Potions was:Re: OoP(Spoilers) Snape as teacher

[sophineclaire]

No: HPFGUIDX 66888

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "jsmithqwert" 
<jsmithqwert at h...> wrote:
> > 
>> 
> I agree about the whole talent thing.  Afterall, aren't difficult 
> potions only difficult to make because of so many instructions and 
> ingredients.  Anybody who can read and identify the reagents ought 
to 
> be able to make the most complex potion in the world.  It's just 
step-
> by-step instructions.
> 
> jsmithqwert


     I suppose anyone can be a pharmacist then? I liken a Hogwarts 
Potions Class to a very hands on High School Chemistry class. Sure, 
it seems simple for those years in school (For some people, not all). 
There's nothing to spending hours of lab time learning how to use a 
pipette and making indicators change colours with acids and bases. 
It's all ELEMENTARY theory.

Now look at what it's like going into University, things are upped a 
notch, still a bit of step by step instruction, but now you need to 
get the INTERMEDIATE theory into your skull to understand what is 
going on and why. 

  I speculate that being a Potion's Master is similar to being either 
a Master's or Ph.D in either Pharmacy and Chemistry, though closer to 
Pharmacy because since people tend to injest or apply to their skins 
the potions that he makes ( COS: Hermione's stunt in the dungeons 
where several students became enlarged, POA: Wolfsbane Potion, GOF: 
Veritaserum ). On the surface, it seems that all there is to Pharmacy 
is mixing and cooking. Underneath, it requires encyclopedia's of 
necessary and pratical knowledge that a pharmacist needs to know and 
use almost upon demand. Why can't we mix ingredient X with solution 
Y, because it will cause reaction T in people with condition W whom 
we're trying to help. Why does it cause this reaction? because X has 
this stucture and Y has Groups R,S, and D. What can we do to fix 
it.....

and so and so on.

Snape tends to know when something goes wrong, what caused it 
(Neville!) and why it happened ( Because he's a twit! jk, usually 
it's too much of this or a missing ingredient). While knowedge 
doesn't exactly equal competence (Hermione could have gotten A's in 
Diviniation, doesn't mean she's a seer. Ron knows a lot about 
Quidditch, doesn't mean he's particularly good), I think Snape has 
shown that he is quite competent it'd judt that he's just nasty while 
he's doing it.

 And I wonder about the potions classes that we don't see in the 
novels. Maybe there's a potion making class once or twice a week with 
a theory class the rest of the time. Maybe he demonstrates the making 
the potion and why it should turn colours at these stages. But maybe 
it's written on the board, in the instuctions given or the student is 
require to find it during their homework assignments. 

I guess this is the sort of attitude that Snape faces all the time, 
hence the speech in Harry's first year about "Silly Wand waving". 
Imagine all this little brats coming into your class for the first 
time and, especially those of Muggle decent, giggling and bragging 
over how they're going to learn this charm and that charm and which 
spell is the coolest and they're all saying how this class should be 
pretty easy since it's nothing but following instructions and mixing 
ingredients. (Though we can suppose that Snape's reputation has 
gotten to them by now, he's the scary man at the big table.) Doesn't 
anyone think that Snape's first speech is the equivelant of  "Hey, 
Potions are cool too you know....but you have to listen to every word 
I say and do lots of studying", only, you know, nastier...

-SophineClaire
 (Does anyone else think that Hermione went out of her way to be 
Harry's friend in book one???)