Teaching methods (was Umbridge and Harry's Temptations)

[javalorum]

No: HPFGUIDX 120017



I only looked into Ootp regarding teaching methods at Hogwards. Does 
anyone else think this school has pretty low standard of teaching? 
Every class, the teacher just shows up, and says "read the books" 
(Umbridge, Trelawney) or "read my instructions and do it" (Snape). It 
seems Binns is the only one that talks to the entire class during his 
class. I know Umbridge is not meant to be a good teacher. But of all 
the classes shown in detail, none has much teacher's involvement. At 
most they'll do is walk around and answer individual questions, as if 
the entire school day is a big lab or tutor class. I kind of wonder 
how much the students can really get out of there. Is magic that 
different from normal science and arts, that all students need is 
memorization (for theory) and intuition (for practice)? Snape never 
explains what Occlumency is, how it works and how you're supposed to 
block it ("clear your mind" just doesn't seem enough). In his own 
class he never explains what each ingredient is suppose to do, and 
how they react to each other either. Even university level chemistry 
is not this hard. Other teachers probably don't do it that way, but 
then again, in book 5, with the exception of Grubbly-Plank and 
Hagrid, we don't really see them in action (teaching) much.

Java

> > Alla:
> > 
> > I completely agree that Harry never practiced enough, but what I 
am 
> > getting it is - I am not sure that practising "clearing" your 
mind 
> > equals "practising Occlumency" Am I being confusing? And I am not 
> > sure that Snape's only function was to check up on how Harry was 
> > progressing. If lessons were THAT simple, surely Dumbledore could 
> > have find  someone else to check on Hary's progressing , who 
maybe 
> > knows Occlumency, but not as good at it as Snape is.
> > 
> > I think I am going back again to speculation that something VITAL 
> > was missing in Snape's instructions.
> > 
> > So, what was my original point of this discussion? Oh, yes 
> > Dumbledore's warning was too late and not sufficient. IMO, he 
could 
> > have written a letter to Harry explaining about possibility of 
> false 
> > visions, but of course then we would not have a story. Just my 
> > opinion.