[HPforGrownups] Re:Snape and Umbridge and abuse again WAS: Re: Bad Writing? (was: JKR a

[Sherry Gomes]

No: HPFGUIDX 162953

Bruce said:
Snape's behavior towards his Gryffindor students is mean and nasty, but not
abusive.  I had a math teacher not unlike him, and when I was in school we
hated him.  However, he was a good teacher.  How so?  Because, although we
hated him, we learned the subject.  I never got such good grades in math as
I got from him--and math was my worst subject. "The proof of the pudding is
in the eating."


Sherry now:

I've never discussed this in the never-ending is Snape abusive or is he not
debate, but personally, I had a Snape like teacher in high school, and he
did not help me.  In fact, he contributed to some serious physical and
emotional issues for many years to come.  I went to public school, but as
there were several of us blind kids in school, we had someone called a
resource teacher, a teacher there to assist with the disabled students.  He
was also blind and thought he knew everything there was to know about being
blind, with the people skills of an earthquake.  Everything he said or tried
to do was wrong for me.  He constantly belittled my dreams, my goals, my
person, my appearance.  He interfered with my relationship with my father
and stepmother, interfered between my class teachers and me, spent four
years coming up with every sneaky trick he could to keep me from being able
to get my first guide dog and ... well, on and on and on.  I developed an
ulcer at age 15, seriously under performed in school due to all the stress.
I am capable of getting o's in all my subjects, if I'm not constantly
harassed and needled.  For many, many years after leaving high school, the
mere idea of more education, such as college, made me physically ill, even
though I knew he would not be there.  I finally went and took some night
classes several years ago and thrived on the chance to revel in studying.
But even as I write about this person, I feel tense and stressed though it's
over 30 years since I graduated.  I was also having serious family problems,
so both home and school were nightmares.  I was a terribly shy kid--not
now--and as I felt I had noone who would care, I just suffered in silence,
knowing neither my dad nor the school leadership would care or do anything
about this person.  And yes, it was all emotional and verbal, and I do
believe it was abusive, because it cut at my confidence, my view of my self,
my future and all that I was inside.

So, to bring this back to Snape, I actually think Harry is able to handle
most of Snape's behavior, except when Snape starts in on James.  I'm ok with
Harry resenting that, because he should resent someone constantly bad
mouthing his martyred father!  that doesn't mean I excuse it from Snape,
just that I think Harry handles it better than Neville.  I feel deeply for
Neville, who I think does react badly internally to the abuse, emotional and
verbal he receives from Snape.  I believe it does affect his confidence and
ability to perform in all his classes, except in ones where he has a
supportive teacher.  I had the same thing in my French teacher, and I
excelled in that class without trying hard, because I felt I had a refuge in
that class, even though that teacher was tough with high expectations.  It
was never the work that was hard, it was the attitude and verbal lashes I
received from that resource teacher that made everyday of all four years of
high school a pure living hell.

Yes, I think Snape is abusive, abuses his authority as a teacher, and in its
own way, it's as terrible as Umbridge's style, because it goes to the heart
and soul of a person.  Whenever I read the books, I wince when it comes time
to read class scenes with Snape.  Shudder!

Sherry