Heads of House

[rainy_lilac at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 14330


Ah memories of the Putney School! I was a creative writing teacher 
there and dormparent there to about twenty thirteen year-olds. I 
cannot imagine one human being managing all of Gryffindor!! Yah!!! I 
cannot even imagine the teachers handling their course loads-- can you 
picture teaching Transfiguration to ALL four houses and ALL seven 
years??? Day in and day out??? Isn't that 28 classes of about twelve 
or so students each???

It must be magic. Enchanted paper grading quills or whatnot. No other 
way to accomplish the impossible! If I was not in earshot of my 
thirteen year old charges all night, they would ahve run wild without 
any hesitation. And they DID once, and Oh I will never forget that 
night. Thank god the night watchman and the head mistress had a great 
sense of humor.... We handled it well and I was voted favorite teacher 
for not making such a big deal of such a memorable event.

Enough... end of the day burn-out for me. I am enjoying the talk 
though!



--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Amy Z" <aiz24 at h...> wrote:
> ? wrote:
> 
> > >If Hogwarts is modeled on the normal English public school, the
> > >teachers who are heads of houses would sleep in the same tower 
> > >as
> > >their houses.  They're supposed to be available in case of 
trouble 
> > >or
> > >medical emergency.  Probably have a hidden door or something.
> 
> Rachel wrote:
> 
> > You know, that's a good point.  McGonagall seems to be there 
> > awfully quick when they're up late making noise, doesn't she?  But 
> > it says she comes through the portrait like everyone 
> > else......hmmm...  Being raised in the traditional American school 
> > system, I know nothing about boarding schools except that around 
> > here you had to be either very naughty or very wealthy to go to 
one.
> > 
> 
> From my experience teaching and dormparenting at a US boarding 
school 
> (where many of the students were both naughty and wealthy), yes, the 
> heads of house would have to be close by.  We didn't have any 
> prefects to help out, however.  Magic would also have been very 
> helpful; instead of dragging myself out of bed at 4 a.m. to do a bed 
> check (we did this a few times a year), I could've had some kind 
> of magical alarm ring in my room when a student was sneaking out.  
> Although if McGonagall and Snape have such techniques at their 
> disposal, they don't seem to be using them.  Maybe they'd just 
rather 
> not know.
> 
> We had a rotation system; I lived in an apartment in the dorm, but I 
> was on duty only one night in three; on duty nights I had to be in 
> the dorm from dinner til breakfast, but on the other nights I could 
be 
> out late, even all night (<g>...guess where I met my spouse?).  
> Otherwise dormparents would have had no lives of their own.  Maybe 
> Prof. Sinistra spells McGonagall now and then so she can get out of 
> Gryffindor Tower? 
> 
> Amy Z
> 
> ------------------------------------------------
>  Ern jerked the wheel so hard that a whole
>  farmhouse had to jump aside to avoid the bus.
>               -HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban
> ------------------------------------------------