[HPforGrownups] In Defense of Hagrid

[Magpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 143869

Steve:
All the other students including Neville
> seemed to eventual get on with the Hypogriphs and have no trouble at all.


Magpie:

I remember Neville being the student who is having trouble. Malfoy himself 
is fine until he says the wrong thing--and yes, that's his arrogance being 
the thing that gets him, but what he does is also totally normal for a kid. 
He's showing off.

I agree that Hagrid's trouble is that he doesn't really get what his job is 
and so is not really approaching it correctly--I don't think anyone has 
tried to claim any differently (at least not in a negative way).  I would 
not say that his problem is so much that he's missing the "care of" part 
because he's fine when it comes to caring for the animals (well...sort of, 
since he sees all animals as pets, even wild ones).

What he doesn't get--and I think the text has underlined this clearly--is 
that the class is about the students and not the magical creatures.  All the 
students--students who are not just extensions of himself. Like when Hagrid 
looks out on the students being dragged across the grass and burnt by the 
Skrewts (animals created by Hagrid to see what would happen) he smiles and 
says "they" are having a good time--they, Harry assumes, being the animals 
and not the students who are angry and miserable.

Just as Hagrid allows for the different personalities of the animals, it is 
his job to deal with the classful of students he gets--that's the main part 
of any teacher's job, isn't it?  Not showing off your animals or doing your 
own Potions well, but giving that information to the flawed, often reluctant 
students in your class, be they the ones pre-disposed to back you up even 
when they don't really agree with you, those with a chip on their shoulder 
or those who are openly challenging until you establish your authority as a 
teacher--they're not rare.  Hagrid, throughout the books, tends to see what 
he wants to see and not see what he doesn't want to see.  Harry does not 
have this ability, which is what makes the class stressful for him.

Hagrid may get this in the future and he may not, but I think the books have 
made it part of "who Hagrid is" to have trouble with it so he may not any 
more than Snape ever got over his biggest problems or Binns did.  They're 
all still teaching--you don't have to be perfect.  Canon says Hagrid has a 
real way with animals and can be a good friend to children--he can also be 
trouble to them.  It has not shown him being a natural teacher or authority 
figure. He usually doesn't relate to Harry that way.  His personality 
outside of class bleeds over to his class, just as Snape's does. He's got 
this funny thing about animals and kids often have to help him with his 
problems.

a_svirn:
This is not an accurate account of Hagrid's first lesson.

Magpie:

You're right.  Hagrid should not be judged on the parts of his class that 
didn't go well.  Hagrid's class was a resounding success that lasted fifteen 
minutes and ended with his students shaken, crying or bleeding--but that's 
no concern of the teacher's. The fact that Hagrid is continually described 
as a bit mental about animals and this wasn't the first time he sent a kid 
to the infirmary or the last time he sent kids running for cover and that 
the text outright says how much better the class is with a different teacher 
certainly could not at all suggest that Hagrid did anything wrong that first 
day when he brought the herd advanced deadly animals and the kid with the 
big house we don't like got hurt.  No one could possibly have forseen that.

Really, Malfoy should have been expelled for ruining Hagrid's first day as 
teacher.

-m