Defense of Hagrid, Hagrid's Teaching, Flobberworms, etc.(long)

[darrin_burnett]

No: HPFGUIDX 40358

Jenny wrote:
> 
> It is inappropriate.  Would you have wanted to hear your teachers 
tell 
> you about their personal problems?  If you were a teacher, would 
you 
> have accepted the help of your students when you knew they should 
have 
> been doing their homework - or when you should have been taking 
care 
> of things yourself?  Why couldn't Hagrid have gone to the library 
to 
> research hippogriff trials?  Whether Harry and friends went to 
Hagrid 
> or not, he shouldn't have told them as much as he did - Harry, 
> Hermione and Ron were only 13 at the time! 
>  
> One of my colleagues is constantly telling the students how tired 
he 
> is and how he didn't get enough sleep this night or that, how sick 
he 
> feels, blah blah blah.  *I* don't even want to hear it.  It's 
> unprofessional and inappropriate.    
> 


As unprofessional as: 

* Continually favoring your House over another house? Snape
* Threatening to kill one's pet if the assignment isn't done 
correctly? Snape
* Manipulating the rules so your House team wins at the school sport? 
McGonagall
* Purchasing the top-of-the-line broom for one player? McGonagall
* Lunching constantly with two students? Trelawney
* Insulting a 14-year-old girl with large teeth in front of her 
peers? Snape.
* Refusing to help same girl when she has obviously been cursed? Snape
* Turning a student into a ferret? Moody
* Undercutting another faculty member by assigning homework with the 
intended result of outing that faculty member as a member of a group 
targeted for bigotry? Snape
* Further undercutting that faculty member by flat-out revealing that 
secret?

Hagrid's crimes are:

* Actually assuming his students were mature enough to listen to his 
lessons instead of doing the exact opposite -- the ONE THING that 
sets off a Hippogriff.

* Taking his board of education's advice and stays with a tamer 
lesson.

* Accepting assistance OFFERED by students in a case where his pet is 
to be put to sleep.

* Drinking during his OFF HOURS. Quits drinking for the evening as 
soon as a student chastises him about it.

* Being friends with three students who he knew prior to being a 
teacher -- and he's known Harry really since he was a baby -- even 
though there is no evidence that these three get any extra breaks in 
class.

* Speaking with a reporter in good faith and refusing to speak bad 
about a student, even though that is obviously what the reporter 
wants.

By the standard you've set, there are lots of teachers who should be 
canned.

Oh, and I cover education issues for a newspaper. Most states have at 
least a two-year probationary period. Given that we've seen rapid 
improvement from Hagrid in just 18 months, maybe he's going to be OK.

> 
> I never said Hagrid should have put his hands on Draco and I never 
> said that Karkaroff deserved to get slammed up against a tree.  
What I 
> meant, though, is that Hagrid could have been much stricter with 
Draco 
> and certainly could have made a good case (with all of his 
Gryffindor 
> students to back him as witnesses, I'm sure) against Draco's 
behavior.  

Punish a student who has just been the victim of a classroom 
accident? Well, perhaps he should at least take him to the infirmary 
first.


Darrin 
-- Thinks all the Snape supporters should have to be in his class for 
one hour while wearing a Gryffindor robe.