[HPforGrownups] Is Snape unfair (with House Points)?

[The Fox]

No: HPFGUIDX 56820

"mongo62aa" wrote:
>"Tom Wall" wrote:

>>There is absolutely zero canon to support the notion that Snape is unfair 
>>with House Points.
>
>'Please, sir,' said Hermione, whose hand was still in the air, 'the 
>werewolf differs from the true wolf in several small ways. The snout of the 
>werewolf -'
>
>'That is the second time you have spoken out of turn, Miss Granger,' said 
>Snape cooly.  'Five more points from Gryffindor for being an insufferable 
>know-it-all.'

He's well within his rights to take points from Gryffindor at this juncture; 
as others have noted, losing House points may be the only way Hermione 
learns to sit down and shut up (that is, learns that her Extreme Cleverness 
may not always be helpful to her House).

Calling her an insufferable know-it-all is probably over the line.  No call 
for ad hominem attacks, now, Severus, let's keep it professional (the fact 
that the girl *is* an insufferable know-it-all notwithstanding).  Ditto the 
well-trodden "no difference" teeth example.

The reason Dumbledore doesn't ever call him on it, though, if you ask me, is 
that -- in my experience, at least -- British schools in general are much 
less invested in the self-esteem-type stuff American schools are devoted to 
these days.  I've had both; the "mean" teachers in my American school (and 
in the school where my parents taught, a public school with more students 
and therefore a different sort of accountability to their parents) would 
indeed have been called on the carpet for singling out a particular student 
for negative attention, even if that negative attention did have something 
to do with the student's schoolwork.  Heaven forbid a teacher be the cause 
of a student's losing face in front of his or her peers.  The horror!

In my British school, on the other hand (a grammar school, in Lincolnshire, 
1988 -- the 11-plus was still administered there then, although I don't know 
if it is any longer), the teachers had license to be apparently as cruel as 
they wanted, or as they felt they needed to be to get results.  A kid 
persistently talking out of turn (even to give correct answers) in one of 
those classes would almost certainly have been shamed into knocking it off, 
and if that kid's parents had made a stink about it with the school 
administrators, they'd probably have been laughed out of the office.  The 
"nice" teachers in that school were the ones who smiled instead of sneering 
while they were mocking you in front of your friends.

There are arguments to be made on both sides, of course.  Snape is nastier 
than he needs to be, I agree, but part of being a successful student is 
figuring out what the teacher wants, and doing it -- and Hermione, for all 
she's book-smart and has a mind like a sponge, hasn't figured that out yet.

Fox

........................
"... I think I'd like it
if he *could* be wicked
and *wouldn't."
-- Anne of the Island
...
Come on, Nature
Just because I don't feel weak
Don't mean I feel so strong.
-- the Proclaimers
..............................

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