Dumbledore and Teaching

Thu Jun 21 15:50:44 UTC 2001

No: HPFGUIDX 21264

>--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Rosmerta" <tmayor at m...> wrote:
>if he *is* the most powerful wizard we
> > see in the books, what's he doing running a boarding school-->

Jenny wrote:

>See, now, this bothers me a bit.  I think Dumbledore is in the best
>place possible.  Hogwarts, for one is no ordinary boarding school.
>It's considered, IIRC, one of the best schools of magic around.
>Also, what else could Dumbledore do that would be *better* than
>running an educational institution?  He not only makes sure the
>students there learn the most they can in the best possible way, but
>he is also protecting a large group of adolescents - the future of
>the wizarding world.

You know, if it wasn't for your ship preference, Jenny, I'd think we were HP 
fandom twins.  ;-)  Same favorite character... same views on most things...

Because of our perception that teachers are all talentless lugs, unfit to do 
anything beside be overpriced babysitters, we look at talented people who 
choose to go into education and write them off as hopeless eccentrics and 
dreaming fools.

Yet how do we know that McGonagall, Snape, Lupin, etc. aren't among the most 
powerful and talented witches and wizards of the world?  Some of the most 
talented and creative people I know in RL are teachers.  I was taught high 
school English and Spanish by two lawyers who'd passed the Michigan Bar 
before they realized they'd rather go into the classroom.  My eleventh grade 
chemistry teacher was more than halfway through medical school when he heard 
the call to the classroom... of course, we students all viciously said he 
flunked out when he gave us 4 hours of homework every night, but now that 
I'm a teacher I believe him.  My twelfth grade Advanced Placement Spanish 
teacher had a Ph.D in linguistics and spoke A DOZEN languages fluently (he 
used to tell us stories about dreaming in Arabic one night, and Japanese the 
next) and conversational in almost 20 others.  I know teachers here in 
Detroit who own their own businesses, teach college classes, sell real 
estate, and are part-time accountants and financial planners.

>I can't imagine that Dumbledore ever questions his choice to be a
>professor/headmaster.  I also think he is far more appreciated by the
>Hogwarts community than he would be by the MoM.

Jenny, I think only teachers understand this.  Nobody sane teaches for the 
money.  We teach because of the 1001 "little rewards" that we get.

Just like Hermione's mentoring relationship with McGonagall, Snape's with 
Draco, and Harry's with Dumbledore, real-life teachers form those kinds of 
mentorships with real-life kids.  Students talk to us about just about 
everything... it's humbling to have that kind of trust from a young person, 
that they'd share stuff with you that they're scared to tell their parents:  
"I'm scared of the dark... My uncle's coming to visit, but I don't like 
being around him... I think my girlfriend is pregnant--what should I do?"  
In just three short years of teaching kids in grades five through twelve, 
I've heard all of the above.

We teach because seeing confusion transformed into understanding on a young 
person's face is a thrill that can be compared to nothing else.  As an 
English teacher whose area of expertise is composition and creative writing, 
there are kids who I *know* I taught how to write fluent essays and creative 
forms of expression.... kids who came to my class not knowing how to read 
and write on grade level at all.  (TAG programs in inner-city schools are 
strange--bright kids, lots of previous educational gaps.)  My friends in 
business and engineering get bonuses and stock options... but over 90% of my 
students passed the MEAP writing test, a score that puts my kids on the top 
of the state.  Smart kids, of course--but the year before I took over our 
middle school's writing program, we were at 59%.

I say my friends can keep their bonuses and stock portfolios... I'm ensuring 
that businesses get qualified workers in the future.  Without me, Jenny, and 
the millions of others who teach, there wouldn't be any corporations at all!

I wonder if Snape feels the same way I do when all of the kids in his 
Potions class have prepared the concoction of the moment correctly--even 
Neville.

We teach because if we didn't, who would?

When I was a kid growing up relatively poor, I dreamed of having a career 
that would help change the world I lived in.  So lastly, I teach because 
when you think about it, next to parenting there is no more powerful 
influence that you can have on a person's life.

Dumbledore's no fool.  He has the right idea.  :-D   For what better way to 
fight ignorance, prejudice, cowardice, and all the other vices that aided 
Voldemort's first rise to power... than to capture the attention and respect 
of the youngest, help them "unlearn" erroneous beliefs (READ:  Draco 
Malfoy), then learn a new way?

>Give me Hogwarts any day!  Although as a teacher in the NYC public
>school system, I might be a bit biased here.

LOL!  You're in NYC?  We must talk... I say we both find enchanted owls and 
write proposals to Hogwarts about a new and expanded Muggle Studies 
curriculum... for which we know two *extremely* qualified instructors...

--Ebony (who *will* visit King's Cross Station while she is in the UK)

<>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <><
Ebony AKA AngieJ
ebonyink at hotmail.com

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