[HPforGrownups] Re: Hagrid as Teacher (was Hagrid as animal abuser)

[Sherry Gomes]

No: HPFGUIDX 166258

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, OctobersChild48 at ... wrote:
> This, to me, was *the* most ridiculous thing in the entire series. 
How can 
> someone who has not completed their own education become a
teacher? I am 
> surprised that, Rowling being a former teacher herself, took this
tack. Just because 
> you know of or about something doesn't mean you are qualified to
teach it.


Sherry now:
It isn't necessarily true that just because someone has been certified as a
teacher means that they can actually teach.  I've had plenty of teachers in
the past who couldn't.  I remember one who was apparently brilliant in math
and was a certified teacher with the education degree and all the rest, but
he couldn't teach, couldn't get the knowledge from his head to his students
in any way that made sense to those, like me, who struggled in math.  On the
other hand, I know people who can teach and they've never been to college.
Getting a degree, license or certificate, doesn't necessarily make a person
a better teacher, and not having one only means you don't get paid very
well, but doesn't necessarily mean you cannot teach and actually have
students learn.  Teaching is a skill.  Education can refine the skill and
teach you the currently politically correct ways to teach, but if you don't
have the skill in the first place, all of that education won't make you
better at it.  

Someone mentioned in this thread yesterday that obviously Hagrid's students
do learn, as Harry learned what he needed to know to handle not only
Buckbeak but the Thestrils as well.  As for grubbly-Plank, perhaps she works
as something like a substitute teacher, not wanting to work full time and
just filling in.

Also, I don't know where Hagrid ordered the monster books, but Flourish and
Blots was selling them--remember the cage with the books fighting each other
inside?  I don't think they'd be considered dark.  I actually thought the
monster book was hilarious and think it was meant to be funny.

Sherry, who wouldn't have minded a Hagrid style teacher