Book Learning (Was A LONG TRAIN OF THOUGHT )

[Carol Bainbridge]

No: HPFGUIDX 43768

>Olivia wrote:
>
><< Professor Binns may give a very dry class in lecturing directly
>from his notes, but it's part of the curriculum and the students need
>to learn it. >>

catlady replied:

>I'm not at all sure that the students *do* need to learn it. This is
>about Muggle students taking California, US, and World History in
>school, not just about Hogwarts students taking Magical History. I
>think History is rather interesting, but it's only *useful* in terms
>of 'those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it", that
>is, learning from past examples what to do (or, at least, what not to
>do) now  -- for example, the Congressional debate on the declaration
>of war (okay, formally it was a resolution to give the President
>authority to order the armed forces to attack, but really it was a
>declaration of war) on Iraq in 1990 had speeches comparing the
>situation to the Pelopennesian War as reported by Thucydides and to
>the Vietnam War as embedded in personal memories.

I disagree.  This is a view of education as something that has this kind of 
pragmatic purpose.  Anyway, if history is taught as Binns teaches it, then 
yes, it does consist of little but memorizing dates.  However, it can be 
used to foster critical thinking skills (which one needs to think 
independently) as well as other things I won't go into since that really 
isn't the point here.

catlady
>And Binns' class teaches them *nothing* about past examples. Why was
>there a Werewolf Code of Conduct, how was it imposed, what were the
>results? All they do is memorize *dates*.

That's all we know about.  Perhaps Binns is trying to lay a foundation for 
later study that requires thought.  Personally, I rather doubt this to be 
the case as Binns is clearly drawn as one of the very dry, dull history 
teachers I'll bet many of us endured in school.  In any case, the fact that 
Binns is a bad teacher says nothing about the need for the 
subject.  Lockhart is a horrible DADA teacher, but we wouldn't say that  it 
shouldn't be taught.  Maybe we are bringing our attitudes towards history 
to our reading of HP and are therefore more willing to see the need for 
DADA than for Binn's history.  However, being a Muggle myself, I'm not sure 
exactly why history is taught at Hogwarts or what the students are supposed 
to get from it.  We aren't ever really told.  All we know is that Binns is 
extremely boring.

>Carol wrote:
>
><< Book learning alone doesn't necessarily lead to independent
>thinking. It's not until one thinks about that learning that it
>becomes true knowledge, knowledge that can lead to independent
>thought and "practical" use. >>

catlady answered:
>And Binns's memorized dates don't have enough meat on them for the
>students to *think* about them.

And I contend that this has more to do with teaching method than with 
course content.  Just like in real life.

>Carol wrote:
>  I had
>wondered why JKR stuck the House-elves subplot in book 4, which
>seemed to have quite a bit to deal with already. >>

catlady replied:
>JKR said in an interview that she didn't want to have a S.P.E.W.
>subplot, but Hermione insisted. The Goat Pad found
>http://www.cinescape.com/0/Editorial.asp?aff_id=0&this_cat=Books&actio
>n=page&obj_id=25917
>
>"Hermione gave me a lot of trouble!" laughed Rowling. "She was really
>misbehaving. She developed this big political conscience about the
>House elves. Well, she wanted to go her own way, and for two
>chapters, she just went wandering off. I just let her do it and then
>I scrapped two chapters and kept a few bits."

This is how writing works.  Sometimes characters take over and direct 
themselves.  That doesn't mean, though, that a writer has no control over 
the events in the books.  When JKR says "...for two chapters, [Hermione] 
just went wandering off.  I just let her do it and then I scrapped the two 
chapters and kept a few bits," she's no doubt referring to the exploratory 
process of writing.  But consider the revision.  She says she "scrapped two 
chapters and kept a few bits."  What made her keep those few bits?  I'd bet 
she kept them because they fit in with the themes of her series.  And then 
that house-elf subplot couldn't just be stuck in there unconnected to 
anything.  If it served no purpose at all, JKR, being the good writer she 
is, would certainly have scrapped it with the rest of those chapters she 
scrapped.

catlady said:
>As for slaves choosing to remain slaves, back in Message 37561, I
>recommended a Scientific American article about exactly that:
>http://www.sciam.com/2002/0402issue/0402bales.html

Well, as I said, there are connections to real life situations in the HP 
books.  JKR, I think, makes us think about them.


Carol Bainbridge
(kaityf at jorsm.com)

http://www.lcag.org