Harry's bias again, answering several posts

[Ceridwen]

No: HPFGUIDX 140959

Finwitch:
> 
> However, as different people learn in different ways - that which may
> appear as 'disturbance' of class might actually be a learning method
> to the one doing it. (Harry's taking notes makes this obvious). A
> kinetic learner requires movement in order to learn. And what disturbs
> is also different. Some might actually find silence and stillness as
> so disturbing that the demand prevents their learning...

Ceridwen:
I agree.  I learn by taking notes - my best class back in high school 
encouraged note-taking.  The teacher lectured, and we either took notes 
or slept through class (the teacher had the book memorized, sleepers 
could look it all up at home).  I'm also a 'kinetic' learner, moving 
around, foot-tapping, pencil-chewing, leg-bobbing.  And, I've had some 
trouble with teachers over this, because esp. the moving around and 
foot-tapping, do disrupt the students around the one doing it.  The 
only way to accomodate all students is to have the noisier ones be 
quiet, unfortunately.  Since these distractions also affect the quality 
of the teaching.

Amiable Dorsai:
> All I can find is this:

> "Who's that teacher talking to Professor Quirrell?" he asked
> Percy.

> "Oh, you know Quirrell already, do you? No wonder he's looking so
> nervous, that's Professor Snape. He teaches Potions, but he doesn't
> want to -- everyone knows he's after Quirrell's job. Knows an awful
> lot about the Dark Arts, Snape."--Sorcerer's Stone

Ceridwen:
Thanks!  It's difficult to take part in a discussion when one's source 
is long-gone.  I do recall Harry hearing various things about Snape 
which must have come later, then.  Which would only feed his initial 
impression, not create it.

Potioncat:
*(snipping example of feast and mention of dream)*
> So Harry goes into Potions thinking that Snape dislikes him for some
> reason. He has the pain in his scar and the forgotten dream in the
> back of his mind. (Or so we can surmise.) While there may be some
> wondering in his mind, I'm not so sure there was a real bias yet.

Ceridwen:
Thanks as well.  I've wondered about the dream, at the time I thought 
it was Snape laughing, now I think it was Voldemort.  And, the scar 
hurting, too, when Snape looked at him.  I do recall the later incident 
of Harry in his IC when the same thing happened again.  He did fail to 
note that Quirrel was there on both occasions (and so, we don't think 
of it until later, either).

Potioncat:
*(snip)*
> So, Snape was certainly biased. Whether he was testing Harry,
> punishing Harry or if he always started a class like that, I cannot
> say.

Ceridwen:
I'm not suggesting that Snape wasn't in some way biased, either by his 
feelings about James, or the rumors he mentioned to Bellatrix that 
people thought Harry might be a Dark Wizard.  Just that at the time, we 
didn't know about them.  Given that, it didn't seem all that odd to me 
that Snape may have singled Harry out, seeing some behavior that Harry 
wouldn't notice himself.  lebeto answers in post 140917 that Harry 
wasn't taking notes, but that at one point, he and Ron look at each 
other.  If Snape wasn't giving Harry his full attention to that point, 
since this apparently came just after his speech, he may have 
misconstrued that the two were not paying attention, instead of 
reacting to what he'd said.

Alla:
*(snip)*
> ...TO ME it is highly unlikely that first years are given any > 
homework, since muggle borns have very little idea what magic is in > 
general and it is not very wise (IMO of course) to give them homework, 
> before they ever met a teacher and gotten any instructions on how to 
> proceed as such.

Ceridwen:
I agree that first-years wouldn't, or at least shouldn't, have 
homework, for the reasons you state.  That doesn't stop them from 
browsing through their books to become familiar with the courses.  
Hermione did it, and showed it off by raising her hand, the only one 
who did, IIRC.  Maybe she just didn't catch on that this wasn't the 
time to do that, a social thing that an 11 year old might easily 
mistake.  Snape may have thought that Harry should have at least looked 
over his books.  Though, why those specific things should have stuck, 
seem to support a Snape who thought Harry was a Dark Wizard (Draught of 
Living Death?  Powerful antidote to poison?  Who needs those in 
everyday life?).  Snape also doesn't seem to know that a) Harry just 
got his books recently, in fact, just found out he was a wizard, 
recently and b) had no support at home for his lessons, and an 11 year 
old child, unless that child is Hermione, wouldn't necessarily want to 
start reading his school books early.  Maybe wizarding parents 
encourage such a thing, I don't know.  But he did overlook that Harry 
was raised Muggle.

Alla:
> Therefore asking Harry something which Snape KNOWS that he does not
> know is at very least unfair and IMO can be constituted as singling
> out and bullying.

Ceridwen:
I agree to singling out, but not to bullying.  I've been in classes 
where teachers do exactly that, when they believe a student isn't 
paying attention.  Usually, they're right.  Teachers are pretty swift 
at sizing up the students in their classes after a few years.  
Sometimes, they make a mistake about the student.  But either way, they 
then turn to the class as a whole and continue with the lesson, which 
usually means giving the answers to the questions they have asked 
before going on.

Alla:
> Oh, the fact that Hermione knows it does not convince me that
> homework was given of course ( Just wanted to say to preface
> rebuttal) Hermione reads everything all the time.

Ceridwen:
No rebuttal on that from me!  ;)  That's part of Hermione's character.

Alla:
> Hmmm, the thing is that Snape can figure out that Harry is not a
> Dark Lord in making by much easier means - legilimency for example,
> which I don't like, but it is used quite often, or I don't know -
> talk to Dumbledore.
> So, my question is why does Snape chooses those ways to make sure
> that Harry is not next Voldie, if that is what Snape doing of course,
> which I am not entirely convinced.

Ceridwen:
Because it feeds into the introductory lesson by making an example of a 
student before others decide to goof off in class.  It also uses 
examples from the text, which segues into a continuance of the lesson 
to the entire class.  Might be good, might be bad.  But it's used by 
teachers, or at least it was while I was in school.  It's a formula.

On the 'cheek' thing, Harry's perception and Snape's could be very 
different.  We're only treated to Harry's perspective, which makes 
sense in the overall book.  We're supposed to think of Snape as being 
bad, esp. in PS/SS, since he's set up as the decoy 'villain'.  A soft 
voice doesn't mean that Harry sounded meek, he may have had some 
irritation in his voice which is understandable, but he still may not 
have noticed it.  To him, he was being reasonable; to Snape he could 
have come off as sullen.  We only know what Harry thinks, not the 
impression he gives others.

So, Snape, McGonagall, and all the rest, can only see Harry from the 
outside.  We have privileged information.  It's hard, at least for me, 
to keep track of what *everyone* knows, and what only Harry knows.  
That's why I'm noticing more and more, that we get a very limited 
view.  I'll say, yes, but this and that and why don't they get it, and 
the answer I receive is, because *they* don't know that.

And, we, only knowing what Harry knows except for the very few times we 
see something that doesn't involve Harry, are bound by his views and 
perceptions just as much as others are bound by not knowing them.  But 
then, I think we're all like that anyway, we don't know what others 
around us think.

Ceridwen.