CHAPTER DISCUSSION: Prisoner of Azkaban Chapter 8: Flight of the Fat Lady

[geoffbannister123 at btinternet.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 189622

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "pippin_999" <foxmoth at ...> wrote:
 
Alla:
> > I again blame Dumbledore for not giving Hagrid advice. What's new, right? When in doubt blame Dumbledore ;) No seriously, I do. I think his attitude that JKR was going on about at some point about letting people stew on their own, when he would not go to Hagrid (forgot the exact question), while sometimes let people make independent decisions, more often than not was extremely annoying, because he was not giving help to people who needed it IMO.

> Pippin:
> Going to Dumbledore would mean going over McGonagall's head. Hagrid might think that was insulting. And it would definitely be insulting for Dumbledore to give advice to Hagrid if Hagrid didn't ask for it, and perhaps also insulting to McGonagall in implying that she wasn't the proper person, as Deputy Headmistress and Hagrid's former HoH, to give Hagrid advice if he needed it. 

> Giving advice to people who haven't asked for it is interfering at best and manipulative at worst. Anyway, Dumbledore and, more importantly, JKR, want people to make the right choices because they believe in what they're doing, not because some old coot with a beard knows so much and  is good at making himself obeyed. As Hermione says, if you don't let people get things wrong, how will they learn? 

Geoff:
As a Headmaster, Dumbledore is responsible for what his staff are doing and
therefore answerable to the Governors and, in a UK situation, to the LEA (Local
Education Authority) and nowadays Ofsted (the Office for Standards in Education).

When I was a young teacher, I had a great Head who taught me mpre about the
class room than any lecturer at College. His initial approach was to suggest to 
me that I took on a particular class or task and then pose the question "Are y
ou all right with this? Do you want any advice or more information?"

In that way you have a sounding board to see whether what you think is right *is* 
right and , as I know from the same Head that very often just a sentence in my 
ear would point up something which I had missed or perhaps got wrong. For
that, I still hold his memory dear 15 years after his death.

When I started teaching, anyone in the IK with a degree could automatically
apply for a teaching post. I can remember staff at my grammar school who
were brilliantly qualified in their subject but who were hopeless at passing 
this information on because they had not acquired teaching skills and very 
often couldn't hold a class down. Sadly, Hagrid falls into this category because
nobody took this on board and I feel that he didn't realise this when he took
the post.