Magical Quills (Was: Teachers' workload)

[nkafkafi]

No: HPFGUIDX 87016

> Carol: 
<snip>
One thing that does help, though, is that he and the other teachers
> don't teach every class every day. Most of them appear to meet 
twice a
> week. Let's say that Mondays through Thursdays are divided among his
> first through fifth year students and Fridays are devoted to his 
sixth
> and seventh year NEWT classes. If the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs 
have
> double Potions like the Gryffindors and Slytherins, that would be
> about five classes per day (except Fridays) and about forty to sixty
> papers to mark every night (assuming twenty students per double
> class). If I were Snape, I'd have to brew myself a potion to keep me
> awake and mentally alert! 
<snip>

Now Neri (back to the too-many-teaching-hours problem):
I would add that I can remember offhand at least three cases in OotP 
when Harry finds McGonagal out of class during normal teaching hours: 
once in her office when he is sent with a note from Umbridge (during 
the first DADA lesson), once in the teachers room when he skives out 
of History of Magic in order to take wounded Hedwig to Prof. Grubbly-
Plank, and a third time during career advice. So she doesn't seem to 
strain herself with too many classes. And what about Umbridge 
herself, who also seems to teach each house/year separately (no 
double classes) yet she still has time to inquisit Trelawney's and 
Hagrid's lessons, police the fireplace network, read the students' 
mail and scheme against DD. Well, I guess with her teaching style she 
could just leave her students alone in the class to read the stupid 
textbook, guarded by a two-way mirror or some other magical 
inspecting device. Perhaps she was always present only in Harry's 
classes, in hope to provoke him yet again. But I can't imagine 
McGonagal behaving like this.

Unless someone manages to give a reasonable explanation, I'm inclined 
to believe that JKR simply didn't think this through, which is 
perfectly fine by me. I never thought she has to get everything in 
the WW exactly right and consistent. This is our job.    

Neri