OT: Drill Sargeant (with a tiny bit of ontopic talk...)

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 94667

x
> snipping first portion of post
> 
> Siriusly Snapey Susan:
> I snipped Neri's & Anne's comments [sorry] in the interest of 
> brevity, and please keep in mind I'm reacting to the whole thread, 
> not just this message.
> 
> I will make one last feeble attempt to bring out a difference that 
I 
> think is KEY.  HRH & their class of Hogwarts students begin w/ 
Snape 
> at age **11** and the war is **NOT** yet on.  They are boarding 
> school students, not military academy students or enlistees.  No 
one 
> has **told** them that their lives are in danger and they damn well 
> better listen & learn this stuff because their *lives* depend on 
it.  
> When a person goes into the military, he or she is 1) older and 2) 
> *knows* his/her life depends upon listening & learning every detail.
> 
> Doesn't anybody else out there think this is an important 
difference 
> in the learning process?  That one must *understand* the mission in 
> order for the drill sergeant routine to be most effective?  
> Somebody...anybody...? :-|  [EnsTren, you may be getting at this 
> somewhat in your final paragraph....]
> 


Potioncat (hiding behind vanishing cabinet):
I think Snape is just as sincere in his desire to teach the students 
as the Sorting Hat is to place them.  I don't know that he likes 
them, or that he knows how to teach children.  I imagine this is the 
approach he knows and the one that fits his personality.  I imagine 
he thinks he's doing well at it, if the students are passing the 
stardardized tests. (Don't get me started on standardized tests.)  I 
think he believes all the positive things the other posts have said 
about drill sargeants.

But he isn't a trained drill sargeant.  He isn't working with adult 
soldiers.  A friend shares with me that when her husband helps their 
7th grade son with math homework, the boy ends up in tears. The man 
is an engineer and understands math. He can't understand why the boy 
doesn't get it, and insists the boy isn't trying, isn't paying 
attention, didn't listen to his very clear explanation. (Sound 
familiar) This is a man who loves his son and is not a sadist.  
Unlike Snape who does have a mean streak and doesn't love the kids.

I think he is trying in his own way to prepare the kids and he can't 
even tell them what he is preparing them for.

It's not that I'm on the fence on this one, it's that I see both 
viewpoints.

Potioncat