Snape/McGonagall/Neville (was: Admonishing Snape)

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 130128

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "demetra1225" <tzakis1225 at n...>
wrote:
> 
> 
> Demetra:
> But does she really see his actions as abuse of her Gryffindors?
> 
> I've pondered the question of what the other teachers think of Snape 
> and his methods for a while.  I haven't found any evidence in the 
> books to indicate to me that the other teachers have issues with 
> Snape as a teacher.  Again, look at McGonagall's comments about 
> Trelawney and Lockhart, her dislike of them as teachers is obvious.  
> Furthermore, look at all of the teacher's comments about and 
> treatment of Umbridge.  I think that if the other teachers, 
> especially McGonagall, had issues with Snape we would have seen 
> clearer evidence by now.  
> As for the question of *why* the other teachers seem to be OK with 
> him – I'm not sure, but I suspect that this may have to do with 
> cultural differences in what methods are OK when dealing with a 
> difficult and potentially dangerous subject matter.  A couple of RL 
> analogies come to mind.  
> 
> I was a nurse on a surgical unit in a University Medical Center for 
> a number of years.  This means I witnessed many "teaching moments" 
> between medical students and/or residents and attending surgeons.  
> Sadistic is almost a mild word to describe how the surgeons 
> sometimes verbally assailed the residents.  They would latch on to 
> the tiniest weakness  and proceed to flail the students and 
> residents.  Mind you, this behavior was totally accepted and 
> defended as necessary to training the doctor so that they could 
> think quickly, because in medicine you don't always have the time to 
> go to the library and look something up.  It always seemed to me 
> that the attending surgeons particularly delighted in their sadistic 
> behavior – they wore it like a badge of honor.  And quite frankly no 
> one, including those who had been raked over the coals, ever 
> complained.  
> Of course, playing devils advocate with myself, one problem I see 
> with this analogy, is that these residents are young men and women 
> in their early 20's (barring the occasional Doogie Howser), not 11 
> to 17 year olds like the kids at Hogwarts.  
> 
> The other analogy probably fits better with the age range.  Think 
> about the young girls involved in competitive gymnastics.  Now, this 
> is an area I have no special knowledge of, except for occasionally 
> watching during the Olympics.  But, I do recall seeing a segment on 
> TV about some gymnastics coaches (like Bela Karolyi, etc).  They are 
> very successful in turning out medal winning gymnasts, but the 
> training methods are extremely harsh.  These young girls are pushed 
> to train past the appropriate point, IMO.  Methods include feeding 
> them little and raging if their weight creeps above 100 lbs. The 
> girls often suffer from  stress fractures and stunted growth.  Yet 
> there is very little criticism of  these coaches or their methods 
> from the gymnastics community.  In fact, parents of budding 
> gymnastics stars pay exorbitant amounts of money to send their 
> children to be abused in this fashion.
> So while *I* find the methods objectionable, those in the industry 
> apparently don't.  
> Perhaps there is a similar situation going on at Hogwarts.  While 
> you and I see a problem, in the context of life at Hogwarts, the 
> other teachers simply don't think there is anything wrong with 
> Snape's methods.  
>  
> Demetra

Very good points, Demetra.  I wouldn't have any problems with it
except that Snape applies his methods in such a drastically uneven
manner.  Granted, we haven't really seen him with Ravenclaws and
Hufflepuffs yet, but he certainly has a reputation for not liking
Gryffindors and being viciously unfair to them.  I could certainly see
McGonagall being friends with a harsh and unfair teacher who applied
his methods evenly across the houses.  I can't see her being friends
with someone who is so obviously biased, and particularly has a
reputation of being harshly unfair to her own house above all the others.

Lupinlore