Snape as A-hole Drill Sargeant [was: Re: Harry, Snape,Occlumency]

[cowardly_heroic]

No: HPFGUIDX 94455

Siriusly Snapey Susan:
 > Are 11- or 12-year-olds who see themselves as boarding school 
 > students able to *learn* under the Asshole Drill Sergeant 
 > methods the way an 18-year-old army recruit is?  [Don't jump 
 > down my throat anyone, please, it's just a question!]  *I* think 
 > that kids that age would have to know *something* of why they're 
 > being treated this way in order for them to not "pull a Neville" 
 > [be so frightened he can't learn] or "pull a Harry" [be so angry 
 > he won't/can't learn].  


Patty writes:
    From my own experiences, I have had a Snape-like teacher every 
year of my schooling since the 5th grade.  A few of them were even 
worse than Snape and incompetent to boot.  But the ones that were 
good at what they taught made sure we remembered, in and out of 
class, the things taught in the classroom.  Their goals were 
basically to make the students retain the information longer than 5 
minutes after taking a test and help us see things in a wider 
perspective.  I've also experienced the few that were the nicest and 
most compassionate of teachers, but egads, they could not teach.  It 
was fun in their class and the atmosphere was relaxed, but no one 
remembered a thing concerning the subject a week after the finals.  

Admittedly, I, and most of the students, utterly loathed the Snapish 
teachers, and we feared them to a "Nevillish" extent, but we were 
more compelled to not get into trouble with the teacher than cower.  
We learned and prepared so that we wouldn't give the bastards any 
ammunition against us.  I never really saw any students respond to 
these teachers like Harry or Neville, but I guess I have to remember 
that Harry and Neville are caricatures of the possible extremes.
   
There are a great deal of excellent theories already posted about 
why Snape is the snarky bastard that he is in the classroom and how 
it would benefit the students, so I shall just stop here.