Daily Dialogue — June 3, 2016
DOLORES UMBRIDGE: Good morning, children. Ordinary Wizarding Level examinations. O-W-Ls. More commonly known as OWLs. Study hard and you will be rewarded. Fail to do so, and the consequences may be severe. Your previous instruction in this subject has been disturbingly uneven. But you’ll be pleased to know, from now on you will be following a carefully structured, Ministry-approved course of defensive magic. Yes?
HERMIONE: There’s nothing in here about using defensive spells?
DOLORES UMBRIDGE: Using spells? Well, I can’t imagine why you would need to use spells in my classroom.
RON: We’re not gonna use magic?
DOLORES UMBRIDGE: You’ll be learning about defensive spells in a secure, risk-free way.
HARRY: What use is that? If we’re attacked, it won’t be risk-free.
DOLORES UMBRIDGE: Students will raise their hands when they speak in my class.
It is the view of the Ministry that a theoretical knowledge will be sufficient to get you through your examinations, which, after all, is what school is all about.
HARRY: And how’s theory supposed to prepare us for what’s out there?
DOLORES UMBRIDGE: There is nothing out there, dear. Who do you imagine wants to attack children like yourself?
HARRY: Oh, I don’t know. Maybe Lord Voldemort.
DOLORES UMBRIDGE: Now, let me make this quite plain. You have been told that a certain dark wizard is at large once again. This is a lie.
HARRY: It’s not a lie. I saw him. I fought him.
DOLORES UMBRIDGE: Detention, Mr. Potter.
HARRY: Cedric Diggory dropped dead of his own accord?
DOLORES UMBRIDGE: Cedric Diggory’s death was a tragic accident.
HARRY: It was murder. Voldemort killed him. You must know this.
DOLORES UMBRIDGE: Enough! Enough. See me later, Mr. Potter. My office.
— Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix (2007), written by Michael Goldenberg, based on the novel by J.K. Rowling
The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Teacher. Today’s suggestion by Katha.
Trivia: J.K. Rowling had been a schoolteacher before writing the Potter books, and this film features some references to the British educational system. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, students at age 16 were given Ordinary Level (O-Level) exams in all their major subjects, for which they can receive their General Certificate of Education. This corresponds to the Ordinary Wizarding Level (O.W.L.) exams given at Hogwarts. Students who planned to go on to university stayed on two more years to take their Advanced (A-Level) Exams, which roughly correspond to N.E.W.T. (Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Test) Exams.
Dialogue On Dialogue: Commentary by Katha: “Umbrigde is a best-case example of a bad teacher everybody hates. Getting through examinations „is what school is all about“, that‘s the spirit Umbridge teaches with. Nothing about strengthening the children to face live after school. She cuts down her students‘ contributions at the very beginning. Beyond that she tries to act nice and calm, but her sadistic nature glisters right under the surface. Her first act to introduce herself is to burn a beautiful paper-bird — a great way to characterize her without any dialogue.”