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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