Bathroom Scene - A Different Perspective.

[Neri]

No: HPFGUIDX 165190

> Carol responds:
> <snip> As for Snape's not making his ideas public, when have we ever
seen him
> assign potions directily from the book? He always writes them on the
> board with his wand. It's extremely likely, then, that the potions
> directions he assigns are his own improved versions that he's
> memorized (note that he knows exactly what can go wrong at every
> step). Hermione and Draco get better marks in Snape's class than in
> Slughorn's because Slughorn teaches from the book. Harry alone has the
> advantage of Snape's superior knowledge and experiments, but he's not
> sharing with anyone, not coming clean that his brilliant inspirations
> are not his own.
> 

Neri:
Where is the canon that Hermione and Draco get better marks in Snape's
class than in Slughorn's? And more to the point, where is the canon
that they learn better or produce better potions in Snape's lessons
than in Slughorn's?

On the contrary, it seems to me that it is Harry who is doing better
in Slughorn's class, not the rest of the class doing worse. It
definitely sounds like Harry was getting much better results, not only
in respect to the other students, but also in respect to his own past
results in Snape's class. This implies that it was Harry who was
suddenly using improved instructions, and not the other students
suddenly using degraded instructions. I conclude that Snape wasn't
including his own tips in his directions to the students.


> Carol:
> The whole reason that civilized countries have copyright laws and
> punishments for plagiarism is that intellectual dishonesty--taking
> credit for someone else's work--is wrong. It's stealing ideas. Try
> taking an essay from the Internet and presenting it to your English
> professor as your own and see what happens.
> 

Neri:
Crediting a source in a written assay is usually a very different
thing from using a manual or supportive material in a hands-on
laboratory lesson. As an instructor in a laboratory course in the
university I was always impressed when seeing a student doing lab work
with the help of such material, especially if that material was not
officially recommended (because that would mean that the student  had
probably bothered to research for it in the library or even buy it.
Most students only use the official lab manual and many don't bother
to read even that). Granted, I'd be slightly less impressed if that
student used, say, comments written by another student of that same
course in a previous year (because it probably means he/she had got it
by chance or good connections, and hadn't actually bothered to search
the library for it) but I certainly wouldn't object, as long as it
contained good and safe instructions, and I'd certainly never think of
demanding that the source would be credited.

These nuances depend a lot on culture, institution, faculty and
subject. We don't know what the relevant rules in Hogwarts are. But
Hermione probably knows, and she dislikes the Prince from the
beginning, and yet AFAIK she never tells Harry that he's breaking any
rules, or that he might get a detention or be expelled if he's caught.
Yes, I think Harry wasn't exactly playing fair when achieving his fame
based on material he never told his teacher or other students about.
But then, academic life at Hogwarts don't strike me as very fair to
begin with. It was also not fair that Harry was picked on by his
potions teacher for five years, but do we ever hear any objections
from any staff member?


Neri