PRe: Cultural standards, nasty teachers, abused children/ JKR quote new for me

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 144790


Alla, quoting JKR:
> 
> "Did you like all of your teachers?
> 
> JKR: No, not all of them. My least favorite teacher was just a  
> bully. I've met quite a few teachers now, both when I was teaching 
> and when I've been  visting schools, and the bullies really do stand 
> out . I understand from the teacher's point of view that it's very 
> easy to be a bully, but it's also worst, shabbiest thing you can do. 
> We are back to Snape here" - Conversations with JKR, p.21.
> 
> So, " bully, teacher, who abuses his power" are the names which we 
> KNOW JKR calls Snape. 

Pippin:
I think JKR, like the good teacher she is, is simplifying her material
to get her point across. IMO, what she criticizes here and in her books is the
teacher who uses stress to motivate the kids instead of making
the lessons clever and interesting, like the admittedly idealized
Lupin. Lupin recognizes that  stress and scariness can be motivating,
but he lets it  come from the subject matter itself, and he keeps it under 
control, unlike Hagrid who tries to do the same thing but lets his students 
be injured.  So bullying could be called "worst" and "shabby" because it
is choosing easy over right, regardless of whether it's severe enough
to hurt the child.

When Snape switches to DADA, he stops bullying Neville, AFAWK, 
and is a lot easier on Harry, too, not that Harry notices.  Is that because 
Snape is now teaching a "cool" subject, and doesn't feel he has to stress 
the kids to make them learn?

JKR recognizes that a teacher can be clever and interesting
and also stressful, like McGonagall, but I get the impression she
doesn't approve. JKR's not dealing with the child who *needs* to be 
stressed, as in Shaun's case. I wonder whether JKR feels that in 
that situation it would be better to let the child fail. 


IMO, she does distinguish between bullying which causes  a
deterioration in the child's overall  well-being, and bullying which can
be resisted with the child's own resources.  I think that's an important 
distinction that's getting lost in  the debate over labels.

Pippin