Dumbledore's Staff Was Re McGonagall/Teachers

[Donna]

No: HPFGUIDX 81506

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "ellejir" <eberte at v...> wrote:
> Elle (me):
> Actually, Lockhart was *terrible* at performing the spells (think 
of 
> his woeful performance in dueling club encounter with Snape, his 
> inept attempt to repair Harry's broken arm and his inability to 
> control the pixies.)  His only real magical talent was in the area 
of 
> memory charms (as he himself admitted to Ron and Harry.)  
> It is a puzzle as to why DD would have hired such a buffoon. Was he 
> not aware that Lockhart was a fraud (if so, so much for all-knowing!
> Dumbledore), or was he trying to expose the students to all types 
of 
> people (including conceited idiots) as Sandy suggested? (Or perhaps 
> did JKR just think that CoS needed some more comic relief?)

Well, as to Lockhart being a competent teacher...Back when I was in 
school, I remember I had a couple of teachers that were certainly on 
a par with Lockhart, yet I did learn from them.  Let's face it, the 
books he wrote were very accurate descriptions of how monsters, etc. 
were defeated.  He only lied in the fact that he was the wizard who 
performed the feats of dering do.  Even Molly Weasly admitted he knew 
how to get rid of pests in his writing.

DD may have realized that by reading Lockhart's book the kids could 
learn some of what they needed to know. I do not think it was ever 
DD's intention to keep Lockhart more than one year.  It's just that 
it is difficult to find a teacher for that position.  Perhaps he was 
in negotiations or trying to convince Lupin to teach and Lupin being 
the person he is was simply refusing because of his werewolfism.  It 
took DD more than 1 year to convince him to become the DADA professor.

D