[HPforGrownups] Re: Teaching Styles / Sorting Hat

[Marion Ros]

No: HPFGUIDX 157890

Wynnleaf:
>>>I've been wondering lately if the Slytherins are partly laughing at the 
situations because they're thinking how gullible the Gryffindors are. The 
Slytherins know that when Snape uses those over-the-top threats, they're 
supposed to pay attention and focus, but they're probably a lot more the 
personality type that "gets" Snape's personality, and his threats don't 
worry them nearly as much as the Gryffindors.<<<


Marion
Totally agree with you (with the whole post, which I snipped because it was too big)

I don't think it's so much *Gryffindor* gullibilety but more *Harry* misjudging the situation as usual. After all, this is the same Harry that thought that Snape was bullying poor stuttering Quirrell (and gave Quirrell encouraging nods to show how much he sympathised with yet another 'Snape victim')

I do indeed wonder how many students at Hogwarts have problems with Snape. My guess would be: very, very few. In fact, I think that Neville is probably the only one who fears him. 

And, to take this discussion in yet another direction, Neville's fear of Snape is totally *irrational*. What is Snape going to do? Insult him to death? Is Snape routinely killing children's pets? (he's Snape, not the Weasley twins!) The same Snape who, when his pupils brew a Swelling Potion has the antidote on hand to treat mishaps, *that* Snape doesn't know beforehand if a potion is going to work and doesn't have the antidote at hand when it does?
And why is Neville so terrified of Snape anyway? 
Neville isn't shy towards other children. He has no trouble asserting himself against Harry or, later, Draco Malfoy. He asks Ginny to the Yule ball when Harry is still raking up his courage for asking Cho. Which means he isn't truly shy. Truly shy people are shy to *other people*, Neville is afraid of McGonegal and Snape, i.e.; he's afraid of authority figures who demand that he *uses magic*.
What is the first thing Neville says when approaching/entering Hogwarts? "I'm practically a Squib", "they thought I was all-muggle", etc.
He's the only child of invalid parents, raised by his overbearing grandmother and Uncle Algy, pressured into becoming 'just like his father' etc etc.
He was a late-bloomer, magically. Thrown out of the window to see if that would kick-start his self-protective magic (luckily, it did)
So Neville enters Hogwarts and he goes all "oh, don't try to teach *me* anything, I'm such a squib, I'll just sit here in the corner, minding my own business. No use teaching a near-squib".
I can understand Neville, truly. He must be fed up and scared to death trying to fulfill his family's expertations. Being pushed for years to 'spark', magic must've lost it's sparkle for Neville years ago. He just wants to be left alone.
Problem is: you don't teach magical children magic, you teach them how to control the magic they have (except perhaps at Potions, which is far more ritualised)
Being left alone is not an option: Neville *needs* his education, if only to tame the wild magic he occasionally lets loose.
That's why McGonegal gives him no quarter and why Snape gives him no quarter. 

I think Mike Smith made a very good point about Potions needing concentration and alertness. Neville needs to focus and follow instructions in Potions class (aside: *Harry* could do with those lessons as well. It's a pity he simply refuses to learn anything from Snape, because learning to focus his anger so he can *use* it and learning to follow instructions *cough*Occlumency*cough* is just what Harry needed to learn during all those books. But I digress) Neville needs to focus and follow instructions during Potions because it's an exact and dangerous science which could literally explode in your face. It would not only be totally counterproductive for Snape to coddle Neville (it would enforce Neville's selfproclaimed duffer-dom and he would never learn Potions) but also dangerous (potions go 'boom'), let alone out of character for Snape.
Neville doesn't need a Potions Master who wants to be his friend, Neville needs a Potions Master who shows him that Potions can be your worst enemy (poison, boom, etc) or your best friend (bottle glory, stopper death) and that the difference lies in paying attention and following instructions to the letter. Throwing ratspleens willy nilly in a cauldron and hoping Hermione bails you out is simply *dangerous*.
You have a valid point as well, Wynnleaf: Snape's 'style' is dramatic. His looks, the way he speaks (hardly above a whisper and yet the whole class listens so as not to miss a word), the things he says. *Very* dramatic, *very* over the top. Most Hogwarts pupils 'get' him, I would reckon. Harry does not (and therefor the reader does not). Ron... Well, Ron is a true sidekick to Harry. Besides, you wouldn't hear him, Roonil Wazlib, the boy who can't even spell his own name at sixteen, utter a positive word about a *teacher*. Especially a teacher who demands that his pupils actually *work*. Hermione doesn't really have a problem with Snape (note that after his 'bottle fame' speech, she looks as if 'she wanted to proof that she was not a dunderhead'. *She* was *inspired*. Harry and Ron 'pulled their eyebrows up to eachother')

Marion, who still finds it very strange that the same people who find the so-called 'poisoning' of Trevor so shocking happily proclaim that the Weasley twins Quidditch practice with Ron's pet puffskein (they hit it with stickses!) is wholesome family fun.


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