Snape--Abusive?

[Kethryn]

No: HPFGUIDX 114735


Alex said  - 
>>At the risk of re-opening a can of worms, I'd like to pose the
question of whether folks think that Snape's behavior towards Harry
*really* constitues abuse.

Emotional abuse is a nebulous category. <snip>
The official role of a teacher is to teach subject matter, not to 
provide emotional nurturance.  We all know of teachers who have gone 
above and beyond the call of duty in caring for their students' 
emotional well being, but it isn't part of the job description.  If 
the only people we let be teachers were those who could inspire love 
and trust in their students, schools would have an even more difficult 
time finding teachers than they already do.  "Being nice to Harry" is 
not Snape's job. <snip> Harry has plenty of other places to look for 
emotional support (not as many as he would if he weren't an orphan, of 
course, but that's life).  He has his friends, the adult Weasleys, 
Dumbledore, Hagrid, and McGonagall.  He doesn' *need* emotional support 
from Snape the way he would if Snape was (shudder) his father.  

<snip>

So, my conclusion is that I can't definively call Snape's behavior
abuse based on the information that we *do actually have*.  I don't
consider his behavior very professional.  If my kids were in his
class, I would keep a close eye to make sure that he wasn't being
harsher with them than they could handle.  But I wouldn't say outright
that he's abusive.  

<snip> 


Kethryn now - 

I happen to agree with you on this, Alex.  I don't think that what Snape does to Harry is abusive, he does get a little closer to it with Neville than with Harry, but Snape never actually crosses the line to where I would stand up and scream, "He should be behind bars!"  I said somewhere on the board before that Snape was like a burned out teacher but actually I think that assessment, upon rereading the books, is incorrect.  Snape is more like a college professor than a high or middle school teacher.  

So, now come the arguments, "It's not fair that Snape acts more like a college professor and drives them harder, they are only children after all."  So I will counter with the argument that he is teaching what I consider to be one of the most highly dangerous subjects in the school (my father is a chemist and I know all too well what can go wrong with that, having spent time in the hospital where he is getting patched up...and not due to negligence either).  If children are to play with dangerous potions, then I would rather have a drill sergeant instructing the class than a molly coddler; it's just safer that way.

Another argument is "But college students can drop out of the class and not take a professor they hate."  Really?  We can?  In my majors (doubling), very often I do not have a choice because only one prof teaches the class in question.  That means, for this semester and for example, that my database class is taught by someone who barely speaks english, my programming languages class is taught by a heavily accented Hungarian who breathes sleeping gas, my Calc II professor is a tyrant (this is, by the way, the only class that I could exchange for another with the result of having a truly messed up schedule), my design and analysis of algorithms class is taught by  a smarmy sarcastic jerk (he is the only person who teaches it), and my english class in only taught by one man and one man only.  Wow, look at that, I have a smarmy sarcastic jerk for a professor and I am stuck with him until I finish all my sophomore level computer science classes.

I am willing to bet money that Snape is a damn good teacher.  Sure, he is a jerk and he is unfair towards certain people, but have we heard of anyone making a potion wrong after being in his class?  If we did, I would be willing to bet money that it was someone who never paid attention to details in his/her life.

I just had a strange thought, actually.  Have you noticed at Hogwarts that the teachers treat the male and female students exactly the same?  Damn, that is extremly rare in an educational system (not blaming the teachers, blaming society).  According to our society, well, coed Quidditch teams are right out the window, NEWT potions are too complicated for girls, and boys should probably not take fluffy subjects like Divination (cause it might turn them gay).  Hermione takes arithmancy which is a math and logic based system (traditional male subject) while Ron and Harry are taking Divinations (which seems to be more of a girl subject).  They are not weighed according to sex at Hogwarts. ok, now I really want to go there, and the attitudes that drove me off math classes are not present at Hogwarts.  So, while their behavior may be what some consider to be abusive (re Snape), the entire school has advanced attitudes about gender and it's effect on scholastic ability.

Snape also reminds me of Dr. Benton and his treatment of Carter while he was still a student on ER.  Benton treated Carter like Snape treats Harry and Carter turned out to be a damn fine Doctor.

Kethryn

P.S. I don't know about the rest of you but I remember being utterly bored in HS and MS because the teachers dumb down the class and teach to the middle 1/3.  The lower 1/3 of the class were screwed, for the most part, and the upper 1/3 were bored off their rear ends.  The best class I ever had, through 13 years of public education, was actually my physics class where the teacher treated us as if we were college students and she never dumbed down a lesson.  She was mean as a snake but damn did we learn from her and we did not abuse the freedoms she granted us.