Trelawney as a teacher (was: Trelawney isn't a fraud)

[Pat]

No: HPFGUIDX 111995

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "hickengruendler" 
<hickengruendler at y...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Mike" <submarimon15 at y...> 
> wrote:
>  
> > 
> > Mike, replying to a bunch of the previous posts:
>  
> > 
> > Trelawney didn't actually make a prediction with the Sight for 
> > Umbridge. She was loathing her, so she said Umbridge was in 
grave 
> > peril in hopes to scare her.  
> 
> But Trelawney did more. She said, something dark was coming to get 
> Umbridge. And that's exactly what happened. Bane is literally 
dark. 
> The black centaur.
> 
[snip]
> 
> But I also think while she isn't a seer, JKR uses her (and Harry a 
> Ron's) fake prediction, to foreshadow what will happen later in 
the 
> books. That's why I am really interested in the Divination 
lessons. 
> Because they include some hints to the future. But of course, I 
> normally only realize them while rereading the scenes, already 
> knowing, what will happen.
> 
> Hickengruendler

Pat here:

You all make some interesting points about Trelawney.  Since it does 
seem that she actually made two prophecies that seem to have come 
true and that she's made some other comments about students and 
other teachers that have some truth to them, I think she probably is 
a seer.  But I think that McGonagall's and Hermione's assessments of 
divination are fairly accurate as well.

When I read things that Trelawney says, it's true that some of it is 
vague enough to fit someone in the class.  The students then make 
the connection.  But with Harry, she does seem to get it right quite 
a few times, even though he's thoroughly annoyed and dismisses it.  
Divination does seem to be very wooley.  And when things can't be 
documented and rationally analyzed, it makes it hard to know whether 
she is really a seer or just a lucky guesser.

I, too, think that JKR uses Trelawney to foreshadow coming events.  
I also think she may be using even "THE" prophecy as a bit of a red 
herring.  Dumbledore believes it and tells Harry so.  The Dept. of 
Mysteries believed it and the Order of the Phoenix believes in 
prophecies enough to set a guard to keep Voldemort from getting it 
(which lets us know that he also believes in prophecies).  But 
throughout the books, Dumbledore is also always telling Harry that 
our choices count for more than blood, or anything else.  That, to 
me, says that regardless of the prophecy, Harry will still have a 
choice in how he acts and reacts where Volemort is concerned.

So even though Trelawney may "see" something happening to someone, 
that person still has the choice when it comes right down to it.  
It's like one of my favorite Robert Frost poems, The Road Not 
Taken... on a walk, when you come to a fork in the road, you have a 
choice to take either one.  The one that you choose makes all the 
difference--not that there were two road to choose from.

Pat