Snape's teaching style

[lea.macleod at gmx.net]

No: HPFGUIDX 16983

 "Lyda Clunas" <lydaclunas at x> wrote:
(Some excellent thoughts, but I will confine this reply to the actual 
question of Snape´s teaching methods)

> >> But we all learned with amazing efficacy. Being a "mean" teacher 
> doesn't necessarily equate to being a "bad" teacher.<<
> >>I think this is so true of Snape--admittedly, it's not the right 
> approach for Neville. We teach the way we learn. 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." 

We teach the way we learn. Yes, that´s excellently put. But don´t 
limit this statement to the intellectual aspect of teaching. It also 
goes (maybe even more so) for the emotional/psychological side of it. 
Either Snape was a very clever student who never had problems at 
school and got all the intellectual recognition he deserved - then, no 
wonder he bullies Neville, not being able to understand him, and no 
wonder he bullies Hermione, probably she reminds him of himself.
Or Snape was a bit of a dunderhead  himself and would have needed a 
lot of help and special tutoring himself but didn´t get it, so he 
thinks if he had a hard time at school, why should the others have an 
easier time?

I´m not defending his behaviour, it´s just the way people´s minds 
usually work.
-------

Lyda continues:

Snape also has the kind of impatient personality 
that > doesn't suffer fools well.
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.<<

Right. Let´s face it: this guy is a pedagogical nightmare. The 
question is not whether he is a good or a bad teacher, he is *no 
teacher* at all, it´s as simple as that. I´ve never known or read 
about a person less qualified (in character and personal enthusiasm) 
to be a teacher than him. 

And he knows. He hates his job. And he doesn´t mind other people 
knowing. The "dunderhead" speach makes it clear enough. 

Catherine wrote:
>Snape's meanness serves absolutely no purpose at all, except to 
intimidate the  students he dislikes and I think that his overall 
teaching method is  potentially destructive.<

Yes, I agree totally. I think "challenging his students" is a highly 
euphemistic synonym for making them feel again and again he hates 
teaching.

Remember in PoA, in the Shrieking shack scene, Lupin tells Sirius 
Snape is a teacher at Hogwarts, and Sirius is extremely surprised. I 
think at that moment they silently share the opinion that it is not 
only surprising and strange and disquieting that Snape is locally 
present at Hogwarts, but also that he´s teaching. He clearly wasn´t 
meant to be.

So I´m fairly convinced that of all reasons why Dumbledore made Snape 
come to Hogwarts (be it to provide him with a safe place, to keep an 
eye on him or whatever), it was certainly *not* because Dumbledore 
thought him a good teacher. Letting him teach is probably no more than 
a pretext of keeping him at Hogwarts.

So I think the question of Snape´s teaching qualifications and 
qualities should be settled - there are none, that´s all.