[HPforGrownups] Teaching methods was ( Re: Petunia)

[Irene Mikhlin]

No: HPFGUIDX 41186

laura wrote:

> Irene:
> >In real life I think eleven is a little bit early for his
> >teaching methods (but then wizards are tougher on
> >their kids), but later, like at 16-17 - it can be  an
> >excellent character building experience.
>
> I have to disagree with you here.  Alot.  The way he treats his students
is bad *under any circumstances* and esp. when his students are children.
Having a "strict and clever" teacher like McGonnagall is a character
building experience.  Having a teacher like Snape is a destructive one.

Let me start with stating that I love McGonagall. I'd rather be in her
class, I guess. But we don't
know how if she is really as fair as Harry thinks, do we? May be Slytherins
love her just
as much as Gryffindors love Snape. Her sarcasm skills are second to none,
that's for sure.

> Um.  The students are supposed to be *learning* potions, not being
desensitized to the gross unfairness of the world.  Trust me, kids will
teach this to each >other without any outside help.  You're saying that
these kids need their wills broken in order to do well in the outside world?

No, who was saying anything about wills broken? Who had his will broken as a
result of Potions class, anyway?
Not Harry and not Hermione and not anyone else we know about.

>
> Um..yeah. So the moral of the story is: let the children be children.  And
the adolescents be adolescents.  They'll be adults soon enough.  And rushing
them will only make things worse.

But those children in Hogwarts don't get to be children in our sense of the
word! You don't set up
eleven year old to go and get the Stone. You don't give them midnight
detention in forrest.
You don't let them play anything like quidditch. I could go on and on.


> Irene:
> >So far we haven't seen the kids being taught
> >about controlled wandless magic. They are only able to do it
> >when they are "scared or angry", to quote Hagrid.
> >*Scared or angry* ? Doesn't it describe the state of poor
> >potions students perfectly? :-)
>
> What about Malfoy and the rest of the Slytherins?  Oh, I remember, this is
the part of the "Snape is nasty because he CARES" theory which states that
Snape is nice to Malfoy and Co. in order to *disadvantage* future DE's in
the upcoming battle.

That's not my theory. If all the Slytherins (at least in Harry's year) are
coming from pureblood families
who are playing with the darker aspects of magic, may be they know about
wandless magic?

>
> pssh.  The problem with this is that, as far as I can tell, Snape really
does *like* Malfoy.

Not enough to give him a grade above Hermione's, right? And this, IMHO,
should be
enough to refute theories that his grades are arbitrary, and he passes kids
just to
get rid of them in the class.

>
> Also, this theory really doesn't stand up when you really look at it.  The
kind of wandless magic performed by the "scared or angry" is uncontrolled
and dangerous...but it DOES relate directly to what the person is
scared/angry about.  Inciting children with raw, unmeasured power to get
angry enough to perform wandless magic does NOT seem like a good idea from
Snape's point of view.  Esp. with Harry, who's anger is more likely to
splatter a certain Potion's Master brains all over the wall before it tries
to please Snape.

Why doesn't it happen, though? Surely Harry is at least as angry with Snape
as he is with aunt Marge? :-)

>
> Irene:
> >So, in light of this theory failing marks are really not good enough for
> >Neville.
> >He needs this extra push to get the magic out of him. And it's either
very
> >powerful, or very unfocused - just ask all those melted cauldrons.
>
> If a teacher treated me the way Snape treats Neville, I would  be hard
pressed to find the motivation to work hard for him as well.

Not very different from the way his own family treated him to get some magic
out of him.
That's a very sad thought. Poor boy had a childhood just as traumatic as
Harry's, and he
had not even got a break when he started Hogwarts.

Darrin says:

>Except for Hermione making the Polyjuice Potion, we have no evidence
>of anyone getting anything out of Snape's classes except migraines.

Who taught Harry Expelliarmus? Who put him in touch with his inner
Parselmouth?

Irene