[HPforGrownups] Scary Teachers - Good Teachers (was: Re: Hagrid and Snape...)

[Shaun Hately]

No: HPFGUIDX 152863

On 25 May 2006 at 12:16, Irene Mikhlin wrote:

> Don't you see the contradiction? If you can't find
> your ideal teacher, the one that will be right for all
> the N children at school, what's the point in removing
> a teacher that's all right for N-2 children? 

Shaun:
And especially when you can't rule out the possibility that for some of those other children, 
the teacher may not just be 'all right' but may actually be particularly good for them. Judging a 
teacher only on the students that their methods don't work for is a very bad way of judging a 
teacher.

All teachers fail with some children. That's a reality - there are no perfect teachers. Some fail 
abysmally with some children and triumph with others.

Why should the children they fail with be given a higher priority than the children they triumph 
with?

What is so special about Neville Longbottom that means every other students education has 
to be changed so he doesn't have to deal with Snape?


On 25 May 2006 at 3:40, dumbledore11214 wrote:

> > Betsy Hp:
> > So you'd want someone like me to have another Transfiguration 
> > teacher to choose from, right? 
> 
> Alla:
> 
> If you wanted to, yes absolutely.

Shaun:
There's a couple of problems with that, though.

First of all, all indications are that at Hogwarts, each subject normally only has one teacher - 
the sole exception I can think of is when the school winds up with two Divination teachers. In 
such a situation, you can't offer students a choice of teacher - in an ideal world, in an ideal 
school, you might be able to make that offer. But in a school where you only have one 
teacher teaching a subject, that's not an option.

But secondly, children aren't always capable of making this type of judgement. Just because 
a child doesn't like being in a particular class doesn't mean it's not the best place for them to 
be. Now, I happen to agree that it would probably be better for Neville that he not be in 
classes with Snape, so in his specific case, I wouldn't have a problem with him being able to 
choose an alternative if there was one - but generally speaking you can't let children make 
these choices for themselves. It's not as simple as if the child 'wants to' change.

There's also the issue that we know it's hard to fill the DADA post at Hogwarts - it may well 
be difficult to fill some other teaching posts as well. It's not always possible to get the 
teachers you want.

Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
Shaun Hately | www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/thelab.html
(ISTJ)       | drednort at alphalink.com.au | ICQ: 6898200 
"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one
thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the 
facts. They alter the facts to fit the views. Which can be 
uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that 
need altering." The Doctor - Doctor Who: The Face of Evil
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