If you had to ask me which class was my least-ever favorite, I would have to say Herbology. The sad thing is? I love plants. I used to climb trees with the best of them. I enjoy hiking through forests. I have fun whittling wood and riding broomsticks. And fruit is basically the most amazing food, particularly all kinds of berries right off the bush or stalk. I even highly appreciate mushrooms, although I would never trust myself to harvest them.
And that, right there, is the crux of the problem. I can't determine what is poisonous and what is not just by looking at a mushroom. Berries - particularly if they are ones I have known all my life - are one thing. It's super-hard to mistake a strawberry for anything else, for example. But if there's a wrong way to do it, I'll find it. If there's a mistake to be made, I'll make it. I've killed more innocent plants in Herbology than live in the entire Forbidden Forest. My saving grace is the fact that all the practical things we do in class, we do in pairs or teams. My friends have learned to let me take all the notes, do the drawings, advise about procedures... anything except interact directly with the plants themselves. They value their own grades too much.
Let's face it, I can kill an air plant. Literally, a plant that needs zero tending and thrives best if you leave it completely alone. I swear, all I did was try to give it some gentle encouragement. I never even breathed heavily on it! I just gave it a quiet pep talk at the end of each class, telling it I was proud of it and happy it was doing so well. The thing died the third week of class last year; it was the only one. All the other air plants in the greenhouse grew and multiplied. Mine? Mine became a solitary, withered stalk of defeat.
So, if you ever find yourself in charge of curriculum for a school, please remember that not all students have an innate knack for absolutely everything - and that ought to be okay. After all, I love nature and I did learn all appropriate information and the right things to do, even if my results are increasingly abysmal. At least my theoretical Exceeds Expectations, and my practical Dreadful averaged out to a barely-passing Acceptable in the end.
Just don't think I'm going to make any attempt at an N.E.W.T. in Herbology. What would be the point?