DADA post question

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 94355


> Carol wrote:
> But back to DADA--DD hires total incompetents rather than giving 
the 
> position to McGonagall, Snape, or Flitwick. We don't know of 
> anything the students learned from Quirrell; all they learned from 
> Lockhart was not to release Cornish Pixies into a classroom and 
how 
> *not* to defend yourself in a duel; and even Lupin only taught 
them 
> how to deal with a few minor Dark beings or creatures or however 
you 
> would classify hinkypunks and boggarts.
snip
> 
> Owlery2003 comments:
> Give Lupin and Moody/Crouch their due - they at least made an 
effort 
> to provide instruction/lessons that would be useful.
snip 
 
> Bookworm:
> Somewhere in PS/SS, someone (Hagrid, IIRC) said that Quirrell had 
> been on sabbatical. That tells me he was in the position of DADA 
> instructor for more that just one year, and that he cared enough 
> about his field to try to improve his skills/experience.
snip 
 Even Crouch!Moody was a 
> competent instructor even if he was the villain.  Remember that 
Fred 
> and George were excited about his class, and the students learned 
> about the dangerous spells they might have to defend against in 
the 
> future.

snip 
> So 3 of the 5 DADA instructors we have met were basically 
competent.  
> Also, we know that Snape has requested the job (Does he really 
want 
> it? 


Potioncat:
Just a question to think about as I go through the comments above, 
is it "Defence Against the Dark" Arts (That is defensive arts 
against the dark) or is it Defence Against the "Dark Arts." I think 
it is the former.

A big part of DADA does seem to be Magical Pest Control.  (Sort of 
the counterpart to CoMC) We see see Lockhart, Lupin and Snape 
address this issue.(pixies, boggarts and vampires)  Crouch/Moody is 
the only one who teaches them how to defend themselves from dark 
attacks, but that may be determined by year rather than by teacher. 
(Snape did too, via Lockhart, does that count?) And I just realized 
that Snape managed to teach DADA twice, didn't he?

We were also told that Quirrell was acting very differenly after he 
came back from sabbatical. So we don't know what he was like before.

It really is hard to understand what DD's attitude about DADA is.  
Some strong teachers, some weak teachers. As far as Umbridge goes:
I think DD may have conveniently not found a DADA teacher as a way 
of having the MoM imposed oversight he expected, right where he 
could watch it.

Potionat