reference
classes
instructors
textbooks
class schedules

essays
A Hogwarts Education: Well Rounded or Not?
Teachers and Curriculum: Would You Want This For Your Child?
Introduction to Muggle Studies
N.E.W.T.s and O.W.L.s: an explanation for non-British folks
Textbooks at Hogwarts
 

schedule of classes by year
Year 1:
classes:

• Defense Against the Dark Arts
• Potions
• Transfiguration
• History of Magic
• Charms
• Astronomy
• Herbology

Year 2
same classes as year 1
choose two additional classes for year 3 (during Easter holidays)
partial list:

Year 3
same classes as year 1, add two new subjects
June: finals (exams)

Year 4
same classes as year 3, begin preparing for O.W.L.s
June: finals (exams)

Year 5
same classes as year 3
June: Ordinary Wizarding Levels (O.W.L.s)

Year 6:
We won't know what the classes are for year 6 until that book comes out, although it is likely that sixth years begin taking more specialized, in-depth classes in their chosen fields.
June: finals (exams)

Year 7:
We won't know what the classes are for year 7 either, although it is likely that seventh years concentrate on takingclasses in their chosen fields.
June: Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests (N.E.W.T.s)

A Hogwarts Education:
Well Rounded or Not?
There is much we don't know about Wizarding education. 

• How do younger Wizards and Witches get educated in basic skills like reading and writing? 
• We see very little of this in the books, although obviously the kids coming into Hogwarts have been trained in some of these basic skills or they wouldn't be able to handle the classes they face at Hogwarts. Given the very medieval nature of the Wizarding World, I suggest that most kids are trained either by their parents in basic reading, writing, and math, or are trained in small one-room schools with a relatively few children and one teacher. This training would cover the basics and enough pre-magic theory to produce kids who can function in the Wizarding society.
• Do all children in the Wizarding World go to Hogwarts? Are there other, less prestigious schools in Britain?
• JKR says that Hogwarts is the only Wizarding school in Britain for kids eleven and up. Perhaps that means that kids who don't qualify for Hogwarts, people like Stan Shunpike for example, move immediately into trades where they become apprentices. They then learn the magic necessary for their station in life and that's about it. If that doesn't sound fair, remember that if they had more magical ability than that, they'd have been invited to come to Hogwarts. This fits in with a medieval-style culture, although it seems limiting to us.
• When do Hogwarts students learn the rest of what we consider to be essential parts of any curriculum, things like geography, literature, or foreign languages?
• We do know of quite a few classes Hogwarts does offer, and these courses do cover a lot of what we would call a well-rounded education. Neil Ward on HP4GU gives us this list of classes and what traditional subject areas they cover:
• Herbology = Botany/Gardening
• Care of Magical Creatures = Zoology/Veterinary Science
• Arithmancy = Arithmetic/Mathematics
• Potions = Chemistry/Cookery/Pharmacology
• Astronomy = (Astro)physics/Mathematics/Geography (of the Heavens)
• Charms = Latin/Drama/Kinetics
• DADA = Physical Education/Chemistry/Physics
• Divination = Mathematics/Psychology/Philosophy/Lunacy
• Ancient Runes = History/Logic/Mathematics/Linguistics
• Transfiguration = Physics/Biology (bioenergetics)/Physical Education
• History of Magic = History/Tolerance (of boredom)
• Quidditch = Physical Education/Driving Lessons [US: Driver's Ed]
• Muggle Studies = History/Sociology/Technology etc.
• Most of these subjects would include use of English Language in the writing of essays, but there are a few topics that don't seem to be covered much at all: Terrestrial Geography (it's no wonder that no one knows where anything is located), Modern Languages, English Lit, Art, Music and Sex Education spring to mind. Overall, the curriculum seems very science-heavy and could do with an injection from the creative arts. For example, I'd love to see the Sorting Hat coaching the Hogwarts' School Choir – that would have so much comic potential. 

Teachers and Curriculum:
Would You Want This For Your Child?
Academics at Hogwarts are a curious mix of practical experience and rote learning. While the curriculum is dictated to some extent by the Ministry of Magic (GF14), each instructor is given considerable leeway in exactly what they teach and how they go about it. To be perfectly frank, some of the instructors at Hogwarts are very poor teachers indeed and would never survive in a Muggle school. The education provided to the students at Hogwarts is scattered and incomplete in many areas. Students learn Potions and Transfiguration rigorously and completely, studying both the theory and implementation in a carefully planned way. On the other hand, their training in Defense Against the Dark Arts is very inconsistent, with at least one entire school year recently (1992-93) being taught with no practical lessons at all after the first day (CS), and their time in Care of Magical Creatures during 1993-5 seems to have been a complete waste, unless they plan to become flobberworm ranchers once they leave school (PA, GF).

The fact that teachers are allowed to be grossly unfair and vindictive in their treatment of students is another cause for concern. There seems to be no recourse for a student like Neville Longbottom, who is being consistently abused by his Potions teacher. He is expected to tough it out. Hogwarts classes are dangerous as well. In various activities planned as part of lessons, students are routinely injured or "damaged" in sometimes spectacular ways. Perhaps it is because of Madam Pomfrey's amazing ability to patch things together, regrow bones, and reattach noses makes that all these many accidents are not cause for more alarm. One can only imagine the reactions of parents to some of the tales their children bring home from school during holidays...