The Harry Potter series is one of, if not the, most popular book series of all time. While the books and films are all released, the legacy of the series is still going strong with the fandom and the Broadway play. While Harry Potter might not seem like an old series, the first book was written in the mid-90s, and the books themselves are set in the 90s.
Because of this, there are things about the series and about the situation in the book that just wouldn’t fly today. As the wizarding school, Hogwarts is a place many fans would love to visit, but there are many things about it that feel outdated.
Only celebrating Christain holidays
Given that students at Hogwarts are from all over Great Britain and beyond, it doesn’t make a lot of sense that only Christian holidays like Easter and Christmas would be celebrated.
There isn’t much discussion of the religions of the wizarding world, but, if they do celebrate one religious Muggle tradition, they should also celebrate others. This definitely wouldn’t fly today.
The fact that students aren’t required to learn about Muggle society
Given that wizards and witches have to interact with Muggles often, it would make sense that all of them would need to know about Muggle society.
This would just be useful information to help them know how to do things like send mail or interact more normally with the Muggles they see. It should have been a required course to help wizards and witches better live around Muggles.
There’s no real chance to make up classes
In many ways, Hogwarts is rather medieval in how it handles education. There is really no room for children to fail. There’s no talk of being able to make up things like final exams. Harry isn't even able to retake an important O.W.L. exam after passing out.
It seems barbaric that students can’t even get help if they fail because of health issues. This is definitely something that more fans would question if the books were written today.
The Hogwarts House system
Over time, many fans have pointed out the issues with the Hogwarts House system and the sorting. While it can be fun to think about which Hogwarts house one would belong to, having only four houses and sorting students by personality is really strange.
The house system just encourages students to create cliques and fight with one another. It’s not a great way to promote unity, and the fact that there is an entire house associated with dark magic is really strange.
Students Aren’t taught any other important life skills
In many ways, Muggle-born students have advantages over pureblood students when it comes to life skills. Muggle-borns learn a lot of skills when they go to elementary school, and they know about the Muggle world and then the wizarding one.
The fact that Hogwarts doesn’t teach things like math skills, money management, and writing skills is very strange.
The lack of educational standards that professors had to meet
While the educational standards of the Hogwarts curriculum are rather odd in some ways, the way that Hogwarts professors are selected is even weirder.
While in Muggle schools and colleges, teachers and professors have to have degrees and pass requirements in order to teach, at Hogwarts it seems like a free for all. The fact that the professors don’t have to have any sort of training leads to some really horrible teaching.
There weren’t any classes on things like sociology or culture
Similar to the fact that Hogwarts didn’t require Muggle Studies courses, they also didn’t have any cultural classes about the wizarding world.
They at least offered a Muggle Studies course, but they didn’t even have humanities or psychology options. It’s important for a society to have its youth learn about politics and culture, so this seems like a big lack.
Those professors didn’t have much oversight with how they treated students
It’s already bad enough that the professors don’t have to have any skills or requirements in order to teach. But, what’s even worse is how much the professors can get away with in their treatment of the students.
There doesn’t seem to be many standards for things like grading fairly or how to interact with students. This leads to a lot of bullying and cruel behavior from the professors toward the students.
How dangerous it was
Something else about Hogwarts that wouldn’t fly under the radar today was just how dangerous the school was. While a lot of the most dangerous things that happened there were because of Voldemort, the school itself is not a safe place.
It’s surrounded by a forest full of dangerous creatures, has moving staircases, and a literal secret chamber that unleashed a monster. Overall, it just doesn’t seem like a good place to send children as young as eleven years old.
That being expelled means being basically forced out of the wizarding world
Another thing that doesn’t make sense about Hogwarts and also seems rather cruel is what happens when a student is expelled. It’s made clear through Hagrid’s backstory that when expelled a student has their wand broken. This means they aren’t legally allowed to do magic, and there’s no indication that they can ever get this privilege back.
The fact that there is no way to make amends and get a second chance is too harsh. Given that students as young as eleven can get expelled, it seems like the wizarding world needs to have more compassion.