Is Snape confident?

[melclaros]

No: HPFGUIDX 86326

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Nora Renka" <nrenka at y...> 
wrote:
 DADA is not by definition a 'discussion 
> > based class'. With Lupin it was, with fakeMoody it seems to have 
> been > to some extent. With Umbridge it was not.
> 
> Real success she was as a teacher, eh? 


mel:
We're discussing style, not substance. I can't imagine Snape using 
sterile state-sanctioned curriculum any more than Lupin or Fake!Moody.


> 
> It does; seen it happen, experienced it myself; but when no one 
else 
> at ALL is responding?  In such a manner?  The insecure snap, the 
> assured manage to communicate it in an effectual way.


Yes, when no one else at all is responding. When no one is responding 
it's because they're thinking "Why bother, Hermione (or insert your 
class smartypants' name here) will call out the answer anyway." 
Teachers call on students they suspect know the answer, or at least 
have a grasp of the subject, whether or not anyone is waving a hand 
in that their face. Snape knows these students. Just because he 
hasn't taught them in that particular classroom  does not mean he 
doesn't know that Goyle will NOT know the answer but one of the other 
30 just might. We actually see very few students beyone the main few 
and even less of Snape's real teaching. Beyond what he does when 
Harry's around we know nothing.

And in that manner--that is Snape's manner. We're discussing Snape. 
Rest assured, there are in fact teachers who would respond in that 
manner and tone, yes.


> Let me put my response back into the context from which it sprang, 
> and try to be brief. :)  My original spark was the question of 
> confidence, and IMO, as I've tried to elucidate, Snape isn't a 
> particularly confident teacher.  


mel
Well that's interesting. He should be considering all his 
students "manage" to pass their OWLS.




>Perhaps I'm biased by spending too 
> much time around university academics 

mel:
Which reminds me, I was going to ask you--do they not have lectures  
anymore. I spent 5 years in college and all my classes were lectures, 
even those with 20-30 students in them until my final 2 years. Then 
the classes in my major were seminar type, held mainly in professors' 
offices and to call them classes would be to really stretch the 
point. Debates, discussions yes. Classes? Only according to my 
transcript and the syllabus.

Continuing on that thought, anyone else besides me here like to see 
what Snape's like in his Advanced NEWT classes? Bet it's a 
whole 'nother world in that dungeon. My bet is that he even enjoys 
those.



> And on the second point, are you agreeing with the general WW view 
> that a werewolf in no way shape or form should be teaching 
children?  
> It's certainly a personal opinion that you have the right to have, 
> but I think JKR is pretty overt in her disapproval of that attitude



mel:
My attitude is irrelevant here. However since you've asked, and as I 
do have children of Hogwarts age, let me consider. 
I send my children away, entrust them to strangers who consider 
themselves scions of the WW. I then find out through a miraculous 
letter home (13 year old son, 'nuf said parents?) that one of these 
trusted teachers is, in fact, a recognised Dangerous Creature. 
There is no, as far as *I* know (is the whole WW aware of Snape's 
potion?) treatment for this condtition and every 28 days it is 
guaranteed that one of this teacher is going to go feral.
I would be annoyed to say the least. Yes.
I do believe Dumbledore would have come out the loser there and that 
is precisely why he is so cold to Lupin when he is finally dismissed. 
He seems more annoyed at Lupin for being "found out" than at himself 
for having made an ill-informed choice. Pulling the wool over your 
staff's eyes is one thing. Pulling it over the parents of (how many 
students?) is quite another.

Is discrimation right? NO. This dyed-in-the-wool liberal says no. But 
as annoying as my kids are, if anyone's going to tear them to shreds 
it'll be me.





--
> Lupin as victim of discrimination (and as her favorite kind of 
> teacher is well-established).  Not to say that we can't disagree 
with 
> an author on interpretation, but that's a somewhat contrary 
> perspective to take, being as it's pre-really actually screwing up 
> and forgetting the potion Lupin.  Just something to think about...


Ah, but he DID forget the potion, didn't he?



Mel, who you should know used to hold Remus as her 2nd favorite 
character. He's going to have to claw his way back up to that spot 
after OoP.