A letter arrived by public-post owl addressed to "Mr. Neville Strongbottom, Editor, The Quibbler". Upon inspection it appeared to have been scribed via a Quick-Quotes quill set to a generic font, with no identifying features nor return address save for the signature -- Ms. Priscilla Grimm -- and a quite blurry photo that seemed to depict a rather lumpy, grey-haired woman waving from a rocking chair, surrounded by an alarming number of cats. Dear Mr. Strongbottom, I am not normally the sort of woman to write letters to the editor, but with recent changes in wizarding education in Britain, I feel compelled to speak out. Having been educated myself in the British system some fifty years ago, I consider myself a bit of an expert in these matters. It is with a great deal of confidence, therefore, that I express my opinion that the Ministry's New School is one of the best things to happen to Wizarding Britain in this century. I have lived through two major wizarding wars in my lifetime, as have we all of a certain age (although I understand you, Mr. Strongbottom, may have just squeaked out of the first one. However, my opinions of using one's mother's womb to dodge one's duty to Minister and country shall wait for another time.) It is thus with a great deal of approval that I view Minister Umbridge's leadership in keeping too much finely-honed power out of the hands of the school-educated public. I am sure I do not need to remind your readers that the perpetrators of the most recent unpleasantness -- the leaders on both sides of the conflict, mind you -- were educated in magic at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry under the old British system. Would such a brutal conflict have occurred if those former students had spent more of their formative years with their noses pressed safely into books, and less with their hands around their wands? I think not. The curriculum of the New School embraces this philosophy to ensure that such a thing will not happen again: By focusing on the fundamental theory of magic, it gives students the grounding they would need should they ever be deemed fit for positions of leadership in which daily practical magic might become necessary, while keeping them safe from the dangers and temptations of actual spells. In this way, Minister Umbridge in her infinite wisdom keeps these dangerous weapons away from a capricious public and in the hands of our leaders where they belong. Let those Beauxbatons girls blow France off the map; Wizarding Britain will remain safe under the watchful eye of our strong and benevolent Minister. Like a strict mother, she strives to keep her children safe from their own whims, with the tempting but dangerous garden shears of spellwork locked safely away in the top drawer of the Ministry, where only those she deems fit may get at them. Last year's unpleasantness over this SMEL business simply drives my point home, I'm sure you'll agree. In my lifetime the debate over our relationship to the Muggles has waxed and waned many times, but always the crux of the matter is the uneven balance of power which puts Muggles in danger because we can do things they can't; and us in danger because they fear us for it, and will go about setting us on fire to try to cope. But in this new era of the New School, we need fear such conflicts no more: although we remain magical, and thus special -- far more special than those boorish Muggles, I assure you -- by keeping magic out of Wizarding Education, Minister Umbridge in her great foresight leads us down a path in which each of us, Wizard and Muggle, has nothing to fear from the other, because we are all of us just the same. For these reasons, I offer my unreserved support to Minister Umbridge and her vision for Wizarding Britain: Wizards and Muggles alike kept safe from the dangers of magic. Sincerely, Priscilla Grimm (and Mr. Jelly, Whiskers, Mrs. Winkle, Mrs. Phipps, Mr. Pepperpants, Rumplefurskin, Alice Midge, Princess Pyjamabottom, Mr. Twelvetoes, Mrs. Billings, Stripey Moe, Spank, Sister Mary Whatsit, Mr. Grady-Au-Gratin and Babycake.)