Why so many unpopular teachers at Hogwarts? (Trelawney)

[cindysphynx]

No: HPFGUIDX 32954

Elizabeth wrote:

> Trelawney and Lockhart are tied for last place. Neither of them 
knows their
> subject *or* how to teach it.
> 

I would put Trelawney a few notches above Lockhart, and probably 
above Quirrell, too.

I wrote a post months ago explaining why I didn't like Lockhart and 
comparing him to Trelawney.  There are two main differences between 
them.  First, Trelawney really does have some amount of talent.  She 
has made two correct predictions, and she saw the Sirius twice (tea 
leaves and crystal ball), although she misinterpreted what she saw by 
believing it to be the Grim.  She made a few other correct 
predictions (like predicting Harry would be stabbed in the back and 
he would come into some money in GoF).  Lockhart, as we later learn, 
has no ability in his specialty at all and is a complete fraud.

Also, a big difference between Lockhart's class and Trelawney's class 
is that the kids actually do learn something in Divination:  they 
learn how to See.  She roams the classroom, helping the students 
attempt to See.  In Lockhart's class, in contrast, the students 
mostly listened to war stories.  The fact that Hermione has no 
patience or aptitude for Divination, or that the boys are dismissive 
of it, does not make Trelawney a poor teacher.  

I think Divination is probably about as difficult as 
Transfiguration.  True Seers are supposedly quite rare, whereas we've 
seen many of the adults perform feats of Transfiguration.  That 
suggests that Trelawney gets reasonable results with a very difficult 
subject, so I'd argue for putting Trelawney on the same rung as 
McGonagall.

Cindy