Snape's grading may not be fair, but...

[marinafrants]

No: HPFGUIDX 74890

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Christy Jewell 
<christyj2323 at y...> wrote:
> 
> Snape may not be fair, but I don't think that what
> he's doing has anything to do with being mean.
> 
> He's trying to motivate the kids to work HARDER!
> Here's what the usual thought is. With the rare
> exception of kids like Hermione, who'd probably work
> hard no matter what, most kids are not highly
> motivated to work hard. Especially when they are
> getting good grades.

Why would any kid be motivated to work harder by the knowledge that 
he's going to fail no matter what he does?  To motivate somebody to 
work harder, you must give them at least a tiny glimmer of hope that 
their hard work will be rewarded.  In five years, Snape has yet to 
give Harry such a glimmer.

Harry fails to hand in a potion.  Snape gives him a zero.  Harry 
hands in a potion.  Snape destroys it and gives him a zero again.  
Why the heck would Harry try to do better after this?  He might as 
well take a nice long nap in every Potions class from now on -- the 
result will be the same zero, but at least he'll be better rested.

> 
> By grading Harry(or anyone else) lower he motivates
> him to work harder to get a better grade.

That only works if you actually do give them a better grade if they 
work harder.  Snape doesn't do this.  If he doesn't like somebody -- 
like Neville or Harry -- it doesn't matter how hard they work, 
they'll never do any better.  And the kids know this.

> I don't think that's Harry though, and I think Snape
> knows it. Harry works harder to prove Sanpe wrong,
> after all. The theory has backfired with Neville (and
> probaly other students before)

Have we ever seen a single student with whom Snape's methods 
succeeded?  A single student who started out being bad in potions, 
worked harder in response to Snape's bullying, showed improvement 
and got a better grade?  Or is this going to be another one of 
those "they're all over the place, Harry just failed to notice them 
over the course of five years" arguments?

> but how Snape teaches
> is pretty common in inner cities where getting the
> kids to become motivated can be hard. 

If that's true, it certainly explains a lot about the state of 
modern inner-city schools.  If I was an inner city kid and a teacher 
treated me the way Snape treats Harry, dropping out to join a gang 
would seem more attractive every day.

> You push them to
> do better. Teachers aren't there to be the kids
> friends. They have their friends for that. 

Teachers are not there to be the kids' enemies, either.  Or at 
least, they shouldn't be.

I don't believe Snape's teaching style works.  Any kid who does well 
in his class (such as Hermione) does it in spite of him, not because.

Marina
rusalka at ix.netcom.com