Dumbledore's Staff Was Re McGonagall/Teachers

[msbeadsley]

No: HPFGUIDX 81495

arcum wrote:
> Dumbledore has hired, in this order: Trelawney, Snape, Quirrell,
> Lockhart, Hagrid, Lupin, Crouch, and Firenze (Umbridge doesn't 
> count,though DD really should have hired someone...). Perhaps 
> interviewing and hiring teachers is one of his weaknesses?

Lockhart could have been an adequate teacher in spite of being a 
fraud, though. He knew the spells, in the academic sense of being 
able to go through the motions: he had at least witnessed and/or 
could talk about the things he said he had done. Compared with 
Umbridge's completely passive (-aggressive) "sit down, shut up, and 
read" method (which was also theory-based) of "teaching," Lockhart is 
exemplary. The fact Lockhart's "teaching" was nothing more than a 
forum for his ego is something that might not have become clear until 
he was actually at Hogwarts. Isn't it strange that there appear to be 
no guidelines around what "teaching" DADA consists of? Isn't it odd 
that there does not seem to be any equivalent to teaching 
certification in the WW? There are O.W.L. exams and N.E.W.T. exams, 
but no standard qualifications for the *teachers*!

Dumbledore has been letting Binns put students to sleep in History of 
Magic classes for *how* many years now? I wonder if a perusal of 
which classes have competent teachers might lead to any insight into 
what Dumbledore thinks the important subjects are (and I hope this 
hasn't been done before; or at least not recently)... 

Transfiguration is taught by McGonagall, an excellent teacher. Charms 
is taught by Professor Flitwick, who is exceedingly competent. 
Potions is taught by the utterly nasty but effective Professor Snape.
Astronomy is taught so efficiently by Professor Sinistra that we 
never see her.(Is she, as her name implies, sinister? Or just left-
handed?) Care of Magical Creatures is taught (mostly) by Hagrid.
Divination: Trelawny, Firenze (we already know what Dumbledore thinks 
of Divination; did he hire a new teacher just in order to Ministry-
proof Hogwarts against another assignee?). History of Magic is taught 
by a ghost who was boring even before that. Arithmancy is taught by 
Professor Vector, another cipher to readers. Herbology is taught by 
Professor Sprout, who is competent if uninspiring. Madame Hooch and 
Madame Pomfrey are adequate, if somewhat one-dimensional.

Does Dumbledore maintain the teaching staff (he's the headmaster and 
I don't see it as terribly relevant which ones he hired and which he 
merely retained) he thinks most appropriate in an academic sense, the 
one he thinks the students will learn most from in terms of 
enlightening them socially, or a bit of both? If we assume it's the 
first or the latter, then is it too far a stretch to wonder if 
Dumbledore actually wants to keep students ignorant of the history of 
the WW for some reason? And what's with the DADA teacher shortage, 
anyway? And isn't it also interesting that we have canon of 
Dumbledore saying he trusts Professor Snape, while we also appear to 
have canon (someone recalled JKR saying) that the reason Dumbledore 
hasn't indulged Professor Snape's ambition to teach DADA is that he's 
wary of what affect that might have on Snape? His trust is apparently 
tempered with caution.

Is there a teacher shortage in the WW to parallel the one I know is 
currently present in places in the RW? Those who feel a calling to 
teach and follow it in the RW face uphill battles over salaries and 
with administrators, overcrowding, and lack of parental support. Is 
JKR reflecting on her own teaching experience? One can't help but 
notice that she herself seemed to give up the classroom with some 
alacrity.

Sandy