Order of Phoenix - - Binns -- Employment at Hogwarts

[fourfuries at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 25058

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., rainy_lilac at y... wrote:
> Frankly, Binns really annoys me.  
> > Dumbledore is really giving this class short shrift to have it 
> taught by an instructor who seems to cover nothing that happened > 
> more recently than several hundred years earlier (focusing mostly on
> > Goblin rebellions).  
> 
> God, I agree with this! I really have to wonder about how 
Dumbledore 
> makes some of his staffing decisions. IS it really that difficult 
to 
> find teachers at Hogwarts?? Considering that Wizards do not have 
> Universities, I would think that this would be very prestigious and 
> competitive. I could see the difficulty of filling the DADA 
position--
>  people likely feel it is cursed or something-- but I would imagine 
> that there would be many people who could admirably handle the 
> History of Magic and really do it justice.
> 
A read of your current news will tell you it is hard to get good 
teachers at any level at any time.  Historians are a particularly 
dificult bunch, since an exciting one may not have all the attention 
to detail that scholarship deserves, while a fastidiously minutiae-
conscious prof is almost bound to be boring.

Moreover, JKR is painting a picture of the Hogwarts experience that 
must resonate with a large part of her readership.  We have all had 
teachers that were deadly dull, or that no one could figure how they 
kept their jobs.  Binns is a perfect caricature of such a teacher, so 
stuck in routine that he forgot to fall over when he died. If we 
liked every character, the wizarding world would not be a very 
realistic place.

Finally, Hogwarts is a elementary/secondary school.  As such, it may 
not pay very much. MoM jobs undoubtedly pay more, and private affairs 
pay best, just as in the muggle world.  Our modern private schools in 
the U.S. pay less than public schools, though they still attract good 
teachers based on reputatuion and environment.


BTW, Percy is a self-important git.  His ultimate redemption may only 
come at the price of a horrible misjudgment.  Ambition is a dangerous 
thing if not balanced by good judgement.

4FR