[HPforGrownups] Re: What's wrong with being bad ?

[Shaun Hately]

No: HPFGUIDX 102117

On 19 Jun 2004 at 15:44, dumbledore11214 wrote:

> Alla:
> 
> How much does the students' performance reflects on him? I am 
> inclined to think that Dumbledore will keep him at school regardless, 
> because his initial reasons for keeping Snape as  ateacher have 
> nothing to do with the teaching itself, but with the fight against 
> Voldemort.

Ah, but it's not just the threat of losing his job that is relevant 
when saying that the students' performance reflects on him. Snape 
has serious issues when it comes to respect. He *craves* respect. 
This may come from his childhood, or it may be from somewhere else, 
but it is obviously *very* important to him.

Craving respect as he does from those around him, he's going to 
want his students to get decent marks so he compares well to his 
fellow teachers. He's not going to want them to be doing worse in 
potions than they do in other subjects - he's going to want them to 
do better in his subject so he can appear as a good teacher to his 
peers.
 
> I want to believe that no matter how stupid Dumbledore is, he would 
> have never allowed Snape to teach if the threat of Voldie coming back 
> was not in the air.

To me, that's a side issue. It really is. I can't really believe 
that Dumbledore would tolerate a teacher he felt to be unreasonably 
abusive (for want of a better term) because of Voldemort. I think 
Dumbledore would find another way. Snape is teaching at Hogwarts 
because while I doubt Dumbledore approves of Snape's methods, he 
obviously doesn't find them sufficiently wrong as to warrant 
dismissal.

I think Dumbledore has Snape as a teacher because he's the best 
potions teacher available to him. Potions appears to be a very 
difficult subject - there may simply not be any better teacher 
available for it. I know one of the Snape-like teachers I had and I 
allude to, only kept his job because he would have been virtually 
impossible to replace (if he had gone too far, they'd have removed 
him regardless of that fact, of course - but as it was, they 
tolerated more from him than they normally would have).  

> Alla:
> 
> Oh, he is passionate about his subject, that I have no doubt about. 
> At the same time he belittles his students throughout this speech, so 
> no matter how passionate he is about Potions, I don't think he wants 
> to pass the knowledge to the next generation. :o)

That's only valid if you assume belittling his students makes them 
less likely to do well - and for many students, that's *not* a 
valid assumption at all. Belittling them as you put it, may well be 
Snape's attempt to motivate them.

> Shaun:
> 
> > Thirdly - even if Snape's only real motivation is to torment his 
> > students, teaching them legitimises that torment. Pushing them to 
> > learn gives him an excuse to torment them if he wants to. Could you 
> > see Snape passing that up?
> 
> Alla: What do you mean by "passing that up?" To Dumbledore? If yes, 
> then yes, I can unfortunately. What did JKR say why dumbledore keeps 
> Snape? teach lessons about dealing with nasty people? (paraphrase)

Sorry - 'passing that up' is an idiomatic expression that means 
'wasting an opportunity' - "Could you see Snape wasting an 
opportunity to torment his students, if that is what he wants to 
do?"
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