I find it strange that people give her a pass over setting Nevile up to be killed. Even Umbridge doesn't do that.
One big problem with Hogwarts as an actual school is it is under staffed. McGonagall teaches seven grade levels, is the head of house for one fourth of the school and is the Deputy Headmistress. She has three jobs. When does she find a time? Is she using a timeturner constantly?
Besides Harry to the rest of the students Dumbledore is an unapproachable figure. As you brought out - ’See Professor Dumbledore?’ Professor McGonagall repeated, as though this was a very fishy thing to want to do.
Dumbledore has no office hours, the closest thing he has to a secretary is McGonagall (can you image a Slytherin trying to set up a meeting or even a Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff?)What would a student do? Approach Dumbledore in front of everyone at Diner in the Great Hall?
It is surprising. I wonder if it has to do with Harry's lack of reaction. He gives us a few matter-of-fact sentences about Neville's punishment, and we don't get the sense that he's at all concerned, even in an abstract "who might she turn on next" sense. If the narrative had Harry being worried for Neville, might people judge McGonagall differently?
Dumbledore's office is password protected, too! Not to mention we don't know how often he's away on Wizengamot business, speaking of people with multiple jobs...
The understaffing gets more and more terrible the more you look at it. My high school had significantly more teachers and admin people despite being smaller than Hogwarts, and even then some teachers doubled up on jobs. How does Hogwarts even function?
I'll give Rowling one thing: if you handwave enough to imagine that the workload is plausible, a lot of what we see is a very accurate portrait of an institution which has been understaffed and lacking effective leadership for a long time. I've worked for places like that. I can
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Why is Hogwarts mismanaged under Hogwarts? I think there are 3 main reasons
1. Incompetence. Yes Dumbledore is a brilliant, powerful wisdom. But that does not mean he has the skills, knowledge, or temperament need to be a good Headmaster.
2. Inattention. Dumbledore is also Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot. He is often shown to be advising the Minister. He also runs the Order of the Phoenix. So he may be not giving Hogwarts his full attention or the attention it needs.
3. Intentional. Dumbledore tells Harry the truth is dangerous. We have a headmaster believes that information should be withheld. That other people can not handle things. Powerful magic is to dangerous to trust to anyone else. He believes that it is for the students own good not to know too much - they will only misuse it.
Management is such an underrated skill. Not pay-wise, since they do get paid more, but as far as treating it like a job which requires specialized skills you have to actually learn and practice, yeah. Even if we assume that Dumbledore was a good teacher (which we don't see in the books and definitely not in the Fantastic Beasts movie...), that doesn't mean he'd be good at supervising other teachers. Or managing the budget or any of the other things headmasters ought to do. Add in multiple other part-time jobs dividing his attention, and a reluctance to delegate or tell people anything they need to know, and yikes
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Comments 4
I find it strange that people give her a pass over setting Nevile up to be killed. Even Umbridge doesn't do that.
One big problem with Hogwarts as an actual school is it is under staffed. McGonagall teaches seven grade levels, is the head of house for one fourth of the school and is the Deputy Headmistress. She has three jobs. When does she find a time? Is she using a timeturner constantly?
Besides Harry to the rest of the students Dumbledore is an unapproachable figure.
As you brought out -
’See Professor Dumbledore?’ Professor McGonagall repeated, as though this was a very fishy thing to want to do.
Dumbledore has no office hours, the closest thing he has to a secretary is McGonagall (can you image a Slytherin trying to set up a meeting or even a Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff?)What would a student do? Approach Dumbledore in front of everyone at Diner in the Great Hall?
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Dumbledore's office is password protected, too! Not to mention we don't know how often he's away on Wizengamot business, speaking of people with multiple jobs...
The understaffing gets more and more terrible the more you look at it. My high school had significantly more teachers and admin people despite being smaller than Hogwarts, and even then some teachers doubled up on jobs. How does Hogwarts even function?
I'll give Rowling one thing: if you handwave enough to imagine that the workload is plausible, a lot of what we see is a very accurate portrait of an institution which has been understaffed and lacking effective leadership for a long time. I've worked for places like that. I can ( ... )
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1. Incompetence. Yes Dumbledore is a brilliant, powerful wisdom. But that does not mean he has the skills, knowledge, or temperament need to be a good Headmaster.
2. Inattention. Dumbledore is also Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot. He is often shown to be advising the Minister. He also runs the Order of the Phoenix. So he may be not giving Hogwarts his full attention or the attention it needs.
3. Intentional. Dumbledore tells Harry the truth is dangerous. We have a headmaster believes that information should be withheld. That other people can not handle things. Powerful magic is to dangerous to trust to anyone else. He believes that it is for the students own good not to know too much - they will only misuse it.
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