Everything is An Argument: The Importance of a Great Teacher

Definite Harry Potter Spoilers…If you haven’t read all the books/Movies and don’t want to know what happens DO NOT READ!
　
　
The “Harry Potter” series by J.K. Rowling is literally a world wide phenomenon. It has reached out to an estimated 200 countries, has been spoken out in over 69 languages, and has touched the lives of more than 4 hundred million people. This series ignores gender, race, age, and religion, and is utterly universal. Rowling didn’t just write her record breaking novels to tell a story, though. She wrote it to convey messages about life, love, family, friends, forgiveness, inner strength, and so much more.
On the outside, “Harry Potter” is a group of seven consecutive novels about a wizard boy named Harry. Really, though there is so much more to the novels than the actual storyline. If one takes the time to really think about these novels they may learn something valuable to take with them into everyday life.
I have read the books to many times to count affectively, and many life lessons jump out at me, but maybe the most prominent lesson for me was not an entirely active part of the novels. It was a lesson, an argument, that was always there in the background but very rarely the focus. I first noticed this one of Rowling’s arguments in the third book in the series, “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.” That argument is this: There is great importance in having a good teacher.
A new character is introduced in chapter five of the third book. “Harry, Ron, and Hermione set off down the corridor, looking for an empty compartment, but all were full except the one at the very end of the train. This only had one occupant, a man sitting fast asleep next to the window………..The stranger was wearing an extremely shabby set of wizards robes which had been darned in several places. He looked ill and exhausted. Though he seemed quite young, his light brown hair was flecked with grey.” This man is professor Remus John Lupin, a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher during Harry’s third year. By this description, which is definitely a negative one, one may think that the Lupin is a slobby background character, as far from a role model as one can get. Looks, however can be very deceiving.
Teachers, good ones, teach about something they are connected to in some way. Lupin is connected to the Dark Arts in his very being. Lupin is not just some ordinary wizard, he is a werewolf. He has learned strength from his condition he has lessons in just his back-story that everyone can learn from.
Harry’s success in untimely defeating the Dark Lord, Voldemort could not have been possible without the teaching of Remus Lupin. Lupin originally teaches Harry a patronus charm to protect Harry from a type of evil creature, a dementor literally steals happy memories from its victims and sucks out his/her soul. A patronus banishes the creature, ultimately chasing it off. Lupin teaches Harry this charm when Harry is thirteen years old. The skill level of the spell to be completed, though, is seventeen years old. With a good teacher one can accomplish anything. Voldemort’s defeat could not have been possible without this charm, as it saves Harry’s life numerous times, including: book 3 Harry goes back in time to save himself and serious black from the dementor book 5 Harry and Dudley (Harry’s cousin) get attacked by dementors and Harry saves them yet again, along with many other times. Without the knowledge of this charm Harry may have never survived to defeat Voldemort.
Harry looks up to Lupin as a role model and even says “You’re the best Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher we’ve ever had!” to Lupin upon the stating of his resignation. Harry needed a figure to look up to in the novels, he needed a great teacher who could help him learn both academic and life lessons, but most off all he needed a friend and Lupin was all of that and more to Harry.
J.K. Rowling actually describes Lupin as the teacher she wished that she had. She essentially modeled him after her idea of a “perfect teacher”. He has is flaws, but so does everyone and his flaws help him to be an even better educator. This quote by Rowling in an interview shows how she feels about Lupin.
“ was also playing with that [intolerance] when I created Professor Lupin having a contagious disease so people are frightened of him. I really liked him as a character but he also has his failing though he's a nice man and a wonderful teacher – in fact he's the one time I've written a teacher... the kind of teacher I'd have loved to have had. McGonagall is a good teacher but scary at times. Lupin's failing is he likes to be liked. That's where he slips up – he's been disliked so often he's always pleased to have friends so cuts them an awful lot of slack.”
　
　
　Having a great teacher changes you as a person. Having a teacher that wants to push you to your limits, but always wants you to do the best you can do will help you overcome challenges in life that you will want to face head on. A good teacher makes lessons challenging, but always gives you a chance of success. I had a teacher that would make the class take unbelievably hard tests, knowing that everyone would fail, just so that the students would have to work harder for their good grade. This proved to me that he cared. A caring teacher is also very important. Teachers are an important role in out society and everyone in our country has a number of them. Of course there are some teachers that could really care less, but others really make an impression on the students, and these are the ones that teach you the most. Lupin is one of these teachers.