The names would have come out over the next few days, anyway. McGonagall’s choice was to either break the news to all the students on her terms, or to have wild rumors appear within hours.
Breaking the news herself gives her the chance to declare her solidarity with the affected students in the clearest possible terms and to quench any schadenfreude immediately. She is proactive, rather than reactive. In fact, compared to the Minerva McGonagall of the very early chapters, she feels a little more grown-up now, in a way. She has developed into a more sophisticated character over the course of the story, and I like this a lot.
In a search for kindness, not using cloistered information for personal advantage, and low tendency for factionalism, “child of a Death Eater” is a pretty hard constraint.
Someone in /r/HPMOR mentioned that similar things happened in Muggle schools after 9/11 (That is, a list of names for children whose parents may have died). Generally speaking, educational institutions are completely unprepared for tragedies.
That’s fair for Muggle schools. But Hogwarts went through a huge wave of orphanings a mere ten years ago during the Wizarding War, at which time McGonagall was already a Hogwarts teacher (likely in the same position). She should have as much experience dealing with such things as any educator can.
Yeah, the general comments were fine, but the list of names? A Muggle would have known better.
The names would have come out over the next few days, anyway. McGonagall’s choice was to either break the news to all the students on her terms, or to have wild rumors appear within hours.
Breaking the news herself gives her the chance to declare her solidarity with the affected students in the clearest possible terms and to quench any schadenfreude immediately. She is proactive, rather than reactive. In fact, compared to the Minerva McGonagall of the very early chapters, she feels a little more grown-up now, in a way. She has developed into a more sophisticated character over the course of the story, and I like this a lot.
You’re right, she should have listed them as she did. But she still needed to have told them privately beforehand.
I mostly agree. (see my reply to Velorien, though)
In a search for kindness, not using cloistered information for personal advantage, and low tendency for factionalism, “child of a Death Eater” is a pretty hard constraint.
Someone in /r/HPMOR mentioned that similar things happened in Muggle schools after 9/11 (That is, a list of names for children whose parents may have died). Generally speaking, educational institutions are completely unprepared for tragedies.
Except that in the Muggle schools after 9/11 the parents who died were not terrorists, so the pupils didn’t have to fear persecution.
That’s fair for Muggle schools. But Hogwarts went through a huge wave of orphanings a mere ten years ago during the Wizarding War, at which time McGonagall was already a Hogwarts teacher (likely in the same position). She should have as much experience dealing with such things as any educator can.