Education Quotes in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

What kind of education does Harry receive at Hogwarts? What does he learn to do, what skills does he hone? Do you consider learning everything there is to know about Voldemort "education"?

Hermione is one intense cookie when it comes to school, but that's why she's the best in her year, as Harry tells Slughorn. What does her feverish desire to learn and excel tell us about Hermione? Does she only care about grades, or is she concerned about learning too? How do Ron, Hermione, and Harry's approaches to school differ?

Why does Harry want to become an Auror? We all know the feeling of what it's like to get a bad grade, but Harry hasn't gotten a bad grade, he just hasn't gotten the best grade needed in order to advance. We think Professor McGonagall is pretty awesome for mentoring and advising Harry to continue his path toward becoming an Auror.

Draco does have a point here; school seems irrelevant when one considers the Dark Lord's powers and potential harm. What are the Hogwarts students learning, exactly, and is all of Slytherin in support of Voldemort? Are there seriously people aside from Draco who want to fight for Voldemort? Why doesn't anyone around Draco say, "Yeah, but the Dark Lord isn't going to take over"? Has Draco charmed his friends into being supporters?

Oh silly Ron, with great privileges come great responsibilities. And those responsibilities happen to be in the form of heaps of difficult homework, stressful Apparition classes, and girl trouble.

You'd think Harry would have learned by now not to tamper with any book belonging to someone else (think back to Book 2), but "the Half-Blood Prince" is a kind of catchy, exciting name. We kind of don't blame him for wanting to know more. If the Half-Blood Prince had taken the time and effort to write his name in his book and to make sure no one else would mistake it for theirs, why has it been left so carelessly behind in Potions class? You'd think that someone calling himself "the Half-Blood Prince" would have wanted to keep that book.

Why did Voldemort feel at home at Hogwarts? What kind of home had he known before? It's always fun to be really good at something, and if Voldemort had really been such a great wizard at a young age, that would have made him a Big Man On Campus (BMOC). He and Harry have that in common.

Now that we think about it, why has Dumbledore remained at Hogwarts? What is the appeal of teaching? Dumbledore, like Harry, seems uninterested in fame or money. He seeks to produce leaders who will affect the Wizarding community for the better.

Oh, snap. Dumbledore sasses Voldemort. But he does so in the most polite way. Notice how, as Voldemort asks for a teaching position at Hogwarts, Dumbledore never raises his voice or gets overly emotional. He remains rational. He treats Voldemort with the respect he would treat any guest, and yet, he doesn't forget his role as teacher. He tries to teach Voldemort in this moment, which tells us that he still has hope that Voldemort might come around.

We get a good chuckle out of the fact that Harry, a great and brave wizard in his own right, still has to practice and do his homework. He has to put his pants on one leg at a time, just like the rest of us.