Why Dumbledore doesn't cancel DADA (Was: Dumbledore's near-criminal . . .)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 160648

technomad
> <snip>
> As Headmaster, not to mention an immensely prestigous wizard,
Dumbledore has a great deal of latitude about whom he hires as a
teacher, and what is  and is not taught at Hogwarts. (Remember, at one
point he was thinking about  not offering Divination.) Once he twigged
that there was some sort of curse  on the DADA teacher's job, he
should have done something. Perhaps, if he  couldn't just quit
_having_ a separate DADA class and make sure that what's  needed is
covered in other classes' curricula (the Patronus Charm, forex, could
be covered in Charms class) he could have swapped around and had Binns
teach DADA. I don't think there's much that the DADA curse could do to
a  ghost---they'ghost---they'<WBR>re pretty hard to hurt or kill. Of
course, that opening for a History of Magic teacher---and if "History
of Magic"  just happens_ to go into great detail about Dark Magic and
how best to  resist it, well, a lot of history is the struggle between
Dark and Light  magic, isn't it?
> <snip>
 
> It does occur to me that abolishing DADA, or folding it into  other
subjects and fobbing it off onto Binns, might cause problems with the
 OWLs and NEWTs. 
> If this were done, Dumbledore might have to explain that  there is
reason to believe that there is a curse on the position, and either 
abolish the DADA OWL and NEWT, or just accept that very few Hogwarts 
students will do well on those particular tests, and allow for it.  
> 
> Nikkalmati:
>  
> <snip> I suspect there are practical reasons why he could not do
this.  He  would have to get the approval of the Board of Governors to
drop DADA wouldn't  he? He may not be willing to admit the position is
jinxed even after he begins to suspect it.  Perhaps, everyone already
knows about the jinx - the  students seem to be aware of it.  In that
case, no one would expect to last  more than one year.  I am not sure
terrible things happened to each  teacher.  If that were the case,
absolutely no one would apply long before  the time of the SS/PS.
>  
> Nikkalmati

Carol responds:
I agree that there are practical reasons why Dumbledore can't just end
the DADA classes. For one thing, they're a prerequisite for Auror
training and, with or without Voldemort, the WW (or the UK portions of
it served by Hogwarts) can't be without Aurors. Nor will the Dark
Creatures Lupin teaches his third years about go away.

No, DADA (like Potions, Herbology, Transfiguration, and Charms) is
part of the core curriculum taught to every student up to and
including OWL year (and note that Snape lowers his standards to let
more students into his NEWT DADA class than he would have allowed in
NEWT Potions). The parents of Hogwarts students (in what appears to be
marked contrast to the parents of Durmstrang students) expect their
children to be taught DADA. They need to learn to defend themselves
against the Dark Arts. I suppose it's comparable to Sex Education and
Drug Education classes in the U.S. but perhaps even more important.
You have to learn to defend yourself or you could be killed (or
tortured or made to do things you don't want to do). Even if the Death
Eaters are rounded up, there will always be more Dark wizards and Dark
creatures to defend yourself against. For that reason alone, the MoM
is unlikely to agree that the course not be taught.

Granted, we do have the problem of inept DADA teachers. (I disagree
with Nikkalmati about the DADA jinx/curse not doing something ranging
between bad and terrible to the person who accepts the position. The
least bad thing it's done is send Quirrell at the end of his first
year to Albania to get practical experience with Dark creatures, with
the result that he met and brought back Vapormort and ended up
possessed by him before his second term as DADA teacher began. The
fates we see for the DADA teachers in the HP books, all triggered by
some flaw or secret in the teacher him- or herself, are certainly
terrible. Even Umbridge might well have died if Dumbledore hadn't
gallantly rescued her. (Note that he made sure she didn't come back to
the school.) 

I think that Dumbledore does the best he can in hiring a DADA teacher
each year. Snape, of course, could teach it at any point, but
Dumbledore has his reasons, IMO, for waiting until the last possible
moment to hire him for the post. He has to hire someone else, even if
it means allowing the MoM to appoint a candidate (who could have
anticipated the horror in pink that is Umbridge?). 

I don't for a moment believe that Dumbledore would hire any DADA
teacher without telling them that the job is jinxed, or at the very
least that it's a one-year position. He would tell them what had
happened to at least some previous DADA teachers, which explains the
dwindling number of applicants each year. He had no way of knowing
that Lockhart was a fraud. He hired the Auror Mad-Eye Moody for what
Moody knew to be a one-year position and had no way of knowing that
the real Mad-Eye would be kidnapped and impersonated by a DE. He
deliberately gave Remus Lupin a job just at the point when Umbridge
had made it difficult for werewolves to find jobs and arranged for him
to have wolfsbane potion prepared by an expert. (I think the fact that
he had been Sirius Black's friend also had something to do with the
timing of his hiring.)

IMO, Dumbledore can't get rid of DADA. He can't foist it off on the
boring Professor Binns, who probably can no longer hold a real wand or
cast a real spell and was never an expert in that subject, anyway. He
can't give it to Snape, either, or he'll lose him--and snape, IMO, has
always been tied in with Dumbledore's plans to fight Voldemort.
(Whether he's ESE! or not, and I very much think not, Dumbledore
trusts him.)

Carol, glad that she's not in Dumbledore's position and sure that he's
doing the best he can to fill all his many duties