Hello, everyone, and welcome to your first lesson in Muggle Studies!

I am Professor Sofia
Castillo. I am a half-blood, with my mother being a Muggle, so I grew up with a hand in both
worlds, and my parents were very careful to teach me about both. They chose to send me to
Muggle high school, but I attended private wizarding summer camps to ensure I was learning
what I needed to in order to succeed. Once I graduated from high school, I attended the
University of Roehampton, where I met the wonderful Professor Hackett in my third year. I
studied Anthropology, and after university, I pursued a career in International Aid and Cultural
Development. This allowed me to travel the world, visiting and studying in various countries, and
setting up aid programs.

In early 2015, Professor Hackett contacted me about coming to work with her at Hogwarts. After
finishing up my existing aid trip and talking it over with my colleagues, I decided that moving here
would be an exciting change! In May, I moved into the castle with my Maine Coon cat, and I am
really looking forward to getting to know all of you this year. Professor Hackett has since left this
course to pursue other educational avenues, though remains around the castle, so you just have
little old me for the course.

But thats enough about me, lets talk about the course. And about you. As third year students,
you are well aware of the expectations here at Hogwarts. However, to begin, lets discuss some
expectations, which are unique to this course.

First, and foremost, this course is for studying our non-magical (Muggle) counterparts, which are
our equals. This means that any assignment must maintain respect. Any derogatory terms will
not be tolerated, and assignments of that nature will receive a grade of 1%.

Our first year in Muggle Studies is going to discuss some ways to interact with Muggles, as well
as going through a bit of history and highlighting some of the more important contributions,
developments, and inventions that Muggles have made to better their own -- and in some cases
our own -- society. There are going to be a lot of dates to remember, so I highly suggest taking
notes throughout the lessons. If you decide to continue this course through to the following years,
we will be going more in-depth with certain subjects -- such as music and film.

Our essay grading rubric is as follows:

50% - Content. Actually completing the prompt, and focusing on the questions asked.

20% - Effort and organization of the essay.

20% - Correct information used in the essay.

10% - Grammar/spelling (LD and NES are exempt).

1% - Plagiarized or troll submissions.

Some of the essays in this course will be opinion pieces, but there will also be a few research
pieces done outside of class (off-site).

If you have a Learning Disability (LD) or are a Non-English Speaker (NES), please note so at the
top of your essays. This will exempt you from being graded on grammar and spelling.

And finally, our lesson layout for this year:

Week One - What To Expect This Year

 Week Two - Interacting with Muggles and Prehistoric Muggle Inventions

Week Three - B.C. Muggle Inventions

Week Four - First Millennium: 1st to 5th Century

Week Five - First Millennium: 6th to 10th Century & Mid-Term

Week Six - Second Millennium: 11th to 15th Century

Week Seven - Second Millennium: 16th to 18th Century

Week Eight - 1800 - 1900

Week Nine - 1900 - 2000's

Let's begin with a short discussion on what Muggles are.

What is a Muggle?
A Muggle is any person who does not possess Magical powers. Thats it. Nice and simple.
However, Muggles are also unable to use magical items, such as brooms and wands. If a
Muggle were to come across any magical objects, they would not be able to use it for its
intended magical purpose - though Muggles do use brooms for cleaning the floors in their
homes! Muggles are also unable to brew potions, even if they had access to all the ingredients.

As you learned back in Year One of History of Magic, Muggles and Magical folk once lived
together as equals. However, at some point, humans began to possess special abilities that
were linked to the creation of magic. Whether you believe the Uno Mas Theory, The Migration
Theory, or the Theory of Hocus Pocus is not important. What is important is that you understand
that, in the beginning, Muggles and Magical folk were considered equals. In all theories,
Muggles and wizards/witches lived together in cooperation.

At some point, however, certain humans began possessing magical abilities. The reasons why
are still being debated, but Jarvis Dearborn suggests that the schism has to do with natural
selection. Dearborn, who works for the Brussels Museum of Ancient Magical History, believes
that magical folk began to gradually adapt to their surroundings, whereas Muggles did not. While
this theory proposes that Muggles are genetically different from wizards/witches, it does not
suggest that they are inferior. Rather, it simply suggests that a variation exists, making Magical
folk uniquely able to react to their surroundings using their extraordinary powers.

Dearborn argues that this theory is proven by the Migration Theory of magical origination. Since
you have already learned about this, I will not go into detail. However, Dearborn theorizes that
the settlers who migrated west during the Descent of Blizz survived because they possessed
magical abilities. These abilities were activated when wizards/witches were distressed during
their migration, much like how magical abilities will reveal themselves to children when they are
overwhelmed by a situation.

It is important to note that, although Dearborn borrowed the term natural selection from the
Muggle scientist Charles Darwin, the theories are not the same.

Now that we know what Muggles are, we must consider our next question.

Why study Muggles?

Unfortunately, many wizards/witches sneer at the mention of studying Muggles. This attitude is
something that been difficult to combat. It is essential for our society to be rid of the notion that
Muggles are our inferiors, and are not worthy of the same respect as Magical folk.

Therefore, a good reason for studying Muggles is to understand how they manage in our world
without magic! It is quite amazing, if you think about it. We will have an opportunity to explore
this further in lesson 3, but I want you to consider for a moment all the ways in which you use
magic in your everyday life. Wizards/witches have a magical solution for almost everything, such
as transportation, cleaning, medicinal/healing purposes, entertainment, etc. Muggles have had
to come up with mundane solutions to all of the above (and more). You will soon learn that they
have done so in amazing and impressive ways!

Furthermore, we can benefit from collaboration with Muggles. However, in order for collaboration
to be possible, we must learn to respect Muggles as our equals and how to properly interact with
them. I am sure you are thinking that magic is the answer to everything. However, while it is
amazing, Muggles have made impressive progress without it.

That is all for this week. You have two assignments to complete - a short quiz and a introductory
essay.

See you next week!