Sadistic Snape, Occlumency, etc

[Linda K.]

No: HPFGUIDX 140286

>Elyse:
>Hagrid who JKR loves, is more culpable than Snape of being a bad 
>teacher. He puts students' lives in danger with his dangerous
>creatures. He does it knowingly, which is in my opinion worse.
>Also his lessons have very little educational value.

>So what I dont understand, is how come Hagrid is off the hook for 
>endangering students with little care for how much they learn?
>Just because he is nice and friendly doesnt make him less culpable.
>And here we have antisocial Snape who saves students lives routinely
>and teaches Potions very well, but he is attacked for the simple 
>reason that he is not a nice man.
>Doesn't make sense to me.

LittleBitGal:
Hagrid loves those creatures - dangerous or otherwise - and wants to
share that love with the children at Hogwarts.  He doesn't wittingly
endanger the kids.  He just doesn't think things through.  That doesn't
make him a bad teacher or a bad person. He's the teacher who wants all
the students to get as many experiences out of life as possible.   He
has a heart of gold and would not knowingly do something bad.  I think
for the most part, the kids at Hogwarts love Hagrid and miss him
terribly when he's not there.  
Snape is an excellent teacher.  I've known many teachers who do not call
on that "one student" who always knows the answers, because they want
the other students to think for themselves and come up with the right
answer.  Let's face it, Hermione tends to be the know-it-all that we all
disliked in school.  Don't get me wrong, I like Hermione's character,
but her hand is always up.  As for taunting Harry - - Snape knows what
Harry is going to have to deal with as he grows up.  I think he wants
Harry to push himself to learn.  Harry seems to be the student who needs
to be embarrassed into doing it right.  The "I'll show you I can do it"
syndrome.  
I think your use of "anti-social Snape" is a good description of Snape.
I don't think he cares to be around people.  He does care that students
learn and learn properly.  I had never thought of Snape as being evil
until I began reading the posts here.  I thought of him as a loaner, a
perfectionist, maybe a bit too quick to judge others; but never evil.  

LittleBitGal