Snape the teacher

[Shaun Hately]

No: HPFGUIDX 152343

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "houyhnhnm102" <celizwh at ...> wrote:
>
> I really don't see all that much to criticize in Snape's teaching
> style myself except for the favoritism, which seems to considered
> acceptable in his world.  I had a number of "Professor Snapes" in my
> own academic career.  I hated them all at the time, but came to
> appreciate how much I had learned in their classes as the years went
> by.  The "easy" teachers I can barely remember, nor what they taught.
>

This is a topic I have written about quite extensively in the past, but
recently I have found my time quite limited, so I haven't been able to get
heavily involved in conversations online. Much to my annoyance - there were
parts of the recent sportsmanship topic I would have loved to sink my teeth into.

But - well, I can't resist this one.

As people who have read my posts on this topic in the past will know I am
currently studying to become a teacher - I should have my BEd and be in the
classroom next year. Education is something I am passionately interested in,
and I have had a lot of involvement in the field over the last ten years or so.

The thing is - as I have said previously, I *benefited* greatly from some
Snape-like teachers I had as a child. They were among the teachers who taught
me best when so many of my other teachers utterly failed to give me what I
needed educationally. I won't restate my educational history in detail here,
but suffice it to say that if I hadn't encountered a few teachers that were
very similar to Snape - and one who made Severus Snape look like Maria
Montessori - my life would have been greatly the poorer for it. I wouldn't
have benefited from the education I received to anywhere near the same extent
that I have. That is, purely and simply, a fact of my own experience.

And for this reason, I have to say I often find it rather distressing to see
some of the anti-Snape's teaching attitudes I see expressed on this forum.
That's not intended as a criticism of other people or as a suggestion they
shouldn't freely post their point of view, but I mention it because I often
get the impression that these people think that their position is one that is
based on some great position of moral authority - "Won't somebody please think
of the children?!?" to quote one of The Simpson's many catchphrases. Well,
that's fine - but I also believe that my position is based very much on
thinking of the children. Of thinking of the children like me who *needed* the
occasional Snape in their education to learn. When people start talking about
how Snape is such a bad teacher, and how teachers like that should never be
allowed near children, and all sorts of statements of that nature, I'm afraid
I find it very hard not to take such things somewhat personally. Whole years
of my childhood were destroyed by the fact that people had decided that *my*
needs didn't matter in comparison to the needs of other children - and that
really is what people do when they go around acting as if there's no place for
teachers like Snape in schools - because what about those of us who benefited
from them? Were we so unimportant that our needs didn't count? Are kids like
us in schools today so unimportant that their needs don't matter either?

Can we just forget about these kids and what they need so the Nevilles of this
world are happy at school? Why is Neville so important? Why does every single
class in the school have to be Neville friendly?

Because, yes, I do think Neville gets a raw deal from being in Snape's classes
and that it probably isn't the right place for him. But I got a raw deal from
being in 80% of the classes I attended at school that weren't right for me.
And of the minority of classes that worked for me... well, not all those
teachers were Snape's (some were McGonagall's) quite a few had a bit of the
Snape in them - and others an awful lot of it.

I sometimes wonder - those people who are so opposed to Snape's teaching
methods - what do they make of kids like me? Do they think we're unimportant?
Or do they think we're delusional and utterly mistaken about what worked for
us and what didn't?

My reason for posting this wasn't really to ask that question though. It was
to bring in a little perspective on classroom management and control that I
think some people might find interesting in the context of this discussion and
maybe a few other little areas as well. In the second half of this year as
part of the process of completing my degree, I have to write a thesis and in
searching for a possible thesis topic I've been doing a lot of reading and as
I read a few of these books, I found myself wondering if perhaps they give a
little insight into the issues that come up here surrounding Snape-the-teacher.

First of all, I just want to start with two little quotes - at least one of
which I have shared before. This first quote comes directly from my most
Snape-like teacher (a decade and a half after he taught me, I find him quite
easy to talk to) when I mentioned to him that I compared him to Snape and used
him as an example of how a Snape-like teacher could be a good thing. He agreed
with me that he was like that, and other people had made the comparison. Later
on he sent me an e-mail with further discussion of this and I asked his
permission to quote this little paragraph.

""I am the best Classics Master in this country. I am an extremely effective
teacher. What I am not is warm and cuddly. I don't know how to be. But I do
know how to turn obnoxious adolescent boys into people capable of appreciating
the combined culture of 25 centuries. Personally I think that's worth doing.
If I can't do it without making a few boys cry. Tough. They'll thank me for it
as adults. Or they'll hate me. Either way, they'll be better for it."

Just a little insight into the thoughts of a self confessed Snape that I think
is interesting, and shows how such a person can actually truly have the
interests of their students at heart deep down. I'm not saying Snape does when
he teaches - I don't know if he does. But I do know that a teacher can have
all the appearances of Snape (and more) and really still have his students in
mind.

The other quote is from the history of one of the schools I attended and
concerns one of the other Snape like teachers I had at school. I will be
concealing his name, simply because I don't have his permission to expose him
like this, but besides that the quote is verbatim.

"Another long-serving staff member was ****** ******. Many of his students
regard him as the best maths teacher they ever had. 'His style of teaching was
very systematic, which I thought was a good way to learn, and he made things
quite interesting.' His maths results were without parallel, and he was a
particularly good teacher of the brightest students. He tested the boys
constantly and read out their results in class while handing back maths tests.
This practice produced an extraordinary competitiveness among his students.
'He demanded the best of everyone.' ****** ****** is also remembered as a
strict disciplinarian."

When I first encountered this man, I was a clinically depressed 13 year old
who cried at the drop of a hat, and who had lost all interest in learning
after seven years of kind and gentle fluffy-bunny teachers (and a couple of
really evil teachers who nonetheless came across in fluffy-bunny style). He
was both my Form Master and my House Master that year - and he terrified me
every bit as much as Snape seems to terrify Neville. While he wasn't the most
Snapish of my teachers (he was probably third) he was the one I think I had
the most Neville-like reaction to. And he did scare me. And he did target me,
and when my behaviour or laziness warranted it, he did expose me and embarrass
me in front of the class. He was also the first teacher to ever introduce me
to the reality of the concept of corporal punishment, something that Snape
doesn't do (possibly only because he's not allowed to).

And yet - he was one of the best teachers I ever had. And if not for his
approach I doubt I would have enjoyed any future academic success in my life.
And that is a reality.

The next book I would like to mention is a scholarly tome called 'Why Gender
Matters' by Leonard Sax, M.D., Ph.D. an American paediatrician and
psychologist. This book is primarily about the implication of gender
differences in child-rearing and teaching and is, I must mention in the
interests of fairness - quite controversial in some circles. Personally I
think Dr Sax makes some very good points indeed and the research he presents
is very extensive and, I feel convincing - but there are people who would
certainly disagree.

I won't quote this book in general as I have a class to go to in a short time,
and this e-mail is taking longer than I expected but there is some material in
this book that I think may be very interesting in terms of why different
people may see Snape differently. In some cases at least. And that is their
gender.

I can't demonstrate this statistically but I do have the impression that most
of those who express a dislike for Snape *as a teacher* on this list are
female, and most of those who express support for his teaching style as valid
are male. Sax talks about how boys and girls react to different classroom
management styles differently (in general - none of this is absolute) in a
reasonable amount of detail. I won't go into all of this now - I can be a bit
more detailed if people want  - but Sax presents the idea that a
confrontational, in-your-face approach to classroom management that can even
involve yelling at a child works well with a lot of boys - but would be a very
bad approach for most girls - who tend to respond better to a supportive,
non-confrontational approach.

Stress improves learning in males - but impairs it in females (again, this is
a generalisation - Sax actually devotes quite a bit of time towards the end of
his book looking at some reasons why the generalisations are not always true,
but as generalisations they do work).

The point is though - that gender may make a difference here to the way some
of us are seeing Snape's teaching style. 

I had intended to go into this in more detail but this is getting very long -
people should feel free to ask if they want me to try and explore this in more
detail. I don't want to totally bore people.

Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
Shaun Hately | www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/thelab.html
      (ISTJ) | drednort at alphalink.com.au | ICQ: 6898200
"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one
thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the
facts. They alter the facts to fit the views. Which can be
uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that
need altering." The Doctor - Doctor Who: The Face of Evil
Where am I: Frankston, Victoria, Australia