Is Lupin For Real?

[lorelei3dg]

No: HPFGUIDX 125955


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "alshainofthenorth" 
<alshainofthenorth at y...> wrote:
> 
<snip>
> 
> Do you think Remus is portrayed realistically as a teacher, in 
terms 
> of his personality rather than knowledge? For plot reasons, he has 
to 
> be a good teacher, and JKR has written him as her pedagogic ideal. 
> From day one, he outdoes fabled fictional teachers like Mr Chips or 
> John Keating (of Dead Poets' Society) - not for him Hagrid's slow 
> tortuous journey of trial and error. While his suitcase 
> with "Professor R.J. Lupin" in peeling letters hints that it's not 
> his first teaching job, it's still circumstantial evidence.
> 
> But in the same breath JKR's described him as a person with 
profound 
> issues, as someone who desperately needs to be liked. He rates 
fairly 
> low on the scale of self-esteem and self-respect as well. How would 
> he deal with a situation where he'd have to disappoint his students?
> 
> As JKR writes his lessons, he doesn't seem to have any troubles 
with 
> upholding his authority, but we only see him with the third-year 
> Gryffindors. Where would he be if one substituted a bunch of 
hostile 
> seventh-year Slytherins who'd only be too happy to challenge him? 
Or -
>  horror of horrors - an over-large class in an inner-city state 
> school. Would he handle it just as well? I'm not sure, so I hope 
> someone could convince me. Is it just that he's done some growing 
up 
> from his easily cowed teenage self and only has one weak point 
> (making Dumbledore disappointed) left, or is he too good to be true?
> 
> Alshain
> (who if she could add to her Remus-centric fanfic now would add a 
> couple of diary entries where he wails about unruly classes)


Teacher weighing in here:
Interestingly, I recall in one of my education courses having a 
professor say that teachers are among the most insecure professionals 
out there, lol. The resulting discussion explored the ways that 
teaching forces us to be very reflective and introspective about our 
lessons - did this strategy work as well as I'd planned? If not, why 
not? What can I do better next time? - as a regular part of our jobs. 
Add in media attacks on incompetency in the educational system, and 
you end up with a lot of self-questioning in the profession. In that 
respect, I think Lupin fits in just fine with the rest of us neurotic 
personalities. :)

As far as wanting to be liked, some teachers function quite well not 
caring if they are liked or not, but my personal experience has 
confirmed that students will learn better if the teacher can make a 
personal connection with them. I don't need to be liked, but it makes 
for far fewer discipline problems, believe it or not. Maybe it's a 
matter of mutual respect, or of lessening the "us vs. them" 
mentality, but either way it works. 

Within that atmosphere, if a student disagrees or challenges my 
knowledge, I invite them to do the research and come back to me with 
facts supporting their position. If they have a valid point I 
acknowledge it. Now, maybe things would be different with a bunch of 
snarky Slytherins, but if they can't support their challenge, it 
seems as though they'd have to drop it. Would Lupin respond this way? 
Maybe - I could easily see him respecting their right to disagree and 
encouraging them to go that extra step and backing up their 
assertions with research.

I do feel that Lupin has matured out of the complete inaction seen in 
the Pensieve, and would be happy to have him as part of my teaching 
team in my RL school. :)

Lorel