[HPforGrownups] Re: What if other teachers behaved like Snape?

[Shaun Hately]

No: HPFGUIDX 101701

On 16 Jun 2004 at 23:54, dzeytoun wrote:

> Shaun has compared Snape with a horrible maths teacher.  Shaun, I am 
> extremely glad for you that you found those teaching methods 
> effective.  A similar teacher, however, put me in intensive therapy 
> which cost me several years and many thousands of dollars.

Well, just for the record seeing you've brought this up, let me 
reinsert some information that I took out of my previous post 
because I thought it bordered on too much information at the time.

Let me just tell you what effect the school I've mentioned 
previously - the school which I described as: "I spent time in a 
school where everything was sweetness and light, where 
teachers spent all of their time trying to make learning 
happy and passionate for their students."

Let me just put on record what a single year in that school did to 
me.

It turned me into a clinical depressive who had bouts of absolute 
crippling and deep depression at times for the following decade - 
bouts that were only brought under control eventually by medication 
that it looks like I will have to take for the rest of my life.

In the short term - at the time - it left me absolutely suicidal 
with constant thoughts of not just killing myself, but detailed 
plans to kill others because I couldn't see any other way of 
escaping the school situation I was in.

I lost all ability to trust adults, and other children, I lost all 
interest in learning and I had always an incredible lust for 
learning. I stopped reading. I stopped writing. I spent 95% of my 
time trying to hide from other people.

I didn't have to pay for my own therapy - my parents did that - so 
I don't know the exact cost. I do know it was about $90 an hour, 
weekly for two years - and that's in 1987-1990 terms - let's say 
$10,000 or so.

That's what was done to me by a school that was in many ways 
absolutely wonderful for many children.

Why didn't I kill myself? Why did I survive and eventually recover?

Just for the record, it was because I wound up in the school which 
had the Snape like teachers.

Just for the record... I'm not sure whether I should mention this 
or not really but I'll hope for the list elves indulgence on this 
point, because I think my experiences are relevant to a lot of my 
posts, I hope that my contributions to this list are relevant 
enough to let me outline a bit of where I am coming from. In the 
first half of next year, a book will be published in the United 
States that is intended to help parents, teachers, and 
psychologists etc, deal with certain children's problems.

I wrote a chapter of that book - my educational experiences are 
considered relevant to a large enough group of children and 
adolescents and to their educational experience, that they are 
going to be part of this publication.

I mention this fact, because I don't want to leave the impression 
that I am unique. I'm not - my experiences are *not* that uncommon.

I am genuinely and extremely sorry for the fact that you were 
harmed by a teacher. I really am - because I was as well - on 
numerous occasions.

But really the point I'm trying to make here is that in virtually 
every case, a teacher or a specific method of teaching may be 
*great* for some kids - and *hideous* for others.

Just because people had bad experiences with Snape like teachers in 
their own past, isn't a reason to condemn those methods. I had a 
teacher when I was 13 - and incidentally this was at the school I 
*liked* who - well, frankly, I hated her classes, I hated her 
methods, they were just totally wrong for me.

A few years ago, she won one of Australia's top awards for teaching 
- and deservedly so. Her methods didn't do anything for me - in 
fact, I'm extremely glad that I only had to put up with one class 
with her for one year, because I *hated* her classes - but that 
doesn't make them bad methods.

I was helped by teaching methods and teachers that other people say 
would have hurt them terribly, or did hurt them terribly. I 
understand that.

But I was also harmed by teaching methods and teachers that other 
people say they would have loved to experience, or did experience 
and they thought were great. I hope people can understand that as 
well.

> As I have said before, up until OOTP I would not have minded, as the 
> story was told in terms of a fairy tale.  However, as the story takes 
> a more realistic turn JKR's failure to deal more realistically with 
> abuse and its effects cause me to lose an enormous amount of respect 
> for her as a writer.

What determines what is realistic though?

Are my experiences less realistic than yours?




Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
Shaun Hately | www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/thelab.html
(ISTJ)       | drednort at alphalink.com.au | ICQ: 6898200 
"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one
thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the 
facts. They alter the facts to fit the views. Which can be 
uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that 
need altering." The Doctor - Doctor Who: The Face of Evil
Where am I: Frankston, Victoria, Australia


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