Snape and Neville

[Tonks]

No: HPFGUIDX 113488

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Alex Boyd" <alex51324 at h...> 
wrote:
> Since I am a teacher (English Comp.), I wanted to add my two cents 
on Snape being so mean to Neville (snip) my classroom experience 
suggests a third interpretation: "Snape cares deeply about
> his subject, and considers what he's teaching to be so basic, that
> Neville's apparent idiocy is so deeply frustrating that Snape loses
> his temper."
> (snip)
> Alex

Tonks here:

I just love your post!! I agree. I don't think that Snape is a 
sadist trying to hurt his students. And I know that teaching in U.S. 
schools has changed a LOT since I was in school in the 50's, early 
60's. Snapes methods are the way teachers use to do it. I think the 
Buddist masters do something like that to their students at times. I 
know a young man (40ish) who has parents who are teachers and I have 
watched him "teach" new hires how to do their job. Let me tell 
you...  he is cruel.. just like and worse than Snape.  I have never 
been one of his charges, thank God, because I would have killed him. 
Since he is not my boss, I know him as a nice guy. But somewhere (I 
suspect from his parents, poor guy) he learned this belittling type 
of teaching method. Perhaps Snape learned this style also and just 
does it without realizing what a cruel method it is.

Tonks_op