Snape and DADA

[Nora Renka]

No: HPFGUIDX 112043

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Magda Grantwich 
<mgrantwich at y...> wrote:
 
> The worst in Snape is his inability to understand people.  He
> consistently assumes the worst of others (especially those he 
> doesn't like - which seems to mean the entire world outside of 
> Dumbledore and McGonagall).  Especially he assumes the worst about 
> Harry.

Let me say first of all that I think the analysis here is really 
perceptive, and I like it quite a bit.  This is, perhaps, something 
where JKR will hit us with something more subtle than the basic idea 
that you don't want someone who was deeply involved *in* the Dark 
Arts teaching about them, because the pull to become re-involved in 
them is too strong.

<snip>

> Should he become DADA professor, he would view his task as training 
> a miniature army of aurors, without regard for their youth, their
> innocence or their human tendency to make mistakes.  The battle is
> too important to risk losing: victory means the survival of the
> entire wizarding world.  Talk about emotions or feelings or settling
> for less-than-perfect results is so much self-indulgent nonsense in
> the face of the larger battle.

It also seems to me that this is akin to one of the tendencies of 
what we've seen so far as the Dark Arts--they are arts of domination 
and control over other people.  Most of the people associated with 
the Dark Arts have a particular sense of entitlement, and see nothing 
asmiss about taking what they want from other people.  A strict 
lecture format is probably what's needed in Potions with potential 
catastrophes looming around every turn.  A teacher who takes strict 
control of a DADA class is, perhaps, stifling one of the areas where 
students need a little more room and flexibility and thought.  This 
is not even to mention that in the long run, intensely strict and one-
pointed education doesn't really make good soldiers.

Potions benefits (to at least some degree) from an authoritarian 
imposition of knowledge.  DADA would probably not be a good place for 
Dumbledore to let Snape exercise his powers of control over the 
students.

> This lack of perspective would actually work against Snape's efforts
> to teach DADA.  I'm sure he sneers at the idea of learning about
> grindylows or other obscure creatures that most students would never
> run into unless they went on safari or around the world.  This isn't
> DADA to him.  What they should be learning, in his opinion, is all
> the dark stuff that swirls around the dregs of society and what
> Voldemort is capable of; how to defend yourself against sudden
> attacks from behind; how to protect yourself.  "Constant
> Vigilance!" wouldn't begin to describe Snape's teaching methods of 
> DADA.

Yes--sometimes you learn more about a main topic by not actually 
taking it on in an explictly direct manner.  Learning generally how 
to think is a good example.  If I were Headmaster, all the kids would 
have to take literature courses, just to have to *think*.  Alas...

-Nora notes that she really should write an unambiguously pro-Snape 
piece some time--submissions of ideas are welcome :)