Who's to blame? (was Scary Teachers - Good Teachers

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 152908

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "a_svirn" <a_svirn at ...> wrote:
>

> 
> a_svirn:
> Oh? Then what's wrong with the Snape's comment? He stated that in his 
> considered opinion everyone (Neville included) could scrape a pass 
> grade. Surely a confidence boost of no common order.
>

Sigh.  Except that he implied that Neville was a moron in the process, 
surely a most unprofessional and unforgiveably cruel thing to do.  

I actually do agree with you about McGonnagall.  I think her behavior 
is extremely problematic to say the least.  Not really my issue, but 
for what it's worth, I do agree.  

It would seem that we (most of us engaged in this particular subthread) 
are groping toward a surprising amount of consensus, considering that 
we are coming from very different directions.  That is Hogwarts seems 
to be an astonishingly badly organized and poorly run school.

Who's to blame for that?  I suppose you could say wizarding society as 
a whole.  Wizards do seem to be an incredibly stupid lot.  But then we 
have an "epitome of goodness" as a headmaster.  Not an unproblematic 
situation.  There's also the problem that so many of the students are 
muggleborns and half-bloods, and logically they (and especially their 
parents) should be screaming bloody murder.

It could also bespeak the fact that wizarding society is a lot worse 
off than it likes to admit -- especially in official statements and 
childrens' textbooks.  JKR herself has implied that she considers 
wizards an "oppressed and threatened minority," or something to that 
effect.  Am I the only one who finds the standard "we hide from muggles 
to keep from being bothered" line somewhat hard to swallow?  It may 
well be that wizards are hiding because they are badly frightened and 
because the muggle witch hunts were a lot more effective than modern 
wizards want to let on.  They are incredibly outnumbered, after all, 
and their society is riddled with elements (squibs, half bloods, and 
muggleborns) whose loyalties would be at the very least divided should 
a clash with most of humanity ever occur.  And, as JKR said when she 
made the "oppressed minority" comment, the bad thing about most 
oppressed and frightened minorities is that they splinter and viciously 
turn on one another.

Given that, wizards may simply not be able to afford anything better.  
Hogwarts teachers are pretty p**s poor at their jobs because the 
wizards don't have the money or other resources to train them properly, 
and they don't have the population density necessary to insure a supply 
of even barely talented educators.  The recurrent problems filling the 
DADA job may have to do with the jinx rumor, but it probably also has 
to do with the fact that their just isn't a supply of even barely 
adequate candidates.

It is interesting that the history position is filled by a ghost -- 
i.e. somebody who doesn't need the money.  If there were a supply of 
adequate candidates for that job one would suspect having a ghost 
taking up the slot would be rather controversial.  There didn't seem to 
be any belief that there would be many candidates for the divination 
job, either.  Nor did anyone raise an eyebrow that Dumbledore had 
to "beg and wheedle" a retired potions professor to come back to work.  
It really seems like the WW has to strain its muscles to fill jobs that 
any mediocre muggle school can fill as a matter of course, even in an 
age when the vast majority of the population wouldn't even consider a 
teaching career.  All in all it bespeaks a very poor society with 
extremely limited resources that lives in a perpetual state of fear and 
denial.  Dumbledore said that the fountain the ministry was a lie.  It 
may well be that most of what wizards tell themselves about their 
world, and the world in general, and the reasons that they hide, and 
the true extent of their power and resources, is a lie as well.


Lupinlore