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

[marinafrants]

No: HPFGUIDX 40363

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "darrin_burnett" <bard7696 at a...> wrote:
> Jenny wrote:
> > 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?

To which list, I would also add Snape using one of Rita Skeeter's 
slanderous articles to humiliate Harry in class, and Trelawney 
making bogus predictions of death to frighten students.  Hagrid, for 
all his flaws, is far from being the most unprofessional teacher at 
the school.  And Hagrid, at least, is genuinely trying his best and 
improves with experience, which is more than can be said for either 
Snape or Trelawney.  With Trelawney one could at least claim that 
she's a crank who genuinely believes her own blather.  But Snape 
knows exactly what he's doing; his classroom misconduct is 
deliberate, and unlikely to ever get any better.  I love Snape and 
am fairly indifferent to Hagrid, but if they were both teaching at a 
school *I* was in charge of, I know which one I'd can first.

Marina
rusalka at ix.netcom.com