Snape, Hagrid and Animals

[va32h]

No: HPFGUIDX 143798

Leslie41 wrote:

> Truthfully, and this is not a dig in any way to the Hagrid 
> supporters, I actually wonder how many of them have kids of their 
> own.  

va32h:

I do have kids. Of my own (is there any other way to have kids?) And 
should they receive Hogwart's letters on their 11th birthday, I may be 
concerned about the quality of the teachers. As that is unlikely to 
happen, I am not inclined to fret about the quality of a fictional 
teacher at a fictional school of magic. 

Do any real-life teachers look to Harry Potter as a guidebook for 
classroom methods? Is there a science teacher out there 
saying "hmmm...that Hagrid has a good idea, bringing deadly animals to 
class, I think I'll bring a scorpion into my 4th grade science class 
and let it loose."

What if Hagrid is a bad teacher? How does that affect the central 
themes of the books? Is Voldemort going to be able to kill Harry and 
reign as an evil lord forever because of Hagrid's failure to properly 
teach the 5th years about bowtruckles?  Who knows, perhaps Voldemort's 
ultimate plan involves Blast Ended Skrewts and flobberworms, and 
Hagrid's lessons will ultimately save the day. Are we supposed to hate 
Hagrid, and not care what happens to him, because he's a bad teacher? 
Is Draco's injury supposed to make him more sympathetic? (if so, the 
author failed on both counts, as I neither dislike Hagrid more nor 
like Draco more after the Buckbeak incident). 

I don't necessarily agree that Hagrid is a terrible teacher, but even 
if he is --- what of it? That's the way the book was written, we can't 
go back and change it. 

va32h, who probably shouldn't even get involved in threads like this