History at Hogwarts (was Re: Wizard Persecution )

[cubfanbudwoman]

No: HPFGUIDX 126060


Lupinlore:
> ...why does DD allow Binns to teach (although I realize we can
> ask that about a LOT of the Hogwarts faculty)? Perhaps because he 
> is under pressure from the Ministry to do so. The Ministry knows 
> that Binns only uses "approved" textbooks and covers "approved" 
> subjects. ...Meanwhile they are making sure that the dangerous 
> parts (from their POV) of Wizarding History, such as the details 
> of the Wizard/Muggle split, are never taught. 
<snip>
> Of course all this is probably bull and Binns is just a bad 
> professor that Albus keeps for whatever reasons he keeps bad 
> teachers.  But wouldn't it explain a lot, and be juicy besides, if 
> there are elements in the ministry bound and determined that the 
> dangerous facts of wizarding history never reach impressionable 
> ears?
 

SSSusan:
I certainly can't disprove your view, Lupinlore, but I do doubt it.  
DD has a history of sharing information with the Hogwarts kids that 
the Ministry would *not* approve of his sharing (how Cedric died, 
that Voldemort has come back) and of generally *doing* things of 
which the Ministry would not approve (allowing Lupin & Hagrid to 
teach, for instance).   

So my guess would be that Binns is just JKR's giving us a 
stereotypical boring history teacher, just as Madam Pince is a 
stereotypical severe & shushy librarian, just as Trelawney is a 
stereotypical daft & clueless "fortune-teller."  I've NO idea why DD 
allows Binns and Trelawney to teach if they're really not all that 
good, but I can't imagine that he would cave to Ministry pressure to 
teach a watered-down history curriculum, where important but 
upsetting facts have been removed to "protect" children's 
sensibilities.

Siriusly Snapey Susan, former history teacher & current library 
person, who's not keen on stereotypical images of same.