Number of teachers

[Amy Z]

No: HPFGUIDX 12910

Simon wrote:
 
> I decided that being generous on the number of teachers we could 
possibly
> get to around 20 at the head table. This is the start of year feast 
so most
> of them will be there, with the exception of Trelawney (and her 
foggy inner
> eye). Still no where near the 100 that you would need for a school 
that
> side, when they are mainly taught in class sizes of 10.

(sighing and dragging out a worn copy of "Hogwarts: A Mathematics of 
Course Scheduling")

Hermione here to say again that even if there were only 280 students, 
the usual low-end guess, 12 teachers would not be enough.  There are 
28 divisions of students: 4 houses x 7 years.  Some double up for 
certain classes, yielding, say, 20 groups.  One teacher simply cannot 
cover 20 sections of Transfiguration, or Potions, or any other class 
that every student takes every year, the way Muggles take English.  No 
matter how small Hogwarts is, JKR is taking some artistic license--or 
else McGonagall magically enables herself to teach 20 sections of 
Transfiguration each term without going nuts.  (We might have the 
explanation for Snape's chronic grumpiness here, come to think of it.)

Amy Z

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 "We could all have been killed--or worse, expelled."
                   -HP and the Philosopher's Stone 
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