I agree with most of what you've said, but I'm not sure you can say Divination is well taught. Or, alternatively, the school is not fulfilling its responsibilities to the students with regards to this class.

Why? My recollection is that Harry and Ron are required to make predictions (using the various methods they've learned) for their exams, and that they just make them up because they never 'see' anything. In fact, I can't recall them ever successfully using any divination at all throughout the entire series (in contrast to their other classes).

Since making predictions is in the exams, we can infer that actually being able to use divination is the, or at least a, primary goal of the class. Harry and Ron are reasonably good students (based on their exam results), so their failure tells us that either they are not being taught properly, in which case Trelawney is a bad teacher, or that the methods they are being taught require an inborn talent that they don't possess.

If it's the latter then the school should be either testing them before they are allowed to take the class, or removing them from it as soon as it becomes clear they don't have any ability.

If the class was designed to be taken by students who were not able to make predictions, they would not be asked to make predictions for the exam but would be asked to demonstrate their understanding of divination in some other way.

 

I think that point's kinda trivial in a way - I mean, Hermione didn't seem to suffer any punishment for basically walking out and dropping the class. Could be because she was taking too many classes already, could be because it's alright to drop that elective.

The whole thing's kinda whatever though, in a way - it's one class taught by one barmy teacher, and it appears to be one of the (two?) exceptions to the rule. In any case, I'm pretty sure Professor Binns does actually go over all the materials - so it might be the only exception to the rule.

I mean, Dumbledore has reasons to keep Trelawney there other than academic ones, so I see him being a little more lenient about the whole thing. It doesn't sound like it's very easy to find a seer or something, let alone get them to teach, in any case.

Despite Harry and Ron not showing ability on their owls or whatever, I find it hard to believe that other students in the class who find it a little more believable might find the ability to predict a little more than them. Considering someone like McGonagall considers the whole field bunk to begin with, I think that credulity probably plays a large part in the whole thing? At any rate, it's not like Harry or Ron really took the whole thing seriously to begin with...

 

Was there any record of a divination class pre-trelawney?

I've always figured Dumbledore needed an excuse to keep her close and out of the reach of sinister forces.

He's headmaster. If he wants to do it why not make up a billshit class. Especially if thebupside is possibly finding one or two more with the gift.

 

Your autocorrect is interesting as fuck.

I thought that it probably would have, considering there's an OWL for it?

 

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I don't think so, the only other mention of a Seer was Cassandra Trelawney as far as I remember.

 

End of book5, Dumbledore: "I had gone there to see an applicant for the post of Divination teacher, though it was against my inclination to allow the subject of Divination to continue at all."

 

Kinda hard to teach potions while you're in the process of decomposition yourself ///////// :devil

Anyway I think that if Snape could get the fuck over himself, he'd be miles ahead of Slughorn as a teacher. Slughorn gets disqualified for me because of his casual bigotry & gross favouritism, the way he "collects" children to adulate himself and the way he discards those who have no promise/ family is out of favour - like even forgetting their name when you're their teacher for an entire year????

Also The "slug club" seems super-old fashioned, even the first time we see it in the 1970s (even if at the centre of it is a young Tom Riddle with no family connections or money). I think Slughorn was modelled on an Oxford Don who did the same sort of thing - he's just super gross.

Also Snape seems to be a pretty good teacher. His recipes that he puts on the board are presumably ones that differ from the standard recipes in the book, and as we see with the HBP's book, they produce better results. Umbridge also remarks about his class being "suprisingly advanced" during her inspection, even as she thinks that some potions (Strengthening Solution) should be removed from the curriculum, because Dumbledore is fomenting an anti-Ministry army or whatever.

Anyway, all the teachers we actually see seem pretty prone to bias, personal vices (eg Minerva and her quidditch obsession, Sybil and her drinking, Hagrid and his monsters) but out of all the adults we get a close up on none seem particularly more capable, so I guess all the good teachers will have to be imported from fanficistan.

 

I have a ton of responses to people in this thread I'll edit in in a minute, but I need to point out that alcoholism is miles different from liking sports ....

 

Yeah I kinda question whether sports really even counts as a vice or just a hobby.

 

Well when you bend the rules for a student and purchase them a top of the line broom when they aren't supposed to have one just so your house can win quidditch games, you could kinda say its a vice.

 

Nah. That just puts Minerva on the same level as your average Premier League fan.

 

It's off topic, but the fact that Hogwarts doesn't used standarized equipment for official Quidditch matches always bothered me. Harry was undoubtedly hugely talented, but imagine being the Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw Seeker and having to face the asshole who brought a Firebolt to school.

 

If Harry was any good at all he would have used one of Filch's mops.

I guess you could say...

He's a scrub.

 

Pretty much all of Ron's fake predictions came true, so I'm thinking maybe... Ron for divination?

And all of that on top of 'headmaster' being only one of his four jobs (headmaster, Supreme Mugwump of the ICW, Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, and vigilante/resistance group leader*), and thus garnering as little as a fourth of his attention at any given moment.

*Is it any wonder Wizaring U.K. went down the chute at the same time he died? I'm sure there's some saying about eggs and baskets that covers this situation.

Do I even need to tell you how my sleep-deprived brain misread this?

In all seriousness, I agree that Minerva probably should have given up one of her positions, and that one should have been Head of Gryffindor.

Obviously she was good at teaching.
We can assume she was as good a Deputy Headmistress as Albus allowed her to be.

But it was painfully obvious she couldn't or wouldn't advocate for her own house, either as a whole or on behalf of the individual students therein. Whether she was always like this or if, over the course of her job as Deputy Headmistress, she became too neutral (or gun shy about being anything but) to do right by Gryffindor is up for grabs.

 

I always assumed Harry was going to end up DADA teacher after he left Hogwarts, on a full-time basis, not the part-time/casual thing he seems to do.

Can't think of anyone to take Charms/Potions/Transfiguration outside of the people who were already in the roles. Kingsley always seemed like he would have been a good professor though.

 

This. So much this. It would have been perfect for a lot of reasons, one being that it would have made sense as a way to take a break from the first parts of a life so filled with fighting darkness without also sacrificing his agency and impact on the world for good and to, well . . . fight darkness, lol.

Another reason is that it would have been a satisfying alternative to being an Auror in terms of staying on guard and at the highest levels of magical strength, research, etc., because he would always have to be studying it as he taught it to others, and refining his own practice and understanding of magic. He would keep learning, keep growing, ad infinitum.

It also would have been a rather cool, IMO, additional parallel to Tom Riddle neatly turned on its head. Harry applies for the position of professor right out of Hogwarts . . . and succeeds, becoming the greatest professor ever to hold the position, and breaking the curse on it as well. :awesome

 

I think she's necessary to balance the other Heads. You have the most prominent teachers, those who teach the core subjects, for the other houses. I honestly see no alternative to Minerva, because she's powerful, respected and known to every student, because she teaches every student.

 

Someone will have to replace Minerva as Head of Gryffindor. She can't be the Headmistress and head of house, too much chance of favoritism.

 

Did you read the books? Perhaps I'm remembering but she seem less than inclined to favor her own house even as Deputy.

 

Harry foretold buckbeak's survival using crystal ball on 3rd year exam. In fact based on results Harry is best in his year at Divination. Not a DADA one trick pony is our Harry!