Heads of Houses

[grey_wolf_c]

No: HPFGUIDX 42024

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "laureng58" <lauren58 at s...> wrote:
> Hi, I am apologizing in advance if this question has already been 
> addressed, but I didn't find it in the archives.
> 
> Does being the Head of a House carry with it any job 
> responsibilities for the teacher so assigned, or is it an honorary 
> title only?

The "Head of House" position in my own school/University system is 
called "year tutor" and most of the ones I've had (they change every 
year, since they're asigned to the year, not the house) act very much 
like McGonnagal does. And believe me, it's no honorary title. How they 
manage is beyond me, but they get to know their asigned students better 
than any other teacher, even if they don't seem to do any effort to get 
to know them directly. My guess is that they weed that information from 
a variety of sources, not the least among them would be the grades and 
historial, but also from a few more (although exactly where from only 
another teacher would know). From that point of view, McGonnagal and 
the rest "Heads" would indeed have responsabilities. They would be in 
charge, for example, of redirecting a student whose studies or actions 
have gone awry. They are also in charge of general well-being of their 
assigned students, and of giving out major punishments, like expulsion.
 
> Towards the end of GoF, when Harry asks for Mr. and Mrs. Diggory, he 
> is told that they are with Professor Sprout, because "
she was
> Head of Cedric's house, and knew him best." (p.693)
> 
> However, I see no other examples in the books of the teachers who 
> are the Heads of the Houses making any extra efforts to get to know 
> their own students. McGonagall is only seen in the Gryffindor common 
> room on one occasion, when she arrives to tell them to quit partying 
> and get to bed (PoA). She shows Harry some small favors, and Snape 
> blatantly favors the Slytherin students, but the Heads of the 
> Houses, like all the other teachers, eat with each other, have 
> bedrooms and offices that don't seem to be that near to the
> common rooms of their students, do not seem to act as guidance 
> counselors in the selection of elective courses, etc. With the 
> exception of having the capacity to expel one's own students, the 
> Head of a House doesn't seem to have any more responsibility, 
> relationship, or paternal/maternal feelings towards their charges 
> than any other teacher.

As I've said before, my school tutors managed to get to know all their 
students (with a few notable exceptions) without any need of mingling 
with them. They are, after all, teachers, and students get very nervous 
around teachers. They have other ways of learning such information 
(both magical and non-magical), so there's no need of mantaining a 
permanent occupation of the students life. On this trend, it is 
especially important to understand that there must *NOT* be paternal/
maternal feelings for those children, since in most cases it cn lead to 
unjust treatment of the students. For example, I think that many people 
would agree that Snape's treatment of Drtaco is wrong - teachers are 
not supposed to establish such relations with their students.

On the subject of counselling, I think that all of the heads will 
gladly give such help if asked, but will not go especifically to the 
common room to offer it. If a student needs a bit of orienting, they 
can always go toi the teachers, but most students I've known (including 
myself) won't use that help, for some "mystic" reason I've never been 
able to pin down.

> The one exception of which I am aware is towards the end of PoA, 
> when Lupin tells Harry that he has resigned because Snape "

> accidentally let slip that I am a werewolf this morning at 
> breakfast." (423) Of course, he might have meant that Snape told
> the other teachers at the teachers' table; however, earlier,
> Hagrid had said "Snape told all the Slytherins this
> mornin'
."
> The implication is that Snape was breakfasting with the Slytherin 
> students. This is something that we haven't actually seen; it
> seems that teachers all eat together and students eat only with 
> their housemates. (An exception to *this* being the Christmas dinner 
> in PoA where Dumbledore dispensed with separate tables and had the 
> dozen attendees sitting together, but this was due to the fact that 
> there were so few people that it seemed silly to sit at separate 
> tables and had nothing to do with who was in whose House.) Of course,
> breakfast at Hogwarts always seems to be very informal; still, that 
> division between teacher and student seems to hold up, even at 
> breakfast.

In this case, there is no need for Snape to be eating breakfast with 
them. As you've said, brakfast at Hogwarts is very informal, so at any 
rate, Snape couldn't have found *all* Slytherins there, and I don't 
think he would linger for hours so he could tell all of them. The most 
probable thing is that he "randomly" happened to pass near the table, 
and "accidently" told one of the slytherins (I'd put my money on Draco) 
about Lupin's werewolfism. That student would then pass on the news by 
the classical romour process.

> Now, with all the rereading I've been doing of all four books
> (I've been reading the series to my son, who is too young to read
> it on his own, and I have been trying to be prepared to discuss any 
> difficult parts with him) I am *really* enjoying Snape as a 
> character, but still, I would be very upset to see him as the only 
> Head of a House to take a personal interest in his students. From 
> what I've been reading in this listserv (I'm new here, can
> you tell?) most posters put Snape's age as mid-thirties and as
> one of the younger teachers at the school, which might ordinarily 
> make a teacher more accessible to his students. However, Snape's
> sadistic treatment of certain weak students, such as Neville, his 
> scary looks, and his almost constant bad temper make it really hard 
> to believe that any students would want to get to close to him, even 
> his favored Slytherins.
> 
> Any thoughts?
> 
> Lauren

Most posters put Snape at mid-30s because JKR told that in an interview 
that he was about 35 at the time of GoF (I'm not completely sure about 
that number, though. Check the Lexicon for more info at: 
http://www.i2k.com/~svderark/lexicon and look for Snape in the wizard 
world section)

You mention that he takes a personal interest, and think it's a good 
thing. I'm not so positive about that. I have found in my experience 
with diferent sorts of "Heads" (in my case, tutors), that those who 
take a personal approach to their students are the worst sort of heads. 
This point, however, is based solely in my own experience, so it's 
widely discussable.

Hope that helps,

Grey Wolf, who is back from a extended vacation, and scared at all the 
backlog of messages he's *not* going to be able to read