[HPforGrownups] Re: In Defense of Snape (Against Snape in JKR's words)

[Shaun Hately]

No: HPFGUIDX 122110

On 16 Jan 2005 at 22:01, naamagatus wrote:

> Talking of horrible teacher-pet incidents - aren't you forgetting Snape's attempt on 
> Trevor's life? At the very least, he had Neville believe that Trevor will die. And I can 
> totally see Snape say "that's no excuse" when a student explains she was late because her 
> pet was run over. 

I really think the 'Trevor incident' gets overstated.

Snape is able to identify precisely what is wrong with Neville's 
potion from its colour.

He explicitly tells Neville what he has done wrong.

"A few cauldrons away, Neville was in trouble. Neville regularly
went to pieces in Potions lessons; it was his worst subject, and
his great fear of Professor Snape made things ten times worse. His
potion, which was supposed to be a bright, acid green, had turned -

'Orange, Longbottom,' said Snape, ladling some up and allowing
to splash back into the cauldron, so that everyone could see.

'Orange. Tell me, boy, does anything penetrate that thick skull
of yours? Didn't you hear me say, quite clearly, that only one rat 
spleen was needed? Didn't I state plainly that a dash of leech
juice would suffice? What do I have to do to make you understand,
Longbottom?'"

And then leaves Neville to fix it.

He doesn't feed the potion to Trevor, until it's the right colour:

"Snape picked up Trevor the toad in his left hand and dipped
a small spoon into Neville's potion, which was now green."

If Snape can tell exactly what is wrong with a potion from its 
colour, it is certainly reasonable to assume he can also tell from 
its colour when it has been made properly.

I doubt Trevor was in any real danger.

Yes, Snape let Neville think he was, and some people certainly 
would regard that as inappropriate, and I can understand why.

But Neville has to learn - and in that class they are making 
shrinking potions - something they have apparently been working 
towards for a while (they had an essay on Shrinking Potions to do 
over their summer holidays). He has made very basic errors. I can 
*seriously* understand a teacher being very irritated in that 
situation.

As I've said numerous times before, I had some very Snapish 
teachers as a kid. And I learned incredibly effectively from them. 
Did I enjoy their classes? No. Did I fear them? Yes (though not as 
much as Neville). Were they nice men? At least one, most definitely 
was not (with the other main one, I've never been quite sure how 
much of his manner was a show).

Were they highly effective teachers? Yes. Not for everyone. But 
certainly for a lot of us, and definitely for me.

There's no single wonderful perfect way of teaching. Different 
methods work for different students, and different teachers can 
make different methods work for them.

Snape's methods may not be comfortable, or fashionable. But that 
doesn't necessarily make them bad methods. Like I say, I had 
teachers very like him who were good teachers. And, a lot of 
teachers I had who were nice and kind, and pleasant to be around, 
were either useless teachers in general - or at least useless when 
it came to teaching me specifically.

There needs to be a range of teaching methods in use. I really do 
think Snape, as we see him, falls into that valid range.


Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
Shaun Hately | www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/thelab.html
(ISTJ)       | drednort at alphalink.com.au | ICQ: 6898200 
"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one
thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the 
facts. They alter the facts to fit the views. Which can be 
uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that 
need altering." The Doctor - Doctor Who: The Face of Evil
Where am I: Frankston, Victoria, Australia