[HPforGrownups] Re: Snape as teacher

[ender_w]

No: HPFGUIDX 12117


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Monika Zaboklicka 
  To: HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Monday, February 12, 2001 7:14 AM
  Subject: Re: [HPforGrownups] Re: Snape as teacher

  >>A bit off-topic explanation: at high school, my father used to have a math
  >>teacher who was *absolutely* horrible person. She used to yell at her
  >>students, girls rutinely were taking tranquilizers before her lessons, she
  >>was the most hated person at school and yet, more than 20 years later at a
  >>reunion her former students insisted that she was the best teacher! 


  I can't speak about this particular teacher, because I don't know her and I don't know just how nasty she was, and i do agree with your point that a teacher's ability is more important that his or her personality, but, as a teacher myself, I firmly believe that there is NO excuse for bullying, nastiness, or any sort of abuse, no matter how talented the teacher is.  Working with kids with learning disabilities, I have seen, far too often, the terrible psychological damage that even the best teacher can cause by having a bad attitude.



  >>And besides, Dumbledore doesn't seem to mind that members of his staff are
  >>rude to students or even to other teachers. He doesn't mind that Filtch
  >>bullies students, he doesn't react when McGonagall mocks Trelawney *in
  >>public* (Christ, I could never understand this!).

  Call me a heretic (and I know the Snape lovers will), ...and before I say this, let me insist that Snape is one of my favorite characters...but I see Snape as a literary device more than a person to be psychoanalyzed.  Now, I firmly believe that there is more to Snape than we see and he will become instrumental in the coming war with Voldmort, but, as far as his personality in the classroom, I have trouble reading too much into it.  I think that he's nasty to Gryffindors simply because they're Gryffindors and he's a Slytherin.  I also think that JKR has made him the stereotypical mean teacher for the sake of making Harry's life more interesting, and not  just because Snape has some deep, dark secrets in his psyche...though I'm not saying he doesn't.  What am I talking about?  I'm not sure.  I guess an analogy might be some of Stephen King's religious characters.  King often puts corrupt, overbearing, angry and prideful religious characters into his story.  Why are they that way?  Is there some deep psychological reason behind it?  Something in their past?  Some dark motivation?  Sometimes yes and sometimes no.  Sometimes King creates those characters to be just what they are: stereotypical religious hypocrites.  An analogy closer to home comes from stories I've read (though I can't think of any off the top of my head) written by authors who went to Catholic school back in the time when the nuns still used corporal punishment.  Often, their stories will have a stereotypically nasty teacher reflecting that past experience (by the way, I have nothing against nuns or Catholic school.  I went to Catholic school for twwelve years and I remember the nuns tended to be nicer than the lay teachers).  I guess my point is that in almost every child's life, there is that dreaded, nasty teacher that the child thinks is out to get him.  JKR knows that (like most of us, she probably experienced it) and so, for Harry that dreaded teacher is Snape. 

  ender



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