# Did Hobbits Go To School?



## Kahmûl (Sep 13, 2003)

In the Shire did the Hobbits ever have to go to school?


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## Confusticated (Sep 13, 2003)

There might have been some sort of school, but I imagine it was nothing like most schools we have today. I imagine your average hobbit child spent all day eating, playing or helping parents with work. Some of Bilbo's relations knew how to read and write, but Sam was learning from Bilbo and not any school. I imagine most hobbits who did learn to read or write just learned them from some random hobbit they knew, on their own time. Education about history would have been passed along naturally, and mostly just be hobbit history that didn't stretch too far back. Other skills like tending crops or building things was probbaly just learned by experience on the hobbit's own time. I think any shcool they might have had would hardly be considered a school by most children today. For example you might have some guy teaching a small group of hobbit lads about building furnature, if this can be considered going to school? hehehe. But I imagine the old time a child would _have_ to go to school would be if their parents made them go learn something from the guy down the river or some such. 

Figuring that hobbits where just not educated as far as book smarts, and they seem not to have valued such a thing, it looks like there had to have been no school that they had to go to.


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## Turin (Sep 13, 2003)

They probably didn't have to go to school because they didn't have to get jobs like they did today, lucky hobbits.


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## Starbrow (Sep 13, 2003)

I know hobbit school may not be mentioned, but their is evidence of more formal education than just learning to read and write from a random hobbit. For example, Bilbo and Frodo seem fairly well educated since they were able to write an account of their adventures, compose poetry, etc. The ability to read and write seems to be widespread since hobbit children recognized the letter G on Gandalf's boxes of firecrackers, Dora Baggins wrote long letters to her relatives, and Hugo Bracegirdle was a great borrower of books. I'm not sure what form their schooling would take but it most have been somewhat structured to provide an education to a large number of the hobbit population.

Now I'm imagining a young hobbit woman facing several hobbit children squirming on wooden benches.


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## Estella Bolger (Sep 15, 2003)

That is an interesting question, and I wish I knew. But some know more then others so I think they are educated by their families. I think Frodo is smart through Bilbo, whereas Sam is not as bright like his father.


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## Starflower (Sep 23, 2003)

it might be that there was some form of home schooling going around, that the more educated hobbits would go around teaching children 


Starflower


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## Hirila (Oct 2, 2003)

Or that it all depends on where the hobbits lived.
I can imagin that the Brandybucks had some sort of school where the hobbit kids had to sit on wooden benches, learning about the winter, when the wolves came, and all that. 

And then I think that perhaps everywhere there was some sort of "school of gardening", or "school of craftmanship". There the kids learned about how an apple tree grows, and how knifes, forks and spades are made. Some basics for living in a rural area. Whereas in the "cities" like Buckland, the kids had to do more sophisticated stuff.

And then of course, when they chose a profession, like smith, farmer or cook, they learned it from their fathers/mothers or perhaps a friend of the family. 
They were quite lucky in those days... no bankers, lawyers, marketing managers, journalists... What a wonderful world.


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