Snape's teaching methods (Was: Snape, Hagrid and Animals)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 143878

> Leslie wrote:
><snip>
> But I'm in favor of keeping things in perspective.  A huge amount of 
> scorn gets heaped on Snape, and everyone claims he's "abusive." He 
> does certainly hate Harry.  But he has, as has been pointed out more 
> ably by others, a teacher who commands and receives excellent 
> results from his students, who monitors them every step of the way, 
> and who keeps them coming back even when they don't have to take his 
> class anymore. <snip>
>
Carol responds:
Not "everyone" claims that Snape is abusive. (See my post
143797http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/143797 for a
similar view.) Some half dozen people on this list insist on the
"fact" of his psychological abuse of Neville in particular, without
considering that Neville melted *Seamus's* cauldron before Snape had
said a word to him (other than calling his name in the roll). Also,
despite numerous accusations by members of this list, Snape never
threatened to poison Trevor, only to test the potion on him as a way
of getting Neville to follow directions. He doesn't even mention
poison until he has Trevor in his hand (and the antidote in his
pocket), and he knows quite well that the potion is the correct color
and that Hermione has been helping Neville to set it right. So, as I
said, I agree with you that Snape is not "abusing" Neville. He's using
an approach analogous to "tough love" because nothing else seems to
work. Granted, Lupin's approach is more effective for Neville, but
that doesn't make Snape's approach "abuse" (except by standards
external to the WW--a dangerous world that coddled children would be
ill-prepared to cope with once they left Hogwarts. Snape, who teaches
the importance of following directions and handling dangerous potions
carefully is the antithesis not only of Hagrid, who exposes the
children to danger without protection, but of Delores Umbridge, who
wants happy little students who learn theory because (in her view)
they're too young and delicate to practice real magic.

Another point: At least two of Snape's lessons, one from Potions class
and one from the duelling club in CoS, have been particularly useful
to Harry: a bezoar, mentioned in the very first lesson and reinforced
via young Snape's Potions book, saves Ron's life; Expelliarmus disarms
Lockhart, saving both Ron and Harry from having their memories
destroyed, and Harry uses it again on Voldemort in the Priori
Incantatem scene. So Snape's lessons have quite literally saved both
Ron's and Harry's lives. I expect that some of his other lessons will
also prove useful (particularly nonverbal spells--and maybe even
Occlumency).

Carol, wishing that JKR had left Snape as Potions master, well away
from that accursed DADA position, and figured out a way to get Harry
into his NEWT Potions class for Books 6 *and* 7