Snape, Hagrid and Animals

[quigonginger]

No: HPFGUIDX 143745

> AllieS426  wrote:
> >  I  honestly don't know why Dumbledore allows Hagrid to continue 
> > teaching.  On the other hand, Harry and his friends all achieved 
OWL 
> > in Care of Magical Creatures, so they must be learning something, 
> > even if Hagrid is completely irresponsible.  
> 
> va32h: 
> When Dumbledore introduces Hagrid as the new CoMC teacher, he 
> remarks that the previous teacher, Professor Kettleburn, has 
> retired "to enjoy the use of his remaining limbs". PoA pg 93.
> 
> This suggest to me that Care of Magical Creatures has always been a 
> dangerous class, and interacting with magical creatures inherently 
> risky. Or perhaps all CoMC instructors are careless about safety. 
Or 
> safety isn't too much of a concern in a magical world where 
injuries 
> are healed rather quickly and painlessly. 

Ginger adds:
va32h, you took the words right off of my keyboard.  

If you will allow me to use this as a jumping off point...

Hagrid (or any of the other teachers, for that matter) has no 
training for being a teacher.  The other teachers (we assume) have at 
least completed their Hogwarts education.  Based on Dippet's refusal 
to hire Tom Riddle straight out of school in HBP, I assume that 
teachers go out into the world and get some practical experience, and 
then, based on what they have learned at Hogwarts and life, they 
teach it to the students.

Just about everyone who teaches, by profession or as a mentor, models 
themselves after the good teachers they have had in the past.  Even 
with modern post-secondary education, the first year teacher is not 
well established in their teaching patterns.  Good ones learn from 
their mistakes.

Hagrid was expelled in his 3rd year.  He would have only had 1 year 
of CoMC (assuming it was a 3rd year elective back then).  Everything 
else he has learned on the subject has been learned through his own 
experiences with these creatures or from watching the CoMC teachers 
who were teaching as he worked the grounds.  Given his natural 
abilities with animals, and his eagerness to learn more about them, 
it would not surprise me if the former teachers didn't take him under 
their wings and give him some private lessons.  

When Hagrid begins his teaching, he has only 1 year of classroom 
experience, and almost a half century of personal experience.  

Where I believe Hagrid fails is not that he doesn't know what is 
important to teach, but that he assumes that his students (who are 
taking it as an elective) will share the same passion about the 
animals that he does.  He assumes that everyone else will be excited 
about the various creatures they are studying, as he himself finds 
them facinating.  If you want to test this theory in real life, try 
talking Harry Potter to someone who says they read the books.  It 
doesn't work to talk to them on our level if they can't remember who 
Moody is.  Don't even attempt MAGIC DISHWASHER.

The second place where I see Hagrid failing is that he doesn't see 
himself as being any different from the others.  He has been 
interacting with these creatures for such a long time that he knows 
the inherant dangers, but knows that with the proper handling, they 
are perfectly safe for him.  Like a weightlifter tossing a 98 pound 
weakling a set of barbells, not realizing that they are too heavy for 
the smaller person to lift.   Or like a welder handling a torch that 
would cause me to back away in fear.  

I also think that Hagrid assumed that the Care of Magical Creatures 
class would cover the care of all magical creatures, not just the 
fluffy ones.  It would seem reasonable that after 5 years of the 
class, someone who wanted this as a career should know about a wide 
variety of creatures.  Hagrid, as he realized later, should have 
started smaller.

I wouldn't doubt that if Hagrid did receive extra mentoring from 
previous professors that they taught him differently than regular 
students knowing that 1)he was hanging on their every word, 2)he was 
strong enough physically to handle more than the average student, and 
3)he had a natural aptitude.

If this is the case, then Hagrid was only teaching the way that he 
was taught.  It's not easy teaching one's pet subject to a group that 
couldn't care less.  Hagrid wouldn't understand that in his first 
year of teaching.  It's disheartening to find that your passion is 
someone else's drudgery.  Expecially, as in Hagrid's case, where he 
went out of his way to find things to teach that he thought the 
students would find interesting.

I know that I could teach piano- I've had 12 years of lessons, 25 
years as an organist and have a degree in music.  I would know how to 
plan lessons etc.  Trying to teach my Godson to hit a baseball was 
another story alltogether.  All I could do was put the bat in his 
hands, throw the ball and say "aim".  (OK, so it was a ball of yarn 
and a light sabre as we didn't have the real things, but you get the 
point.)  I was useless to give him the finer points because I don't 
remember being taught them myself.  I just know how to do it.  I 
think that's where Hagrid was during his first year.

And, if I may be a bit snarky, it couldn't have happened to a nicer 
person than Draco.

Ginger, who had no idea kids could be so inattentive until she 
actually had to try and teach some.