Hagrid and Teachers at Hogwarts

[Indigo]

No: HPFGUIDX 23069

--- In HPforGrownups at y...,   <morgan_793 at y...> wrote:
> dorband at u... wrote:
> > > >
> > > > So, all of you teaching professionals out there - what about
> > >allowing  an unqualified instructor to instruct?  Plausible or
> > >troublesome?>
> 
> What seems less plausible to me than hiring Hagrid (Dumbledore being
> well aware of his qualifications to teach about magical creatures) 

I think insofar as Care of Magical Creatures goes, Hagrid is easily 
qualified.  He just has a preference for the big, hairy, scary 
type.   [My guess vis a vis his wand and umbrella though is that 
Dumbledore, believing Hagridd innocent, repaired the wand after it 
was broken and swore Hagridd to secrecy about that, and never to use 
magic except in emergencies, and only when unseen.  The wand may even 
be the umbrella's central shaft.] 

is the rapid turnover of the DADA instructors.  However, I concede the
> need for a device to introduce new characters integral to the plot 
of
> each novel.  From my perspective, an elite school like Hogwarts' 
ought
> to have its pick of the best wizards and witches rather than 
scraping
> the bottom of the barrel, as they appear to have to do all to 
often. 
> (At the very small [200 students] Honors college where I am, there 
are
> usually several dozen overqualified applicants for each vacancy.)  
> 
While I agree with you,  great courage, despite how many students are 
sorted into Gryffindor each year, is apparently not a sterling 
quality in post-graduate wizards and witches.

All the bravest witches and wizards died fighting Voldemort before 
his downfall. 

The DADA job has high turnover as a direct result of Voldemort.

Quirrell was a Voldie-thrall.
Lockhart was the only person Dumbledore could find WILLING to do the 
job. 
Remus was the only person Dumbledore could find WILLING to do the job.
Moody was a ringer for Voldemort.

Given that the wizarding community holds Voldemort in such abject 
esteem as to not even refer to him by anything but "You Know Who" 
and "He Who Must Not Be Named,"  I'm certain that nobody wants to go 
near a DADA position of any sort, especially not with Harry Potter on 
the premises, given his now four-year track record.

So while there probably are a good number of teachers who could take 
the DADA job, there are very few who want to.

There probably is a line out the door for the other school jobs, 
though.  Potions, Transfigurations, Herbology, Astronomy, Divination, 
Arithmancy...

And of those,  I could see Trelawney being replaced next since her 
ability at soothsaying and future-telling is spotty and unreliable at 
best.

It would seem prudent to have teachers for each year's set of 
courses, rather than making the same handful of teachers teach all 
seven years.

Harry and friends have had McGonnagall, Flitwick and Snape all along -
- which makes sense from a writer/reader standpoint as an author 
wants her readers to know, recognize and care about characters, but 
doesn't make for a realistic school environment.

Indigo
If I knew how to fight the DA, I'd go for the job...