Scary Teachers - Good Teachers (was: Re: Hagrid and Snape...)

a_svirn a_svirn at yahoo.com
Thu May 25 10:58:29 UTC 2006


No: HPFGUIDX 152860

> Alla:
> 
> When does Mcgonagall LITERALLY invite other students to turn on 
> those she disciplines? I mean, it is a POSSIBILITY that this will 
> happen, sure, but I see 
> no indication in the books and at this late hour I may have 
> forgotten some canon, but I don't remember her saying - please, 
tear 
> Neville to shreds, guys or something to that effect.
> 
> She certainly  dresses him down for loosing the passwords for 
> example, but invite others to do it to Neville?

a_svirn:
"Dresses him down" is certainly one way of putting it. What she 
actually did should be more appropriately called "vented her 
frustrations on a convenient target". It's not just that she was 
betrayed into calling her chargers "abysmally foolish persons". 
*That* would be a "dressing down". But she didn't stop at that, did 
she? She was "furious" with him, banned him from all future 
Hogsmeade visits, gave him a detention, and forbade

"anyone to give him the password into the tower. Poor Neville was 
forced to wait outside the common room every night for somebody to 
let him in, while the security trolls leered unpleasantly at him."

So you see, McGonagall didn't just punish Neville by assigning a 
detention, she humiliated him further by exposing his memory 
problems for public ridicule. And in doing so she certainly put 
other Gryffindors in a position where they had their share in 
chastising Neville. And all that for something that wasn't his even 
fault! 

Because for one thing Neville did *not* loose his passwords. They 
were stolen from him. But did she pause even for an instant to 
consider the possibility? And that was exactly what she *should* 
have done as person responsible for the students' safety! *Snape*, 
by the way , was perfectly right when he said that Black couldn't 
get in without help, even if he did not mean Crookshanks at the 
time. But it's easer to blame Neville, than to actually admit to the 
possibility of having a "fifth column" in Hogwarts. That way 
Hogwarts administration wouldn't look so helpless and incompetent, 
would it?

And even if it *had* been Neville's fault, the way she punished him 
was absolutely unacceptable. Because she did "invite", as you put 
it, other students to discipline him simply by making him dependant 
on their goodwill. 

Not to mention that the problem should not have arisen at all, if 
only McGonagall appreciated the difficulties Neville had been having 
and helped him in some tactful and discrete way. Simply letting the 
Fat Lady know that if Neville forgot a password he should be 
admitted anyway would have sufficed. But not for McGonagall bending 
rules for someone who has problems. It's OK to bend (if not actually 
break) them so that Harry can be the youngest seeker in a century, 
or her star pupil would become even more of a star. But for someone 
like Neville? Why bother? 

>Alla: 
> And of course the important thing to me when we compare Snape and 
> Mcgonagall's treatment of Neville is that while Mcgonagall is 
> CERTAINLY guilty of mistreating Neville  on two occasions  IMO ( 
> that I remember), she also praises him ( there is nothing wrong 
with 
> your work but the lack of confidence). THAT Snape never does and 
> that is why I think that his treatment of Neville is much worse.

a_svirn:
You call this praise? Merlin forbid, anyone would ever praise me 
like this; I would probably retaliate with something politically 
incorrect. Besides Snape gave the same tepid encouragement in his 
first OWL class:

"Moronic though some of this class undoubtedly are, I expect you to 
scrape an "Acceptable" in your OWL, or suffer my
 displeasure.'
His gaze lingered this time on Neville, who gulped."

Compare to McGonagall':

"I see no reason why everybody in this class should not achieve an 
OWL in Transfiguration as long as they put in the work.' Neville 
made a sad little disbelieving noise. 'Yes, you too, Longbottom,' 
said Professor McGonagall. There's nothing wrong with your work 
except lack of confidence".

To quote Snape again, "I see no difference". If the latter can be 
considered praise, so can the former. 








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