchewan gets nothing bc it’s flat where are you supposed to hide a school behind corn?!?!)
yeeeeeeees
Up until the 1870s, wizarding schools in North America were small, insular, and devoted to a particular cultural group. During the 18th century, New York City alone had 4 schools: The old Dutch Haardhuis (steadily losing popularity), the fancy new British school that met in across the street from St. Paul’s, the Swedish school consisting of only 3 students and their tutor, and the secret door in the Bowery which led (if you knocked three times and threw a pinch of ashes into a barrel) to where slaves and black freedmen learned magic at night.
Americans come from varied experiences, varied backgrounds, and no one school can service them all. Besides, the agrarian year would have prevented most magical kids from leaving home long-term. Also immigrant wizards would have brought the culture they tried to blend in with: A French Catholic from Maine wouldn’t want to go to school with a Spanish Floridian or Pennsylvania Dutch. I don’t care what anyone says about international magic cooperation.
I think with the advent of the latter industrial revolution post-Civil War and the attitudes of nativism and cultural assimilation, particularly towards immigrants, the American magical community would have consolidated into at least 5 major schools. I headcanon Ilvermorny, a school in New Orleans, Area 51 (established post-WWII as a technomancy school. WIZARDS IN SPAAAACE), the Bermuda Triangle (who offer course loads in Spanish, French, and English), and a school in Santa Cruz, CA (almost as old as Ilvermorny) not-so cunningly disguised as a Mystery Spot.
There are still small schools and insular communities. One community of wizards in Illinois got away with appearing un-charmed for 103 years before the US wizarding government stepped in. Their non-maj neighbors assumed they were a religious sect because of the weird clothes and antiquated technology. Both the Japanese and Chinese schools of magic opened remote campuses on the West Coast, accessible by mirror, to allow immigrant wizards a well-rounded education.
Indigenous North Americans, in general, do not having wizarding schools in the sense of Rowling and Ilvermorny. They keep their traditions and magical arts to themselves. Removing children from their community and lands is counterproductive. With few exceptions (most distinguished being the schools of the Anasazi and Iroquois Confederacies) indigenous wizards were taught at home, by their own people. Groups would meet at yearly gatherings to exchange news, trade, and information. One such notable indigenous wizarding rendezvous is the yearly event at the Straits of Mackinac, held for thousands of years where Lake Michigan and Lake Huron meet- hidden from view thanks to the Mackinac Bridge.
But yes, the Americas are too big, too varied, too mixed an experience to have one narrative, one school, and well… one writer.
(Sorry for getting carried away, I was having a storm of a headcanon session post-Ilvermorny. I’m mixed race indigenous, so I had some gripes…)
Santa Cruz school headcanons because it’s the first time I’ve ever seen my hometown mentioned online and wow a wizarding school here makes sense.
First of all: nobody notices magic. You’d think they would, but you’ve never lived here. You could walk down the main street in downtown Santa Cruz doing magic in broad daylight and people would just throw change at you and think you were one of the less weird buskers they’d ever seen there. You can talk openly about spells and such and people will just roll their eyes and mutter “hippies…” There’s no Diagon Alley - all magic shops are open to the public (there are at least three that I can think of, and that’s not a headcanon, that’s within a 10 minute drive from my house). Wizards think it’s kind of funny when they see muggles buying magic items with no idea what they do, or to use in made up “spiritual rituals”, but what can you do. Lots of shops actually make extra money by stocking lots of useless crystals and incense to sell to muggle hippies. Small time healers set up shop as alternative medicine clinics and use their magic to heal wizards and muggles alike.
The magic and magical community is heavily influenced by Latin American magic. Students learn potions with eye of newt and sempasuchil. Every corner store sells handmade magical pinatas.
Speaking of the Mystery Spot, all the weird stuff surrounding it is because of the effects of the powerful magic hiding the school. Wizards worked for years to try to correct it, but after muggles turned it into a tourist attraction, they decided just to leave it. Despite it being banned, students love to mess with tour groups by making random things float/disappear/etc. The tour guides all know what’s really going on (they’re mostly squibs and muggles married to wizards) so they can cover for it. Mystery Spot bumper stickers are extremely popular (the Mystery Spot has these bright black and yellow bumper stickers that are kind of iconic and A Thing here) and students trade them around like contraband, trying to get enough to cut up and spell new sentences, or paper the walls of their rooms, or cover random objects in. Having lots of stickers is a mark of pride.
Students study basically the same subjects, but there are no houses - it’s broken up by dorms, which are randomly assigned. They don’t officially compete with points or anything because blah blah fostering a sense of community, but that actually just makes the rivalries more intense. Along with Quidditch, students compete in muggle sports against local muggle middle and high schools. They aren’t the weirdest team competing. After finishing school, lots of students attend the local muggle college to continue their education and “learn about muggle culture” (ie smoke pot on the beach). Whenever muggles ask students where they go to school, they just say “private school” and the muggles go “ah, that explains it”.
Got a little carried away with this too…
There’s a surviving small school usually somewhere in the Upper Midwest (it moves around every few years) founded by immigrant Scandanavian Muggle-borns who wanted to build the anti-Durmstrang. (All Scandanavian Muggle-borns hate Durmstrang. Historically the small school for Scandanavian Muggle-borns had to be hidden in Greenland because trashing the Muggle-born school was a favorite Christmas break activity at Pureblood Asshole Magnet School.) They still have a magical compass created by their founders which supposedly indicates how far the school is from Durmstrang. Any movement towards prompts feverish reexamination of policy.
Apnevinduer accepts students of any blood status and tries to maintain a mix, is tuition-free and committed to waiving fees for any student who can’t pay them (because Durmstrang is for rich people), seeks out students and faculty from any available magical tradition that is willing to play nicely with the others, and has a special course of academic-and-theory study for Squibs and Muggle stepchildren of wizards (although they have to admit those kids will frequently get more out of just going to Muggle school). They strongly encourage students to do a year of Muggle education, and tend to get fined for secrecy violations every few years.
It’s small and weird and generally agreed not to be the most academically rigorous because it’s too busy rewriting its curriculum and bylaws to avoid having too many Old Traditions, and it doesn’t always implement its ideals perfectly. But its students are proud to go there (despite the compass’s disapproval of school pride).
Honestly I think that there’s a big wizarding community in Los Angeles that’s also not even bothering to hide. I mean look at Hollywood. If that’s not crawling with wizards I’ll eat a bag of Bertie Botts without complaining.
(Your picture was not posted)
kippurbird:
ceescedasticity:
caecilius-est-pater:
crowtoed:
omgthatdress:
breeze-y:
cwnerd12:
A northern school, a southern school, a historically Black school, a Native school, and a Spanish missionary school on the west coast.
Or just something that fits in with American history.
as a side, I also think Canada would have at least four: one in Québec where everything is taught primarily in French (it serves the Acadian population in the Maritimes too, but anyone can attend the school so long as they’re fluent); one in Ontario (serves everything east of Manitoba); one on the west coast (either in the forests in BC or in the Rockies); and one in the northern territories, on one of the shitload of islands.
All the schools would look like the railroad hotels, bc those are the closest things we have to castles here. The one in the territories looks like Château Montebello though.
(Saskatchewan gets nothing bc it’s flat where are you supposed to hide a school behind corn?!?!)
yeeeeeeees
Up until the 1870s, wizarding schools in North America were small, insular, and devoted to a particular cultural group. During the 18th century, New York City alone had 4 schools: The old Dutch Haardhuis (steadily losing popularity), the fancy new British school that met in across the street from St. Paul’s, the Swedish school consisting of only 3 students and their tutor, and the secret door in the Bowery which led (if you knocked three times and threw a pinch of ashes into a barrel) to where slaves and black freedmen learned magic at night.
Americans come from varied experiences, varied backgrounds, and no one school can service them all. Besides, the agrarian year would have prevented most magical kids from leaving home long-term. Also immigrant wizards would have brought the culture they tried to blend in with: A French Catholic from Maine wouldn’t want to go to school with a Spanish Floridian or Pennsylvania Dutch. I don’t care what anyone says about international magic cooperation.
I think with the advent of the latter industrial revolution post-Civil War and the attitudes of nativism and cultural assimilation, particularly towards immigrants, the American magical community would have consolidated into at least 5 major schools. I headcanon Ilvermorny, a school in New Orleans, Area 51 (established post-WWII as a technomancy school. WIZARDS IN SPAAAACE), the Bermuda Triangle (who offer course loads in Spanish, French, and English), and a school in Santa Cruz, CA (almost as old as Ilvermorny) not-so cunningly disguised as a Mystery Spot.
There are still small schools and insular communities. One community of wizards in Illinois got away with appearing un-charmed for 103 years before the US wizarding government stepped in. Their non-maj neighbors assumed they were a religious sect because of the weird clothes and antiquated technology. Both the Japanese and Chinese schools of magic opened remote campuses on the West Coast, accessible by mirror, to allow immigrant wizards a well-rounded education.
Indigenous North Americans, in general, do not having wizarding schools in the sense of Rowling and Ilvermorny. They keep their traditions and magical arts to themselves. Removing children from their community and lands is counterproductive. With few exceptions (most distinguished being the schools of the Anasazi and Iroquois Confederacies) indigenous wizards were taught at home, by their own people. Groups would meet at yearly gatherings to exchange news, trade, and information. One such notable indigenous wizarding rendezvous is the yearly event at the Straits of Mackinac, held for thousands of years where Lake Michigan and Lake Huron meet- hidden from view thanks to the Mackinac Bridge.
But yes, the Americas are too big, too varied, too mixed an experience to have one narrative, one school, and well… one writer.
(Sorry for getting carried away, I was having a storm of a headcanon session post-Ilvermorny. I’m mixed race indigenous, so I had some gripes…)
Santa Cruz school headcanons because it’s the first time I’ve ever seen my hometown mentioned online and wow a wizarding school here makes sense.
First of all: nobody notices magic. You’d think they would, but you’ve never lived here. You could walk down the main street in downtown Santa Cruz doing magic in broad daylight and people would just throw change at you and think you were one of the less weird buskers they’d ever seen there. You can talk openly about spells and such and people will just roll their eyes and mutter “hippies…” There’s no Diagon Alley - all magic shops are open to the public (there are at least three that I can think of, and that’s not a headcanon, that’s within a 10 minute drive from my house). Wizards think it’s kind of funny when they see muggles buying magic items with no idea what they do, or to use in made up “spiritual rituals”, but what can you do. Lots of shops actually make extra money by stocking lots of useless crystals and incense to sell to muggle hippies. Small time healers set up shop as alternative medicine clinics and use their magic to heal wizards and muggles alike.
The magic and magical community is heavily influenced by Latin American magic. Students learn potions with eye of newt and sempasuchil. Every corner store sells handmade magical pinatas.
Speaking of the Mystery Spot, all the weird stuff surrounding it is because of the effects of the powerful magic hiding the school. Wizards worked for years to try to correct it, but after muggles turned it into a tourist attraction, they decided just to leave it. Despite it being banned, students love to mess with tour groups by making random things float/disappear/etc. The tour guides all know what’s really going on (they’re mostly squibs and muggles married to wizards) so they can cover for it. Mystery Spot bumper stickers are extremely popular (the Mystery Spot has these bright black and yellow bumper stickers that are kind of iconic and A Thing here) and students trade them around like contraband, trying to get enough to cut up and spell new sentences, or paper the walls of their rooms, or cover random objects in. Having lots of stickers is a mark of pride.
Students study basically the same subjects, but there are no houses - it’s broken up by dorms, which are randomly assigned. They don’t officially compete with points or anything because blah blah fostering a sense of community, but that actually just makes the rivalries more intense. Along with Quidditch, students compete in muggle sports against local muggle middle and high schools. They aren’t the weirdest team competing. After finishing school, lots of students attend the local muggle college to continue their education and “learn about muggle culture” (ie smoke pot on the beach). Whenever muggles ask students where they go to school, they just say “private school” and the muggles go “ah, that explains it”.
Got a little carried away with this too…
There’s a surviving small school usually somewhere in the Upper Midwest (it moves around every few years) founded by immigrant Scandanavian Muggle-borns who wanted to build the anti-Durmstrang. (All Scandanavian Muggle-borns hate Durmstrang. Historically the small school for Scandanavian Muggle-borns had to be hidden in Greenland because trashing the Muggle-born school was a favorite Christmas break activity at Pureblood Asshole Magnet School.) They still have a magical compass created by their founders which supposedly indicates how far the school is from Durmstrang. Any movement towards prompts feverish reexamination of policy.
Apnevinduer accepts students of any blood status and tries to maintain a mix, is tuition-free and committed to waiving fees for any student who can’t pay them (because Durmstrang is for rich people), seeks out students and faculty from any available magical tradition that is willing to play nicely with the others, and has a special course of academic-and-theory study for Squibs and Muggle stepchildren of wizards (although they have to admit those kids will frequently get more out of just going to Muggle school). They strongly encourage students to do a year of Muggle education, and tend to get fined for secrecy violations every few years.
It’s small and weird and generally agreed not to be the most academically rigorous because it’s too busy rewriting its curriculum and bylaws to avoid having too many Old Traditions, and it doesn’t always implement its ideals perfectly. But its students are proud to go there (despite the compass’s disapproval of school pride).
Honestly I think that there’s a big wizarding community in Los Angeles that’s also not even bothering to hide. I mean look at Hollywood. If that’s not crawling with wizards I’ll eat a bag of Bertie Botts without complaining.
(Your picture was not posted)
