Padfoot's Breed

[annoni-no.livejournal.com]

Rowling never specified what breed of dog Sirius' Animagus form was, and 'a bear-like black dog' doesn't do much to narrow the field of possibilities. However, if we assume that the transformation closely reflects the wizard's personality, and perhaps reinforces it, I think I might have identified our mystery breed.

Meet the Russian Newfoundland, also called the Moscow Water Dog:

http://www.easypetmd.com/doginfo/moscow-water-dog

The result of a breeding experiment crossing Newfoundlands, East European Shepherds, and Caucasian Shepherds to create an all-purpose work and rescue dog by the Soviet Army during the 1950's, the Russian Newfoundland is now extinct.

What was this breed like while extant?

"This new breed proved to be an excellent swimmer, as well as a vigilant, trainable and intelligent shoreline sentry dog, and well able to withstand arctic temperatures and freezing water."

Strong swimming skills and high tolerance of freezing water - escaped from Azkaban by swimming the North Sea.

Intelligent - his teachers acknowledged him as bright, however much trouble he caused. The Marauders' Map is nothing to laugh at either.

Vigilant – before he was addled by Dementors he was certainly more attentive than James during their assault on Snape.

Trainable – this is the crux, isn't it? We don't know much about the dynamics between Sirius and James, but Peter was able to play him like a harp, and even Remus could control him when he bothered to exert himself. So, it seems that he was eminently manageable by those who knew him well and who he considered 'pack.'

And the Moscow Water Dog was infamous for being very selective about who they would acknowledge as pack, and how hostile they were toward strangers.

How hostile?

"...when set loose to rescue a panicked and drowning sailor, it was the breed's nature to swim straight to them and attack them in the water. A terrifying experience for the victim, who if they did not drown fighting off the dog would then likely try and drown the dog in order to defend themselves from the onslaught of gnashing teeth."

I'm sure those Muggle policemen in the prequel could sympathize deeply. As could Snape, and Kreacher, and....

In summation:

"As it would turn out, the Russian Water Dog was too much working dog and not enough rescue dog, the breed was aggressive and took very poorly to strangers, regardless of whether they were drowning or on land."

Yes, I believe that fits Sirius rather well.

Comments

[oneandthetruth.livejournal.com]

This made me realize how much Dumbledore is manipulating Trelawny...He is shown dismissing her concerns and her predictions. Like he does with Snape he works to to damage her self estem. I think Dumbledore encourges the rest of the staff to notice how wrong her interpetations are so they won't take her seriously...Trelawny is exactly where he wants her. She has no self-confidence. She tries to hard so, no one takes her seriously. She is dependent on him. Can't have her leaving Hogwarts now can we? There she is safe and Dumbledore can watch her.

Scummywhore really sounds like an abusive spouse here. I know we all know he's an abuser and manipulator, but I don't think I've ever seen his tactics laid out so clearly as you do here.

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

Ugh. Word to both of you.

I've never much liked Trelawney, per the author's intentions. She's not written as a character one would choose to identify with. So I've compliantly tripped past all the author's descriptions of her marginalization and sufferings w/o them registering much. Y'know, like Xeno's sufferings at the DE hands had.....

But omigod, Albus had it in his power to validate her in the one thing she wanted to be known as: a true Seer.

And HE thought she WAS.

He based absolutely everything he did after he heard the Prophecy on the belief that her prophecy about Tom and Harry was true and could be made to work out for his side's benefit. Whitle persuading HER, and (almost) all of his staff, that she was merely a pathetic, dipsomaniac fraud.

Of course, one could argue that he HAD to diminish her to try to make TOM ignore her. Except--his scooping her into Hogwarts under his personal protection would have focused Tom's attention on the Overheard Prophecy if Tom had been originally inclined to ignore it.

Offering the protection of Hogwarts from Tom? Fine.

Letting everyone, including herself, believe her to be a fraud while basing his fundamental war strategy on her contribution? Not so much.

[annoni-no.livejournal.com]

This is probably the ultimate rebuttal to anyone who argues that Albus was essentially Good, and only behaved questionably in a utilitarian pursuit of the good for the many over the good of particular individuals.

There was no strategic purpose to promoting the idea that Sybill was a fraud. None. Not after Tom had decided the prophecy was real and moved to act on it.

Slandering and demeaning her like Albus did was pure sadism, nothing more or less. What was it Sirius said about being able to take the true measure of a man by how he treated his inferiors...?

* * *

If Sybill was a Hogwarts alumnus, then apparently her Divination instructor didn't focus on the dangers and difficulties of interpreting prophecies either. Rather negligent for one of the best magical schools in Europe under competent management. (If we assume she was young enough to attend under Dumbledore that last objection is addressed.)

Albus had been considering dropping Divination entirely (did he intend to replace it with anything? Hogwarts' educational offerings are already pretty sparse). My theory on why is that he was worried someone with an actual talent for it might learn to hone it and be able to thwart his manipulations by seeing them coming. Dangerous precedent, that. The plebes might start thinking they knew better than him how to run their own lives.

The way it's taught under Trelawny makes the class worse than useless. Students come out of it thinking the entire field is bunk or else with a dangerous assurance that they know how to identify and interpret the omens (they think) they're seeing when really they're clueless. Feeding her insecurities might actually be part of Dumbledore's plan to ensure that Trelawny remains a terrible teacher. As it is, she's so crippled by doubt that she overcompensates, making herself out to be more certain than she is and is unwilling, even unable, to contemplate other interpretations lest she lose what little respect for her talents she has.

If she KNEW she was a true Seer though, she might have enough self-confidence to tell her students that even someone with incontrovertible gifts can misinterpret Sight, and this is nothing shameful, just something to guard against. Students of those lessons would be far less easily gulled by con-artists trying to railroad them into following his interpretation of a prophecy. Albus couldn't have that at all.

[dracasadiablo.livejournal.com]

It also took care of any possible Seer students.
If somebody with the true talent was taught by Trelawny their would either learn to interpret the omens in all wrong ways or the Divination's reputation (and peer pressure) would make them too ashamed to do anything with their talent.

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

AARGH! I hate it that it took me this long to see this.


The following is from Swythyv’s essay on Albus and the Dumbledores. S/he’s talking about how the Slytherins are treated at Hogwarts, but it generalizes….

An organization whose parts are at war with each other is acting out the internal conflicts of its executive: this is a fish that rots from the head down. I've seen it in real life, and it is creepy beyond my powers to describe. Subordinates always do the knife work unsolicited, and it always manifests in the same way, too: Dirty tricks. Dirty tricks that hamstring the victimized person or department, but that make them look like fools if reported. And when the emboldened aggressors do cross the line, there's always some reason why no action can be taken - usually re when or how the victim reported it - delivered with a gentle sigh.


http://hp-essays.livejournal.com/243418.html


From PoA, c 11,

Professor McGonagall poked a large spoon into the nearest tureen.

“Tripe, Sybill?”

It occurs to me, however, that the internal conflict that hatchet woman Minerva (and her acolyte Hermione) act out for Albus, may not have started until clever Albie’s first attempt to twist the Prophecy in his favor ended in a baby Horcrux rather than a baby warrior to raise. Sybil might have been treated quite cordially her first year on staff, until Twinkles decided she was to blame for his ill-advised attempt to use her without her knowledge.

[hwyla.livejournal.com]

To be 'fair' to Minerva - she doesn't know about the existence of the prophecy or that Albus believes it. She also only sees just what the students see. She is unaware that Albus places stock in Sybil's talent.

A bit off topic, but notice that Snape is not anywhere near as derisive to Sybil at Horace's Christmas Party as Minerva is at the Christmas Dinner you cited. A dinner that Sybil has come down especially to have with her co-workers (and a few students) on Christmas Day, when she rarely appears out of her tower. Note that we don't ever hear of Sybil coming to join a holiday meal again. What a lonely life! Want to bet she asked Horace whether Minerva was coming or not before she decided to attend his party?

And 'mean and nasty' Snape never says anything to Sybil that implies he thinks her a fool. Not even when she apparently has a bit too much sherry. Compare that to when he leads the 'attack' on Gilderoy among his fellow professors. So, it isn't as if he'll keep his snide comments to himself if he thinks them warranted.

[annoni-no.livejournal.com]

Minerva might not know about the prophecy, but under normal circumstances there is still an expectation of basic politeness among colleagues. Dumbledore would have been fulfilling his duties as headmaster for once if he insisted that Minerva offer Sybill that minimal courtesy. He could frame it as a matter of professionalism if, for some unknown reason, he felt there was a genuine need to keep her true gifts a secret.

He didn't.

If he ever said anything I'll bet it was in line with his occasional admonishments to Harry to refer to his potions master as "Professor Snape," but which injunction he never reinforces with point losses when Harry inevitably ignores it.

I wonder how often Minerva, and the other teachers, saw Sybill and Severus interact, and how they interpreted the relationship between the two of them.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Yes, and I was disappointed that in Unlikely Allies Severus had to Obliviate Sybil. Maybe in the future he can show some appreciation some other way?

[nx74defiant.livejournal.com]

Albus had been considering dropping Divination entirely (did he intend to replace it with anything? Hogwarts' educational offerings are already pretty sparse).

It's been notice how understaffed Hogwarts is. I think Dumbledore was reducing the staff by attrition. Whenever he could get away with it if someone left he didn't bother to replace them.

Binn's ghost want to teach, let it. No need to hire a competent replacement History teacher.

Lockhart wanted to bring back the dueling club. So there had been a dueling club in the past. Did Dumbledore encourage it to fade away?

If Minerva had an assistant who left - why Dumbledore would just explain "Minerva, I know how capable your are. You really don't need an assistant. It will be more work but I have every confidence you can handle."

[lynn-waterfall.livejournal.com]

Maybe, but why would Dumbledore *want* to reduce the number of teachers?

I can certainly understand his wanting to get rid of teachers who aren't entirely under his control. No surprise that he'd be happy to replace Slughorn. However, as long as he could control them, more teachers means more people under his day-to-day authority. I don't know why he wouldn't want that.

I can see the signs you're pointing to as possible evidence that Dumbledore may have wanted to reduce the number of teachers, but if that was his goal, I think we need a reason why he'd want that.

[annoni-no.livejournal.com]

It makes sense if we assume that Dumbledore has been working to dumb down Hogwarts' education in general. Ignoring the excuses compelling reasons for his hires, consider the quality of the teachers Albus has introduced to and maintained at Hogwarts:

Divination: Sybill Trelawny
Background at time of hire: No teaching experience, potential alcoholic,one True Prophecy to her name
Ability: Incompetent

Care of Magical Creatures: Rubeus Hagrid
Background: No teaching experience, no O.W.L.s, long-time assistant gamekeeper/primary gamekeeper. The year before his appointment he sent two second year students directly into a nest of Acromantulae. The year before that he accepted and then attempted to raise an illegal dragon egg, and then compounded his crime by allowing first year students to cover up his mess for him. As a student he attempted to raise an Acromantula in the school.
**Students repeatedly injured during lessons due to inadequate safety precautions, Dumbledore took no action.
Ability: Incompetent

Potions: Severus Snape
Background: 21, no teaching experience (possibly a student tutor), committed quadruple agent against a murderous psychopath, qualified wizard with N.E.W.T.s and clear aptitude for his subject. His oldest prospective students may well have witnessed him be publicly stripped and humiliated, as well as being aware of his general boyhood reputation as a loser and outcast..
Ability: Competent

DADA: Quirinus Quirell
Background: Young, one year teaching experience (Muggle Studies), was known to have been co-opted by Voldemort during his Grand Tour to gain DADA experience. (Voldemort had every interest in impairing students' Defense education, and would be primarily focused on the Stone anyway - which put all students at risk of being caught in a crossfire between Voldie/Quirell and the rest of the staff.)
Ability: Incompetent

DADA: Gilderoy Lockhart
Background: Known by Dumbledore to be a glory hound and a fraud who had assaulted other witches and wizards, raped their minds, then stole credit for their deeds (nor did Dumbledore ever report this last to anyone in law enforcement).
Ability: Incompetent

DADA: Remus Lupin
Background: Prior teaching experience, incompetent prefect, (former?) friend of escaped convicted mass-murderer Sirius Black.
**Later unhelpful in the investigation regarding Black's whereabouts and ability to enter the castle. Dumbledore refused to remove him or even put him under close surveillance despite circumstantial evidence he was helping his old friend. (Problematic because if he sought out Lupin specifically for help in cornering Black, he could have consulted him away from the school - he was absent often enough anyway. Moody would have been a safer choice if it was Harry's welfare he was primarily concerned about. Maybe he was hoping Black would kill Harry - Horcrux had to go sometime.) After he nearly killed three students and a fellow teacher by neglecting his Wolfsbane Potion, it was Snape who ensured he was removed from the school, not Dumbledore.
Ability: Competent at teaching subject matter

DADA: Alastor Moody
Background: Retired Auror, former teacher in Auror training program, known for being excessively paranoid and responding violently to provocation.
Ability; Crouch successfully masquerading as him seems to have been considered competent.

DADA: Severus Snape
Background: Highly successful potions professor, quadruple agent, etc...
Ability: Competent

[annoni-no.livejournal.com]

Out of all his hires we're aware of during his tenure, the only one that was truly sound was Severus Snape, and that was only in hindsight. By all rights a potions classroom under someone with Severus' background should have devolved into chaos with students who couldn't respect a teacher they'd seen humiliated in such a way, and who would spread the story of Sev's disgrace throughout the rest of the student body. It's truly a testament to his abilities that he was able to maintain control of his classes, especially after he was also dealing with the emotional fallout of Lily's murder.

I would not be surprised if Albus was taken aback by and somewhat displeased with that competence. He was contemptuous of Severus through all their dealings prior to his hiring, and continued to be so after it. I find it difficult to believe someone who thought so little of his new teacher would have had confidence in his ability to manage such a difficult situation successfully.

I would be further unsurprised if Dumbles had managed to get the O.W.L. and N.E.W.T. exams dumbed down as well. He has lackeys scattered all throughout the rest of the ministry, why not in whatever office sets the educational standards?

A deliberate attempt to hobble students might also explain why Hogwarts is so focused on practical work over theory. The teaching staff is so small they have little time to evaluate student work personally. A spell or potion is easy to evaluate quickly so they can monitor student progress and offer feedback. Assuming T.A.s do grade the rest of the homework, it would still take teachers a great deal of time to become well acquainted with their students' theoretical comprehension. (Our hypothetical T.A.s themselves clearly do not interact with students - this might actually be a safety precaution from when the staff was fully vetted for trustworthiness, but T.A.s were considered temporary aids, and perhaps less thoroughly screened as such.)

Dumbledore has a rather obvious motivation for doing all this, though he might not consciously admit it. Albus is a control freak, and convinced he knows better than everyone else how things should be done and dislikes people questioning that view. The more ignorant people are, the less likely they are to spot Albus' plots and deceptions, and thus to interfere with them. Likewise, the more ignorant they are the easier they are to manipulate. As Headmaster, Albus has more control than anyone over how much practical knowledge and training in theory and analysis the British wizarding public is allowed to have. Maybe a large part of the reason the WW Harry sees is so illogical is because they were trained to be that way in the course of their education - so many more opportunities for Albus to twinkle merrily as he offers to sort out the latest mess caused by failure to adequately plan ahead, and all the easier for him to guide the misguided idiots dears past all the logical fallacies in his own decision making.

So much for avoiding the temptations of power.

[lynn-waterfall.livejournal.com]

I don't disagree that he may have wanted to dumb down the curriculum. Also, hiring Hagrid as a teacher fits with what you say: he had the opportunity to hire another minion, and instead promoted an existing minion who was already as loyal as he could possibly be.

However, there's a difference between trying to dumb down the curriculum and trying to reduce the number of faculty. Other than Hagrid, the only opportunity he's lost to replace someone has been Binns. He hired Charity Burbage for Muggle Studies when Quirrell decided to switch to DADA. He *did* hire Trelawny -- and we have only his word that he was considering not hiring anyone. I suppose that if he couldn't find someone sufficiently useful/loyal, he might not have hired anyone. Still, he did end up hiring someone.

Also, with Binns... Dumbledore could be particularly interested in preventing citizens of the WW learn about (and from) history. It's also quite possible that Binns was, at least at first, an excuse for not hiring someone immediately -- a way around choosing someone he disliked without leaving one of the core classes untaught. With Binns teaching the class, Dumbledore has the option of bringing in a new teacher any time he likes, because no one is going to object to his forcing ghost to retire.

Of course, thanks to the revolving door of the DADA position, Dumbledore can bring in anyone he likes for a single year, anyway, as long as he doesn't care what might happen to them at the end of it. But still, keeping Binns on is at least potentially a means of delaying a hiring decision until someone Dumbledore approves of comes along (if one ever does).

Anyway: I agree about the control freak part, and the dumbing down the curriculum part. I just don't think that reducing the number of teachers particularly goes hand in hand with that. He could dumb down the curriculum while still having the same number of teachers, and have more teachers under his direct authority.

[nx74defiant.livejournal.com]

means more people under his day-to-day authority. I don't know why he wouldn't want that.


The more people there are the harder it becomes to have complete control all of them.

You would think he would want as many people as possible to join his Order to fight Voldmort and his Deatheaters. We were told how during Voldemorts first rise to power they were badly outnumbered. Wouldn't it make sense to avoid that this time? But how many new members are there? The Weasleys, Kingsley, Hestia Jones and Tonks. Not a very big recruitment. Dumbedore may be Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards and Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot. However those organizations are to big to have under his complete control.

I think Dumbledore is very smart. He needs to be careful. Don't want an elimination causing the board to kick up a fuss. He needs Muggle Studies to show he cares about muggles. Defense against the Dark Art, well he is the champion of the light and opponent of Dark Magic.

[annoni-no.livejournal.com]

If your goal for a school is to have the children come out of it properly educated, an adequately sized teaching staff is absolutely essential.

A student-teacher ratio which is too high leads to:

*increased disciplinary problems. The more children there are, the more difficult it is for a teacher to keep an eye on all of them.

*less individualized attention to the needs of the children.

---Faster learners are forced to linger over material they've already mastered while their classmates catch up. This can lead to boredom, inattention, and disengagement from the learning process.

---Slower learners may never receive the personalized help they need to catch up to their classmates. They fall further and further behind, and may find themselves unable to master material they would otherwise be capable of due to the lack of individualized lessons.

---Students' idiosyncratic difficulties, such as Neville's fear of his own magic, may be overlooked entirely due to the distraction of having so many students to care for at once. If they are recognized as extant, the teacher may lack the time and resources to either fully comprehend the problem or to address it.

*learning being primarily passive, listening to the teacher lecture.

*students being more frequently off-task, especially low-attaining students.

All effects of class size are most pronounced among already low attaining students, .e.g. those students already exhibiting difficulties in their academic careers whether due to laziness or deeper difficulties..

When there is insufficient staff to adequately support all students, teachers have little choice but to simplify the curriculum relative to what could be covered in order to minimize the number of students left behind. Pass rates for OWLs and NEWTs say very little about how thorough the curriculum is if the tests themselves have been neutered.

Supporting the idea that there used to be a larger staff is the fact (admittedly from Pottermore) that there used to be a Transfiguration Department which both Dumbledore and McGonagall belonged to. In Harry's day it appears to be only McGonagall, a reduction of at least one.

There's also a significant difference between reducing the number of staff and cancelling a class entirely. While only a fraction of the more engaged parents and officials may pay close attention to how many teachers are available and recognize the implications, almost everyone with a passing interest in the school will notice a cancellation and wonder about the reasons. And Dumbledore hates accounting for his actions to anyone.

Even then, canon can still support an interpretation that classes have been removed. In real life, when downsizing leads to the dismissal of teachers and classes, the first to go are almost always the art and music classes. Which Hogwarts lacks entirely. It doesn't even teach basic grammar and writing skills, let alone literature.

(Also, why would Dumbledore lie about discontinuing Divination? What does he gain from that?)

And of course, everything is the teachers' fault for being inadequate, not the parties responsible for depriving those teachers of the tools they need to do their jobs in the first place.

I agree that Albus kept Binns around to discourage students from developing and interest in history, and to keep them as far away from the 20th century, and his own major failings therein, as possible.



Setting all that aside, why would Albus want more teachers under his control? They're stuck at Hogwarts most of the year, making them useful for scut-work only for a few months during the summer. It's much more useful for him to have lackeys scattered throughout the ministry or pursuing independent ventures, like Mrs. Figg and Mundungus Fletcher, who he can tap for their resources throughout the year.

[lynn-waterfall.livejournal.com]

I agree that having enough teachers is necessary for a school to work well. However, I don't agree that having enough teachers is sufficient. (Well, maybe if you had one teacher for every 3-4 students and the teacher was trying at all, but that isn't what we're talking about.) If Dumbledore wanted students to be taught badly, he could do that and have a few more teachers, if he wanted more teacher-minions.

To illustrate, I really don't think that the school would be any better run if Lupin had stayed on permanently in some capacity. Slughorn in addition to Severus and the DADA-teacher-du-jour *might* have made the place better, but quite possibly not.

> (Also, why would Dumbledore lie about discontinuing Divination? What does he gain from that?)

He has seen to it that everyone views Divination as stupid and unreliable. By saying that he was planning to stop offering it, he's reinforcing that view. He also sounds wiser and less bound by tradition if he was planning to get rid of a useless subject -- two things that are important to his image.

> Setting all that aside, why would Albus want more teachers under his control? They're stuck at Hogwarts most of the year, making them useful for scut-work only for a few months during the summer. It's much more useful for him to have lackeys scattered throughout the ministry or pursuing independent ventures...

It isn't an either-or, teachers or people outside of Hogwarts. For that matter, if there were more "extra" teachers at Hogwarts, the teachers he did have would have more flexibility in their schedules: give the *other* person teaching Transfiguration to take on some additional classes, while McGonagall goes off to do something.

I don't know for sure that Dumbledore would want more teachers, but it strikes me as odd to assume that he'd want fewer.

[annoni-no.livejournal.com]

Of course having more teachers isn't sufficient. However, I thought I had already shown that the teachers he did hire were largely incompetent. Having fewer teachers available exacerbated the problem. It's a question of cumulative effects.

The real question is, what is the trade-off in benefits for Albus between having a scarce handful, at best, of personal minions trapped at school for most of the year vs an entire population that is woefully undereducated and poorly equipped to run a functioning society?

It's also important to keep in mind that Dumbledore does have to answer to the school governors, no matter how much he likes to pretend at omnipotence and omniscience. They removed him entirely in CoS, though (Albus claimed) they reinstated him once they panicked about a student's death. If Albus brought in more teachers to make his flunkeys' schedules more flexible, he would have to justify their absences. Opponents like Malfoy would jump on such a concrete example of Dumbledore placing his own personal agenda ahead of his duties to the school.

Most of my argument comes from familiarity with the tactics used to hobble public schools in the US as an excuse to privatize them. First, starve them of funding through budget cuts. This leaves students without necessary classroom resources, including adequate teaching staff.

At the same time, push standardized testing (multiple choice in our world, possibly practical spell performance in the WW) for a more 'objective' way to measure student accomplishment. This forces teachers to teach for the test instead of offering a rounded education. One of the first things to be lost in that trade is the nurturing of critical thinking skills and general problem solving abilities.

When student performance begins to suffer (as predicted,) blame the mess on teachers' unions and other school administrative staff. Replace the most capable resistors with private flunkeys or instigate a new round of budget cuts and 'restructuring' to 'solve' the problem, when in reality these actions serve only to exacerbate it - assuming one defined the original problem as a failure to provide our students with a thorough, liberal education.

The end result is a population well-trained to regurgitate answers on demand, but ill-equipped to solve them on their own, or to navigate propaganda or other spurious, fallacious arguments.

Authoritarian interests of all stripes are vested in such an outcome, because it makes it easier for them to manipulate the people. Additionally, fragmenting the school system makes it easier to institute, let's call them "alternative" standards, such as religious fundamentalists who would rather teach creationism than evolution.

We haven't been exposed to any of the usual arguments about the need to downsize schools or "reform" education, but the more I look at it the more the situation we see in the books is reminiscent of how our school systems function after being subjected to variations on the above-mentioned policies. Albus might have been headmaster of Hogwarts, but I don't think was interested in the education of his students as most commenters here would understand it. Rather the opposite, in fact.

Getting back to Divination, Albus told Harry, alone, he was planning on dropping it until he saw Sybil prophecy, at which point he decided to hire her and retain the class. His goal in that conversation was to convince Harry that Trelawny's prophecies should be taken seriously - why, they even convinced the wise Dumbledore the subject should maintained after all! Saying that he had always believed in the power of true Divination, despite others' short-sighted skepticism, and that Sybil was proof he was right would have been equally effective with Harry. He also knows by that point that Harry doesn't repeat or think critically about their discussions later, so he wouldn't have worried about his general campaign against Divination being disrupted.

Besides, it's unlike Dumbles to offer an outright lie about something it should be possible to fact check, instead of misdirecting his audience toward the desired conclusion.

[sunnyskywalker]

Speaking of the governors vs. Dumbledore and the budget, I wonder if maybe the staffing issue is more a side effect than a goal? Dumbledore seems to have broad, near-total authority over who gets hired and fired. But does he control the purse strings and determine how many positions are available for hiring and firing? Probably not.

No doubt he would like to be. For the good of the school of course. Best to have someone who is actually "on the ground" and knows the issues have final say over the budget, he'd argue. While the governors would naturally disagree, and furthermore object strenuously to Hire X and want him/her gone now. Which Dumbledore ever so politely refuses to do. So the governors decline to post any new positions to try to force Dumbledore's hand, telling him if the new hires are so great they'll manage, and figuring that it'll be too hard to run things without more staff and Dumbledore will cave. Dumbledore retaliates by hiring gross incompetents, figuring once the governors' kids and grandkids are forced to be taught by these people, they'll cave to his demands and give him more control over how many positions are available, as a wedge into getting more control over the purse strings generally.

Or some other variety of a power squabble, if this doesn't quite work. (Never having had a good ringside view of one, I'd need more time to think and work out a really solid scenario.)

And if this happens to lead to the dumbing-down of the curriculum in the meantime, well, he can work with that. After all, it's his duty to ensure the children aren't learning any dangerous magic which might set them on the path to Dark Lord-dom. So cut alchemy as an elective, remove a few more books from the library, cut some of the more difficult and dangerous magic from the core classes... And hey, conveniently the teachers are also too busy to notice what he gets up to. Things are looking rosy after all!

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

The OWLs and NEWTs dumbed down....

Well, Fleur was openly dismissive of the British system. Of course, she's a Frog, and what do they know?

Griselda Mrachbanks personally tested Dumbledore for his NEWT practicals in Charms & Transfigurations, and he "did things with a wand I'd never seen before" to impress her.

Whereas Harry got extra credit and fawning accolades at his Defense OWL merely for casting a Patronus, which almost all of the DA members--who were NOT self-selected for exceptional ability or precocity--could master once taught.

[oryx_leucoryx]

And it was a simple casting, no dementors (not even simulated ones) were around. Quite a few more students could have received that O if they had only been given the chance.

[hwyla.livejournal.com]

Yes. The members of the DA all knew it in time for their OWLs, but were never given the same opportunity. And notice that Harry never pipes up to tell the examiners that he has taught several other students how to cast the patronus so that they would be aware that others ought to be offered the chance. But then, if it was an automatic 'O', how would Harry be able to beat Hermione's DADA score.

[oryx_leucoryx]

But that would have been easy to arrange without this unfairness: Have the practical include dueling. Not just casting spells with nobody attempting to counter them. Hermione's only experience with actual dueling was the Ministry battle. Even the DA only practiced spell-casting in turn, there is no mention of any dueling between the kids. Harry had more experience through fighting the monsters in the maze and facing Tom in the graveyard (I don't think any of his previous experiences contributed much to dueling skills). He also had quicker instincts. Hermione was OK at the Ministry until she made a mistake that gave Dolohov a chance to take her out.

Also, having a duel in the exam would prove Umbridge wrong. As it was, she was right, the kids didn't need (much) practice to pass the OWL. All they needed was to remember which spell was which, to point their wands and chant.

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

Dumbing down the OWLs & NEWTS...?

Well, note that Severus is apparently both the youngest and the newest of the permanent staff teaching a core subject. He is, in fact, the only one we KNOW to have matriculated under Dumbles (and several of the others we know for certain did not).

And he's also the only one, apparently, who requires an O rather than an E on the OWLs to continue. Minerva, Filius, and Pomona all accept Es, though we know that Minerva will not accept an A. (Harry and Ron were accepted in with E's; Neville was rejected with his A, and adviced to take Charms--in which he had gotten an E--instead.)

But Slughorn accepts Harry and Ron's E's to let them in.

Maybe Severus requires that O because he knows what an E is worht these days? While the older staff members remember what an E on an OWL meant back when THEY were students....?

Then there's the postulate that the Ministry fell so rapidly because key older/competent staff had been assassinated, and their assistants/successors just weren't up to snuff....? I think it was Swythyv (or was it Jodel?) who blamed Snape's installation and the loss of the Slug Club to channel the best of the young people to key positions, so the MInistry had been starved of talent for fifteen years before it collapsed. But maybe it was also because the new graduates just kept coming in dumber.

for example: had Percy ever been taught to recognize signs of Imperius? All his superiors seem to think he should have been able to tell what was wrong with Barty Sernior. And maybe he should have, and mayber he would have, had he ever had a competent DADA instructor.....

[annoni-no.livejournal.com]

How many students do we know the grades of to compare their general classroom performance against their OWL scores? Hermione, IIRC, consistently had top marks except in her DADA practical 3rd year, and her OWL scores were largely in line with that performance (the unfairness of Harry having been allowed extra-credit not withstanding). Harry and Ron though seemed to skate through most of their classes largely with A's and the occasional E, even through 5th year. Come OWL exams, they both managed E's in most of their subjects. The jump in Harry's potions grade was even more jarring - going from P's and D's to an E. Just being more relaxed without Snape in the room shouldn't have been enough of a difference to cause such a jump in performance.

Perhaps the older faculty have continued to use the same grading standards they were familiar with and haven't realized how much easier the grading is on the OWLs and NEWTs. Improvements in grades might be attributed to students' having studied well for the most important tests even if their normal classwork didn't receive the same diligence. This impression would be bolstered if most students did start to improve their class grades, at least incrementally, as OWLs/NEWTs approached.

Anyone advancing to NEWT level classes would be self-selected for interest in the subjects they were taking, and would presumably put more effort into maintaining the quality of their work. This would make it harder for the older faculty to spot how many students were receiving passing marks higher than they would have under the old standards.

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

Well, we know that Hermione was best in her year first year (Lucius twitted Draco about it). Minerva said in "Career Advice" that Harry was doing A work in her class but she thought he was capable of #. And, wanting to be an Auror, he indeed did begin buckling down for the first time in his school career.

And all of the kids from WW families would receive strong encouragement to do the same--those exams determine their futures.

So seeing improvement in 5th year wouldn't be that uncommon.

OTOH--we know that at least 3 teachers allow kids with O OR E into their NEWTs calasses--if the exam grades aren't publicly released, just Pass/Fail, then only the Head of House might know which of the students taking their NEWT classes had recieved which grade.

Slughorn, for instance, might be under the impression that he has 11 E students plus Harry in his class, not 10 O's plus Harry and Ron. And note that Ron's performance is so dismal that he doesn't even remember his name.....