[HPforGrownups] Re: Hagrid/I hate Hermione!!!!

[yr awen]

No: HPFGUIDX 41347

Talia said(in re: chem teacher):

>Even though I hate her *much* more than 
I thought it was possible to hate someone, I still learned more because all I 
could think about was "showing Doc up!"  I think I would pick Snape over 
Hagrid - and I cannot stand Hermione.

I think this is definitely getting into a matter of 'personal preference'. I've been fortunate to have fairly good teachers for most of my school career. The only really bad one I had was an Advanced Placement Biology teacher (Advanced Placement, for non-US people, is a university-level class taught in high school. If you pass the national test in the subject at the end of the year, you can obtain college credit for it) who was truly terrible. He wasn't terrible in the bullying, nasty way Snape is, but rather his head seemed to be firmly wedged up... well, I'll leave that to you. Suffice to say, it's not complimentary. I did well in the class and passed the national boards test mostly because I liked the subject and was determined to not have my grades be wrecked because of a teacher who couldn't teach to save his life.

However, at that point, you're really getting into aptitude. I've found that it's much easier to do well in a class with a teacher you hate if you have some affinity for the subject or the will/motivation to *make* yourself like it. Some people would do well in a Snape-type class; I imagine I would do well, but hate every minute of it, and I don't think 'revenge-motivated' work is the best kind. If living well is the best revenge, then I would guess that 'living well' is tinged with bitter satisfaction, and what kind of satisfaction is that?

That said, I've had many more teachers who share Hagrid's passion for their subjects. Moreover, they've shared extracurricular concerns and activities with me in the way that Hagrid goes out of his way to help Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

Continuing:

>She's not helping Neville by 
telling him what to do.  If she wants to help, why doesn't she tutor him?

I'm not sure if you're referring to the incident when Neville's Shrinking Solution goes awry and Snape threatens to test the solution on poor Trevor (at least, this is the instance that springs to mind), but I'll give my evaluation of that scenario anyway. 

What else *can* Hermione do under the circumstances? Let Trevor, to whom Neville is obviously attached, die? Give Snape the satisfaction of scoring points against the Gryffindors? Yeah, so maybe Hermione should have sacrificed her ego and shut up, but some people have breaking points, even her.

Continuing: 

>Cheating doesn't help anyone (which is the reason I failed 4 tests my 8th 
grade year after my math-genius boyfriend and I broke up).  Snape takes 
points off because Hermione helps him cheat.  

Well, see the statement above :-) Yeah, Hermione's not helping Neville's potions knowledge all (I'm sure that's past helping, in some respects), but she puts herself at considerable risk to help Neville at least keep Trevor alive, because Snape has proved himself quite capable of following through on his threats. I agree wholeheartedly that cheating is a bad thing, but Hermione has to make a judgment call in this particular instance: keep her compendious knowledge to herself and let Trevor be potentially poisoned or share it and try to salvage a bad situation, for Neville at least.


HF.


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