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Correspondence Course: Difference between revisions
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One step above ''"Do-It-Yourself [[For Dummies]]"'' but a long, cavernous leap below an actual education is the Correspondence School, an educational institute that forwards all its courses by mail.
Course offerings are many and varied. You'll be amazed by what you can learn by mail
Due to the distant and anonymous nature of these schools, they tend to be less than scrupulous; some may well be outright frauds. But every once in a while (well, more often in fictionland), the heroes discover a correspondence course that actually works—usually to the amazement of the professor teaching it!
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A more modern version of this are online courses, which replace the mailed lessons by lessons downloaded from a website. Since these can give legitimate diplomas (even for high school and under) and many are done by existing reputable schools, they don't default to a joke. That a character acquired skills this way can still be surprising.
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== Anime ==
* ''[[Ah! My Goddess]]'' once featured an exorcist named Shiho who was learning exorcism from a correspondence course.
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== Film ==
* A major plot point in ''[[Bedknobs and Broomsticks]]'': Eglantine learns all her magic from a correspondence course, but the school folds before she can learn the final and most important spell. During the first half of the movie, she hunts down the headmaster, Professor Emelius Browne, who, it turns out, doesn't know magic at all (and more importantly, ''doesn't know the final spell.'' The ''second'' half of the movie is spent recovering it and then [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|using it against the Nazis]]).
* This was used in the live action adaption of the ''[[Discworld]]'' novel, ''[[The Colour of Magic (film)|The Colour of Magic]]'', to close a plothole in the source material. In [[
* Both ''[[The Muppet Movie]]'' and ''[[The Great Muppet Caper]]'' feature this exchange:
{{quote|"Where did you learn to drive?"
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== Literature ==
* In ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'', Filch is a Squib (a non-wizard born of Wizard parents) who attempts to learn magic by following a correspondence course. Because of the nature of magic in the HP world, we know it's a fraud, but it's all played for laughs.
* The ''[[Discworld]]'' novel ''[[
* In [[P. G. Wodehouse]]'s short story "A Voice from the Past", Sacheverall Mulliner becomes a domineering Strong Man by taking a correspondence course on <s>scientific agriculture</s> developing an Iron Will.
** [[Jeeves and Wooster (novel)|Bertie Wooster]]'s analysis of [[Smug Snake]] Steggles also deserves mention: "Machiavelli could have taken his correspondence course."
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* The titular character in Jean Robinson's ''The Strange But Wonderful Cosmic Awareness of Duffy Moon'' attempted to make up for his perceived shortcomings by taking "Dr. Louis Flamel's Home Study Course in Cosmic Awareness". Due much more to his can-do nature and knowledge of gardening than to the course, he actually managed to start his own plant-service business and gain the respect of his aunt and uncle and the other kids in the neighborhood.
== Live
* In the first episode of ''[[The Drew Carey Show]]'', Drew is trying to make small talk with the guys in his carpool and sees an ad in one guy's newspaper - "Learn veterinary science through the mail!" "Gee, I'd hate to be the dog in that house."
* ''[[Mister Rogers' Neighborhood]]'': X the Owl took courses (and possibly graduated, eventually) from Owl Correspondence School, which had its own Fight Song.
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* In ''[[Command & Conquer]]: Generals'', if you defeat [[Morally-Ambiguous Doctorate|Dr. Thrax]] in the Generals Challenge, he'll say "[[Crowning Moment of Funny|Erm, perhaps I shouldn't have gotten my degree from a mail-order college]]."
==
* In ''[[Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures]]'', Wildy becomes a shaman though one of these. [http://www.missmab.com/Comics/Vol_162.php Link].
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{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Applied Phlebotinum]]
[[Category:School Tropes]]
▲[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Mail, Post and Parcel Tropes]]
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