DADA instructors

[jodel at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 43763

Tamee asks (having pointed out that until Moody all the DADA instructors 
we've seen have been young);

>> Why aren't there any seasoned DADA teachers?  Were most who could have 
taught killed or driven mad during the war with Voldemort?  Do they feel that 
the DADA curriculum that the board of governors (?) would approve is a joke?  
Are they too busy seeking out Dark Wizards? <<

I suspect that we may be seeing a bias in action here. It may be difficult to 
find DADA instructors who are not also Dark wizards. This may be the chief 
reason that Snape is so contemptuous of the young DADA teachers we've seen so 
far. (He wasn't contemptuous of Moody, just wary about him). This contempt 
would be in character whether he actually wants the job or not. In fact this 
may be one of those subjects on which he and Dumbledore do not see eye to 
eye. It is also a probable reason why, if Snape DOES want the job, he will 
not get it.  There is no question that Snape is, or has been a Dark wizard.

I suggest that it is Dumbledore himself who refuses to have a Dark wizard 
teaching DADA to Hogwarts students. We know that the Dark Arts are not 
universally disaproved of in the WW. They are a respectable part of the 
curiculum at Durmstrang. We do not know whether they are taught at 
Beaubatons. We have never been told that the Dark Arts are illegal in their 
entirety, either. Only that cerain spells are, and that certain materials 
associatede with certain Dark spells or Potions are closely regulated.

I will suggest further, that the elimination of the Dark Arts from the 
Hogwarts curiculum was an innovation which only came in when Dumbledore 
became Headmaster -- to universal aclaim after the Grindlewald affair. 
PROFESSOR Grindlewald, maybe? That would sure make a good reason why the 
whole British WW was willing to support him in it. Unfortunately, while there 
were damn good reasons to take this stance, a lot of this support was largely 
due to overwhelming relief at a disaster averted and fueled by a cult of 
personality. This solidarity couldn't and didn't last. 

This would also partially explain how Voldemort managed to get so far so 
quickly in his first rise. On the one hand, the British WW had now had nearly 
30 years to digest what was, after all, a rather sweeping fundamental change 
in their culture, and it stands to reason that a good many of them had 
decided thay didn't like it and had been better off in the first place. It 
also meant that the younger generation didn't have a solid grounding in the 
Dark Arts with which to counteract Voldemort's methods.

At Hogwarts, this means that any student who finished schooling prior to the 
Grindlewald affair who is a Dark Arts specialist would have actually been 
trained in the Dark Arts rather than merely how to defend themselves from 
them. And Dumbledore would rather not have any of these teaching at Hogwarts. 
He concieved of his DADA class (and he did create it. It's only a pity that 
he is bnot teaching it) as teaching students how to defend themselves 
agfainst the Dark Arts WITHOUT having to resort to them to do it. 
Consequently, all acceptable candidates for the post of DADA instructor are 
either young enough to have gotten their schooling after the Grindlewald era, 
or are personally known to Dumbledore. Moody is a personal friend that Albus 
can vouch for being no Dark wizard. 

-JOdel