[HPforGrownups] Re: DADA's never-lasting teachers

[yr awen]

No: HPFGUIDX 43631

Gabrielle said:
I think Perhaps my point was lost. What I was really concerned about 
was the importance of DADA at Hogwarts. Potions and Transfiguration 
are no doubt difficult forms of magic, but DADA is as well. I would 
think that they could find some teacher that's more competent at 
Potions or Transfiguration, then a few of the DADA teachers we've 
seen. Is DADA not as important to the WW? It seems we often find 
wizards (cough cough FUDGE!) who would rather look the other way, 
than put up a defense. Is this something learned by experience at 
Hogwarts?<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Gabrielle's hit on something that's sort of subconsciously bugged me about the DADA position.

Up until Quirdemort (tee hee), there's some reason for the WW to be somewhat lax towards DADA; it's assumed, although obviously wrongly, that the Great Enemy has been destroyed and therefore there's no particular worry or need to stress the DADA element of the curriculum. Partly, this is inference because we don't know who Quirrell's predecessor in the DADA professorship is (or if we do, I can't remember who he/she was. Help?) Dumbledore, who is aware (dur) of Quirdemort, would have -- or should have -- taken steps to secure a much better DADA professor than Quirrell's eventual successor, but winds up Gilderoy Lockhart.

The thing that makes me nervous is that DADA will become a hugely important aspect of wizarding life as a rule for the course of the next three books, and it seems that the school is slowly (stress the slowly) moving in the direction of employing a competent teacher for the kids who are growing up in the shadow of Voldemort's threat. Still, in terms of the foundation the students have received thus far... Gilderoy Lockhart, who is blazingly incompetent? Remus Lupin, who is competent but impaired by his lycanthropy? Alastor Moody, who is competent but impaired by his paranoia, and the fact that he's been captured by Barty Crouch?

I would imagine that *Dumbledore* considers DADA to be an important part of the curriculum -- if he didn't, he wouldn't have gone through all that effort to get Lupin on staff. I think he's sensing the potential for Voldemort's return and is taking steps to prepare the students, but finds himself running up against the recalcitrance of the school board. This brings me to a question for the British contingent of the list: is the Board of Governors a fixture in public schools(that is, I guess, fee-paying boarding schools)? If so, do they exclusively control the hiring of new faculty, or do they take the Headmaster's suggestion and then vote on it? Or does the Headmaster/mistress exercise that power and deal with the board's furor later on?

I just realized I've been ending all my paragraphs with questions. Gah.

The presence of Gilderoy and the poor light in which JKR portrays the Hogwarts' governing board suggests that the board, at least at Hogwarts, is responsible for hiring, and the past hiring decisions with respect to the DADA professorship reflect their cavalier attitude toward the necessity for it. Dumbledore might have had to pull Impressive Important Wizard rank and get Lupin on staff, and do the same with Moody, who is generally thought of as being one card short of a full deck in the sanity department. I honestly can't see him tolerating Quirrell's obviously useless presence on the staff unless it was required of him by the people who allow him to be Headmaster in the first place.

Ultimately, though, my concern rests with the students in Harry's class, who have basically spent two of their four years listening to Quirrell stutter and Gilderoy ruthlessly aggrandize himself. With Lupin and pseudo-Moody, things appear to be looking up and by the time the mystery DADA femme-professor comes in, things will start getting really serious. In a good, academic sort of way, of course :-)

HF.


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