Snape's abuse (Re: Would an "O" for Harry vindicate Snape?)

[lealess]

No: HPFGUIDX 131610

"phoenixgod2000" wrote:
> This is after all the society that seems to think that soul sucking 
> demons should guard students, dragon baiting is a good olympic 
event, 
> and the culture at large has the ability to turn on their heroes 
with 
> the speed and intelligence of a pack of especially stupid 
lemmings.  
> I mean, DD makes me mad, but they turn on him after a hundred years 
> of reverence.
> 
> These people are DUMB!
> 

lealess:

There are real life parallels to Hogwarts-style schools, namely, 
parochial schools.  While most have high standards and expectations 
of teachers, others occasionally surface in the news because of abuse 
of students and lack of concern for teacher qualifications.

Similarly, I have a friend from Northern Ireland who was taught in a 
Catholic boys' boarding school that sounded a lot like Hogwarts in 
many ways, complete with education in the mysteries.  That school had 
quite vicious corporal punishment on top of teacher intimidation, 
bullying, belittling of students ... yet in spite of his bitterness 
at having several subjects ruined because of exceedingly uninterested 
or hostile teachers (worse than Snape, frankly, because they weren't 
qualified in their subjects), in spite of not having one class where 
boys were not rapped across the hands with a ruler or verbally 
demeaned by priests and lay teachers on a regular basis, or worse, he 
and most other students left school with a generally excellent 
education.  (Not every one did, admittedly.)  Frankly, the fact that 
Hogwarts is by-and-large non-sectarian, i.e., not devoted to one sex, 
class or religion, would probably seem revolutionary in the society 
in which my friend grew up.

Hogwarts is part of an old society where being a wizard appears to be 
a fairly brutal business.  It exists as a fictional construct, on its 
own terms.  It is similar to a parochial school in that it teaches 
subjects which distinguish the believers from the rest of society, in 
which the teachers are drawn from the ranks of believers.  I suppose 
we can apply our 21st century, Western standards to wizarding 
society, and perhaps that is what JKR is striving for.  In a larger 
human rights sense, Snape seems to be petty but not harmful to 
students in terms of lasting damage.  And in spite of his 
unpleasantness, most of his students receive a solid education in 
potions.  Not all do, but that is to be expected in any class.

lealess