Snape's teaching style (was Snape Again)

[Hillman, Lee]

No: HPFGUIDX 16621

I'm chiming in to agree with and expand on Amanda's great comments about
Snape:

> 
> Magda Grantwich wrote:
> 
> > > <Lupin rips into Harry in his excruciatingly quiet way, 
> leaving him
> > > feeling like crap (he and Ron ought to go apologize to Hermione,
> > > who, like Lupin, was exasperated that they weren't taking Black
> > > seriously...but anyway)>
> >
> > I really like that part of PoA because it comes immediately after
> > Lupin has rescued Harry and Ron from Snape's office.  Snape pretty
> > much tells Harry the same thing Lupin does: a lot of people are
> > running around protecting your hide, Potter, but you don't seem to
> > appreciate it; get with it, all right?
> 
> Tremedous observation! I had never really realized that, but you're
> right.
> 

Oh, absolutely, Magda. Kind disappointment is frequently so much more
difficult to hear (and more effective) than habitual put-downs. Plus you've
got the difference in their sources: Harry greatly respects and admires
Lupin; the same could not be said of Snape. Hearing that Lupin is
"disappointed" in him is far more damning.

Amanda continued: 
> So I've been looking forward to some Snape development. If this is
> touched upon again, it'll be revealing to see if Snape behaves
> differently, or if he simply figured Lupin was "sugarcoating" 
> for James'
> kid and to spare himself. I get the feeling Snape doesn't lie 
> to himself
> much. But he also doesn't apologize (much like my dad)--I think if he
> does alter his view, he'll simply alter it and proceed from 
> that point,
> without wasting any time re-examining past actions. That 
> seems to be his
> style; the new method of proceeding is supposed to be acknowledgement
> enough. 

I think Amanda's hit the nail on the head, here. Snape does not seem to look
back. On the odd occasion when he does reiterate the past, he's so bitter
and narrow-minded that he can only present past events as a justification
for his current course of action (like his explanation in the Shrieking
Shack or to Harry about James, both in PoA). He is thoroughly convinced of
his correctness. When something DOES penetrate, it simply gets folded into
the new paradigm and he adopts it into standard operating procedure. Taking
the course correction is enough. It's a very computational operating system,
as opposed to an analytical (let's get all this straight) or intuitive (but
that would mean...) approach. I think he does analyze and he does make
intuitive leaps as a result, but as Amanda says, he does those things in
private. Once he has made the decision to change his behaviour, however, he
simply makes the change. That's it. End of story.

Another insight I had while writing this: Snape is broken, we all can see
that, but part of why he *stays* broken is because he doesn't examine his
past or make any attempt to see why it has shaped him to be the way he is.
He is bitter and resentful and he disdains everything but his own extreme
sense of honour and conduct (which is highly skewed). As I said,
occasionally something really does penetrate, and he may think about it
enough to see the logic of it (Occam's razor, in the case of the 'prank')
and make a conscious choice to change Supposition to Fact in the file
cabinet of his Id and fold it in to his new operating paradigm. But I think
he doesn't internalize that realization--that is, it still doesn't change
how he feels or how he chooses to interact with that past. It's still past;
therefore there is an oak door between it and where he is now. He may
integrate new learned responses (i.e., Okay, Sirius isn't a mass murderer),
but he still doesn't look at how that colours his attitudes (but I still
hate him). He can't even see how that cripples his judgment. (When I first
read the Shrieking Shack scene, all I could think was the old saw: "My
mind's made up; don't confuse me with the facts.")

Comical side note-- Milz wrote:
> I also think he's frustrated. Over what exactly I can't say, but it 
> affects how he interacts with the students. I speculate that he 
> played a very important role for 'Our Side' during the Voldy years. 
> But, his employment as a 'spy', prohibited any acknowledgement for 
> his efforts. Whatever the case may be, hopefully we'll be able to 
> read about it in the future books.
> 
Well, I'd definitely say that he wouldn't mind getting acknowledgement for
doing Stuff, as evidenced by how he responds to Fudge in PoA: "Thank you
very much indeed, Minister," etc., but I'm more inclined to say that we all
*know* what frustrates Snape (see the Daily Prophet personals--nudge, nudge,
wink, wink)!

Back to serious Amanda quotes:
> 
> I think Snape's view of what a teacher does, and yours (and mine),
> probably differs. Snape probably considers the duty of a teacher to
> impart information, and this he does. After all, Hermione, Ron, and
> Harry managed to make a very complicated potion in their second year.
> 
> The "parental" aspect of a teacher, how they relate to their students,
> probably isn't on Snape's scale at all. It's not his job to 
> be nice. He
> puts valuable information out there, and if the students are 
> too idiotic
> to be able to use it, the more fools they.

I absolutely agree with Amanda on this, and I have an example. I had a
teacher in high school English. Everyone was scared to death of him--with a
few exceptions, of course, but basically everyone. It didn't help that the
guy's built like a linebacker-- 6'4", broad and big, probably 300 pounds
(sorry, can't convert to stone), bald, and with a real deep, Darth Vader
voice (no respirator, though). We called him the "Lasser the Lascerator."
People prayed they weren't put in his section. I'm serious.

On our very first day of class in 9th grade (14 y.o.), he delivered a
lecture to the effect that he was our *teacher*--not our friend, not our
parent, not our confessor. He did not attend any extracurricular activities,
he did not coach, he did not head the debate team, he did not direct (with
one exception each year) school productions--he deliberately avoided any
role of teacher but that spent in the classroom. He warned us that he could,
if he so chose, reduce any one of us to a "pile of melted butter" just with
words, and clearly enjoyed having that kind of reputation. He joked that he
corrected papers in blue ink because when he used red, people worried that
it was blood. He did not see that his role was to do anything other than
teach us--not just his subject, but how to learn it. 

But you know what? He was arguably the best teacher in the school. He turned
us into writers and taught us how to read literature. He made us think, he
made us grow, and he made us perform. I still credit him with a lot of my
development as a writer--it's because of the challenge he threw out to us
that I pushed myself to improve. That and the fear of poor grades ;^) And
while there were probably about half of the students who feared him above
all others (though not to the extent of Neville), even they acknowledged
that he was darn good at what he did. Now, there were subtle changes in our
relationships with him over the years, as we grew into young adults and
began to see that he wasn't _quite_ the ogre he wanted us to think he
was--though he's still an arrogant SOB. By the time we graduated, there were
several students who would go so far as to say they liked him. Most didn't.
But we all learned with amazing efficacy. 

Being a "mean" teacher doesn't necessarily equate to being a "bad" teacher.

Amanda again:  
> But on the whole teacher thing, I think it's a current thing to view
> schools and teachers as sort of extensions of the family, teachers as
> mentors, teachers as developers of the "whole child," that sort of
> thing. I think Snape probably is a very good teacher, in the narrow
> definition of one who imparts knowledge of a subject. For the 
> rest, as I
> said, I don't think it's even crossed his mind that that's part of his
> job.
> 

Bingo again. I think this is so true of Snape--admittedly, it's not the
right approach for Neville. We teach the way we learn. By that I mean, if my
learning style is visual, auditory, or kinetic, grasps concepts quickly or
slowly, requires a lot of coaching, or requires a very clear set of tasks
(Do this, then this, then this), that when I turn around to teach someone
that same process, I'm going to start by teaching it using the preferred
style I used to learn it. 

Assuming Snape was an above average student, one who cottoned on pretty
quickly and didn't need a lot of minute direction, he's going to teach that
way, and assume that anyone who can't do it like that is a "dunderhead."
Snape also has the kind of impatient personality that doesn't suffer fools
well. Where he fails _with Neville_ is that he makes no attempt to alter his
method to find Neville's preferred learning style. However, should Snape be
expected to tailor his teaching style to every student? That's a tough
ethical question. Does he have the right to insult and bully them? No, but
there's a thin line between bullying and challenging. I get the sense that
Snape has one foot to either side of it.

I think he's a bit harsh on the 11 year olds, but then I also think he sets
himself up to be the butt of many choruses of "Get over yourself."
(Incidentally, this is how I felt about my English teacher as well--Dude,
chill out). All through the Potions scene in CoS, where Harry throws the
firework into Goylee's cauldron (ch. 11), all I could think of to say to
Snape was, "Good god, man, could you possibly take yourself more seriously?"
If Neville could simply take Snape with a grain of salt, he wouldn't
internalize Snape's constant barrage of insults, IMO. But that's not
Neville's personality, either.

Now, as to Neville himself, Amanda wrote:
> 
> I think there's *way* more to Neville than we've seen so far. I still
> think he's had his memory damaged by well-meaning relatives. 
> Maybe when
> they learn charm-breaking or hex-removing or something, 
> Neville's memory
> charm will accidentally be broken? Hmmmm

I think there's way more to Neville, too. First of all, I think he'll grow a
lot and become less clumsy. But beyond the physical: no, I don't think his
memory was damaged. I think he's had a lot of pressure put on him by his
family. He hasn't had parents, but there's an army of uncles, aunts,
cousins, grandmother, and other relatives--most of whom sound old enough to
know better--pushing him constantly. I have a feeling that he's the center
of attention at home, in a bad way. I mean, they were champing at the bit to
find out if he was magical, resorting to all sorts of tortures along the
way. I think his family overemphasizes his magical heritage and his
potential and intimidates him even further. He's got such low self-esteem,
he does *not* need to be built up at this point: "This is so easy, Neville,
I know you're just going to take to this like a duck to water. Really, it'll
be fine, Neville, I'm sure you're going to be a natural." This is *not* what
he needs to hear--as with Harry, in fact, it reinforces his doubts, and does
nothing to bolster his ego. He is now even *more* certain that he will fail,
and by failing, disappoint. OTOH, he doesn't need to be belittled, either.

I'm not arguing that Snape is right to push him and scare him more. But I
also don't think Snape should be expected to change his personality to
accommodate Neville. In general, Snape could be more patient, but I
certainly don't see him turning into a nurturing person who takes a lot of
time with Neville on an individual basis. 

It's difficult to see how Snape can get over a lot of this stuff in himself.
He's so patently broken, and with his refusal to look back and examine that
aspect of himself, whether because of the pain or the psychological barriers
or the need to break with his past, I wonder whether he will learn to accept
that he doesn't have to disdain everyone and everything. I see no future in
which Snape is a "nice" person, but I can see him forced to come to grips
with the events who broke him in the first place, and finally moving on.

Okay, I really need to drop this now. Can you tell old Severus has just been
sharing way too much information with me lately? Back, Severus. Down, boy.

Gwen (-dolyn Grace, as another Gwen has arrived recently)