McG / DD / Re: Why should Harry be expected to listen to anyone at H...

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 122861


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "phoenixgod2000" <jmrazo at h...> 
wrote:
 
Tonks:
> > McGonagall is Harry's teacher, not his parent. Yes, he has no 
> > parents, but things are tough all over. She is not his parent and 
> > it is not her job. Her job is to teach and as Head of House to 
make 
> > sure that the students are safe and well behaved.

Phoenixgod2000:
> Actually doesn't McGonagall call the house you get sorted into your 
> family at school?  I would think that would be even more important 
> for a student who's an orphan living with guardians who don't like 
> magic. So yeah, I think that McG is letting Harry down in a lot of 
> ways, probably at the behest of DD because she has exhibited 
concern 
> over harry in the past.

Geoff:
I don't know whether the situation has changed, but until I stopped 
teaching about 10 years ago, the UK legal position was that a teacher 
was "in loco parentis" (Latin=in the place of a parent).

We were effectively in the position of a parent from the moment the 
pupil crossed the school threshold in the morning to the moment they 
stepped outside it at the end of the day. This was part of the job of 
form tutors and Heads of Houses.

As a form tutor, I was expected to keep an eye on the doings of my 
form - their good deeds and their bad, to help and advise. When I 
first strated teaching, I had a great Head who really looked on 400 
boys as his family.