In Defense of Snape (long)

[Tonks]

No: HPFGUIDX 122332


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Shaun Hately" <drednort at a...> 
wrote:
(snip)
>It also, to an extent, I think depends on what is being studied,
and the kid's interest in it. If I enjoyed a particular subject
(such as science, or history), I did learn in happy classes. Where
I found the subjects hard or uninteresting (Latin, Ancient Greek,
and Music most notably) - that's where I learned from the Snape's.

And I can tell you that I don't think there is any way I could
possibly have been happy in a Greek or Music class, even if St
Francis of Assisi had been my teacher (-8

Potions is a hard subject, by all accounts, not just because Snape
teaches it. Neville is not the best student in the world. I see no
real reason to think he'd ever have been happy in a potions class.
Yes, Snape seems to make it worse for him - but happiness may
simply not be a realistic emotion for Neville to have about
potions.
 
Tonks here:

Now I know that as an adult I have been a defender of Snape here. 
But if I think about myself as a child, or for that matter even now, 
if I didn't like a subject I think I could ONLY learn it from a St. 
Fransis type, certaintly not from a Snape type. So I do not 
understand how anyone could, but I do understand that it works for 
you. I would hate both the teacher and the subject and drop out or 
flunk!!

======================
quoit from your teacher:
> "I am the best Classics Master in this country. I am an extremely 
> effective teacher. What I am not is warm and cuddly. I don't know 
> how to be. But I do know how to turn obnoxious adolescent boys 
into 
> people capable of appreciating the combined culture of 25 
> centuries. Personally I think that's worth doing. If I can't do it 
> without making a few boys cry. Tough. They'll thank me for it as  
> adults. Or they'll hate me. Either way, they'll be better for 
> it."
 
> Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
> Shaun Hately 

Tonks here:
Oh a chill goes through me even now. I'll bet that man is the $#@!
*&! professor I had for a college freshman writing class, 30 years 
ago. The professor that humiliated me in front of the whole room and 
I left the class that day and never went back. I knew what was due 
when and I just slipped the papers under his door. Got a D. Waited 
till my last term to take the rest of my com. classes. Had a really 
nice woman teacher, kind... I felt save. And I got a 4. in the 
class.  That Jerk of a man scared me for life the b....... After 
that every college course that I took undergrad and grad, if a paper 
was due I always got an incomplete and turned it in late. Just 
scared to death to write anything, even if I knew the subject better 
than anyone and loved it.  A bad teacher CAN mess up a person for 
life!! 

OK... it is all coming back now. I will agree as a teacher SNAPE IS 
A JERK!!!  But Allen Rickman is ... ahhhh....

Tonks_op