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| http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Albus_Dumbledore |
As a teacher, I have known my share of administrators (good and bad). Dumbledore is one of the second class*. Capricious and unpredictable, he protects his friends and appoints to teaching positions those with no prior experience. He chooses to trust his own intellect and refuses to delegate many important tasks (except to children who he loves to put in peril as a test of their loyalty to him), almost leading to the ultimate victory of Voldemort during the Second Wizarding War. (I really hate this guy. If I had a student at Hogwarts, I would join with Lucius to get him removed.)
*Disclaimer: Dumbledore at one time seems to have been a great wizard. I am mostly going to focus on the period of time that we know him in the books (the 1990s, apparently).
Risking students' lives
Dumbledore likes to play fast and loose with the lives and safety of students who have been entrusted to his care. Let's start with the Triwizard Tournament. Dumbledore was instrumental in bringing it back from its decades long hiatus due to... the death of students. Sure new safeguards were put into place to "make it safer", but students were still expected to battle dragons.
He also likes to hand extremely powerful magical artifacts over to children. He gave Harry one of the Deathly Hallows during his first year. Even putting aside that giving a child an invisibility cloak is a supremely bad idea, he just gave it to Harry and told him to use it well. He also knew that McGonagall gave Hermione a time turner (just so she could take extra classes) and then encouraged her and Harry to use it in an extremely dangerous way to save an animal and a suspected criminal (both of whom Dumbledore could have easily saved if he had wanted to. I mean, think about it. Both Sirius and Buckbeak "disappeared". Dumbledore could have done that several other ways.)
Really weird relationship with Harry
Another thing about administrators; they're not supposed to play favorites among students. And Dumbledore has a very... strange relationship with Harry (nothing like "Hey, kid. I've got some candy in my van", but still odd). Part of this could have been motivated by the fact that he knew all along that Harry would have to die to kill Voldemort (which is already super messed up).
Because of his fondness (guilt?) towards Harry, Dumbledore:
- Give him dangerous gifts (see above)
- Tells him things that he won't tell adult members of the Order
- Overlooks transgressions of rules that would get other students in trouble
- Awards Gryffindor points towards the House Cup for doing those activities that would get other students in trouble
But, then, he also does some things that send mixed signals:
- He leaves Harry with the Dursleys even though he knows that he is being abused. (Sure there's some sort of explanation about the power of family (do I have that right?!) keeping him safe until he's a certain age (again, what?). However, surely an Auror could do as well, especially seeing as how Harry does get into peril even while living with his abusive relatives.)
- Avoids him during Harry's fifth year because Voldemort might be spying on Dumbledore through Harry.
- Gives Harry private lessons the next year while knowing that he will be killed very soon (that's not a good situation for a child with abandonment issues)
Now, many of these actions may be chalked up to preparing Harry to battle Voldemort. But, still, not cool.
Snape
While we're on the subject of Dumbledore's death, allow me to mention Snape. The Headmaster makes some awful choices here. He forces Snape to train Harry in Occlumency knowing that Harry hates Snape and Snape can't stand Harry. While it may be true that Snape should be expected get over the bullying from 20ish years before, Dumbledore knew this was a problem and didn't address it. Also, he had a year to prepare for Snape's killing him. Could he not have written a letter to Harry or at least Moody? Just a short letter:
Dear Harry,
I am sorry that I must die and leave you alone to search for the remaining Horcruxes. It will seem that Snape has killed me. This is all part of the plan. He is our inside man with the Death Eaters. Whenever you meet him in battle, make it look like you're trying to kill him, but don't actually do it.
PS: Don't kill Malfoy either.
Questionable staffing decisions
A primary responsibility for an administrator is to staff schools with competent faculty. There are three decisions in particular that strike me as odd.
Sybill Trelawney:
Dumbledore hired her to teach Divination to protect her from Voldemort after she made the prophecy about Harry (or Neville). Many of visions were false and her teaching style turned promising students away from the subject. He could have protected her in other ways, perhaps a non-teaching position.
Rubeus Hagrid:
Dumbledore hired him to teach Care of Magical Creatures because he wanted someone he could trust. During Hagrid's first year as a teacher, he assigned students a dangerous textbook while failing to let them know how to open it. He also exposed his students to a dangerous animal (Buckbeak is dangerous. I don't care that Malfoy disregarded instructions. He is a child. Hagrid is an adult.)
Remus Lupin
Let's set aside the fact that Remus has an unfortunate name for someone who will become a werewolf. Dumbledore hired him because he felt sorry that Lupin was living in poverty. Remus was often sick due to his lycanthropy (not his fault) and exposed his students to hands-on with dangerous creatures far too early in the year (I'm a science teacher. You make sure that your students fully understand safety before bringing out the bunsen burners).
It should be noted that none of these individuals have teaching credentials (which I will bring up again in a later post) or even experience. Hogwarts is the premier school for wizardry. The parents should expect better.
Treatment of Evil Students
Dumbledore turns a blind eye to Harry's misdeeds. These are mostly harmless and often save the day, so you could forgive this (I don't). However, what about Tom Riddle. Dumbledore recruited him to Hogwarts, but became suspicious of him. And then didn't do anything. Sure, he wasn't Headmaster at the time, so perhaps him powers were limited. He really could have done more to defend Hagrid though. When Voldemort applied for a teaching position at Hogwarts, Dumbledore denied his application, but that was it. If he knew he was evil, why did he let it end there?
Or how about Draco? During his sixth year, Dumbledore knew that he was working with the Death Eaters. Draco's plans could have led to more than Dumbledore's death, many other students could have lost their lives. He let Draco continue in order to save Draco's life (admirable, but foolish. Knock the kid out, put a sleep spell on him, and hide him until the war is over).
Related to this, why is Slytherin still a house? The founder believed in blood purity and was rejected by the other founders of Hogwarts. Their rooms are in the dungeons (why does Hogwarts even have these?) Voldemort recruited most of his original Death Eaters from Slytherin. Dumbledore should have disbanded the House right after the first Wizarding War. This seems especially poignant given our recent discussions in this country over which parts of our past are worth remembering with honor.
You can argue that Dumbledore's questionable decisions are because he wasn't fully invested in being Headmaster of Hogwarts. He had bigger things he was working on, like saving the world from evil wizards. Fine. Give the job to someone with lower ambitions. Let someone lead Hogwarts who is interested in education.
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