When a family member is your teacher + First year teacher disaster stories

[plaid_slytherin]

The story itself is set in the UK (it's an HP fic), but any personal experience is wanted

Comments

[tea_and_roses]

Well, I'm home schooled, so my parents are my actual teachers, but my younger brothers are not. However, if my 14 yr old brother did become my teacher, I'd probably use embarrassing illustrations for every assignment given. For example, if he asked me to explain some spell (I don't know much about HP, so this may be of no use,) I'd most likely explain how the improper use of levitation is like the time he tried to jump off the roof at four years old in a towel thinking he could fly and Daddy had to bring him down.
If told to write an essay, I'd litter it with subjects that we had completely opposite opinions on. Like why it's statistically impossible for his Quidditch team to win. Of course, I'd word it well and do my research so he'd be forced to give me a good grade.
This is assuming that I wanted to give him a hard time, though. You mentioned disasters, and that's what I thought of. I hope this helped you! My Harry Potter knowledge is lacking, I know. Good luck with the writing!

[lilacsigil]

One of my high school friends went to a primary school with only two teachers - one taught Grades Prep-3, her mother taught Grades 4-6. She and her sisters were each taught by their mother for at least three years. She said it was hard because there was no break between "family" and "school" (her mother was their only parent). Obviously, your Hogwarts student would have other teachers as well, but my friend had her mother as a teacher all day, every day. She said her mother was much quicker to discipline her than other students because her mother would just know when she wasn't working or was doing something she shouldn't, but it wasn't really unfair, because her mother recognised the things she did well just as quickly. On the other hand, her mum enforced "private time" when they all got home from school - they all had to go to their rooms, or outside, and not talk to each other for an hour

[evilsimon]

I went to a boarding school where teachers' children often attended. They tried to keep students out of classes that their parents taught, but sometimes it was unavoidable since there was only one teacher for a class. My AP Bio teacher's son was in that class, and on the first day she announced to the class, "Yes, we are related", and that was the end of it.

Occasionally things would happen like my teacher's husband coming into the class over minor family-related disasters, like trees falling on cars and things.

[dynapink]

During the time I was in school, quite a few classmates ended up getting taught by their mothers because of the whole class rotation thing.

I can't remember any particular disasters, but those students did tend to be the most responsible by far, and the ones who always had their homework done every single day. I never noticed or knew about one of them being treated preferentially, but there were a few instances of the opposite happening. Basically, minor infractions that might earn another student no more than a raised eyebrow tended to be dealt with more harshly when it was the teacher's own offspring causing problems. (Although for the most part, they did not cause problems. Ever.)

The hardest thing seemed to be enduring the other students' taunts about "teacher's pet" and "little mama's baby", and the demands that they intercede on their behalf somehow over bad grades or disciplinary problems or some such. The latter was particularly true in the case of the principal's son and daughter

[lilacsigil]

I must say I'd be a little leery of the likelihood of a first-year teacher being made head of house.

I thought that too, but then remembered the war, and assumed that this is an "all hands on deck" post-war situation. War heroes are likely to get preferential treatment, especially in an Order of the Phoenix-run administration, I suspect. My school (in the 80s and 90s) had a Physical Education teacher who had started there after leaving the navy in WWII. He didn't have any actual qualifications, and I don't know how he was still a teacher by this time, but he certainly was, and no-one argued it.

[eriathwen_bob]

I agree with you on some points, certainly that the free places are going to have to be filled very quickly. There aren't that many staff places freed up, but enough that there will be a problem. However, to take on a new teacher and then immediately put them up into senior faculty seems... well... unlikely. I think what would be more likely to happen is one of the other staff be promoted, for example if McGonagall were to leave, to make Binns or Sinistra or Vector or someone as head of house for a few years.

[lyorn]

The latter was particularly true in the case of the principal's son and daughter.

Reminds me, the caretaker's daughter was in my year, and she really got beleagured with requests to nick some key or the other that would of course be returned instantly with none the wiser.

She used her access to the keys only once AFAIK, for our graduation prank.

[daegaer]

In my university department, several staff members have taught their own child - it's perhaps different from school, but what you might be able to use is that at staff meetings people in that situation would leave the room if their child was to be discussed, so as to avoid mixing parental protectiveness and professional standards.