Potions, the Book, and a New/Old Perspective

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 165273

Regarding the 'Harry Cheated in Potions' threads that are 
in progress. The discussion is too deep and complex to
find a place to reply, so I'm starting this little thread.

Some say that Harry is cheating in Potions by using the
annotated HBP book. The implication is that he is 
cheating because he is taking credit for work that isn't
his.

But isn't that exactly what all the students are doing?
Aren't they all working from Snape's instructions written
on the board, or following a formula and procedure 
written in their own textbooks? How is what Harry doing
any different than what all the students are doing, other
that he is simply taking his formula and instructions
from a different source.

This is not a math or history test. This is analogous to
a high school Chemistry or Physics experiment. The book
gives you a set procedure, and everyone who follows the
procedure is expected to have the same result within a
normal range of variation. Would it be cheating for a
student to look at their older brother's college Chem-Lab
book and find better more detailed instructions and
explanations, and then to apply that information in 
class? I just don't see how. Would that /really/ be
a case of a student taking credit for someone else's
work? 

Another little side point, if Harry were using this book
in Snape's class, he would essentially just have his own
personal copy of what Snape wrote on the board. We 
wouldn't say he was cheating then would we? It is not
Harry's fault that Slughorn has chosen an outdated 
Potions textbook. 

I suspect if other students went to the bookstore  or 
the Library and found their own preferred Potions 
Reference book, one that was up-to-date and reliable,
there wouldn't have been a problem with them using it.
That is, Slughorn wouldn't have minded.

True that is speculation, but Snape never really assigns
at textbook. There are two books assigned in First Year.
One is a general reference, '1,001 Magical Herbs and 
Fungi' and another whose exact nature isn't known. It
could be a book of Theory of Potions Making, it 
could be a beginner's book of potion recipes, or it could
be 'History of Potions Making'. None the less, that second
book is never referenced or used again. Snape has all the
recipes in his head, or in his personal notes, and all 
classes are based on those notes. He writes the days 
instruction on the blackboard, and  the test is NOT 'do
you know the recipe' but can you follow the instructions
accurately enough to produce the desired result. 

The key is 'The Desired Result'. Harry gets recognition
for his end result, just as any student who could 
produce the correct end result would. Keep in mind
that in a sense, end result is everything. The process
is not being evaluated, it is assumed. It is the result
that is judged. Harry gets good results.

Again, I suspect that any student could bring in any
secondary Potions reference and use it in class to
suppliment their teacher assigned book. If Hermione
has been her usual studious self, she would have
gone to the library and found a better reference book.
But in that moment she is being very Percy-ish; stuborn,
pig-headed, and doggedly determined to follow the 
teacher assigned book. Not like her at all.

Of course, we can never know with absolute certainty 
if additional reference books are allowed. But when 
compared to a typical Chemistry or Physics school lab
experiment where results matter as a reflection of 
method, I don't see the problem. Keep in mind that 
Math, as an example, is just the oppossite; procedure is 
everything and the answer is incidental. In fact, they
give you the answers in the back of the math book.

So, to the point, all the students are copying out of
some book or some reference. The purpose of the class is
to gain practice at following a procedure that will
supposedly lead you to a predetermined result. These
students were obviously given a faulty procedure and
it shouldn't have taken them that long to figure it 
out. At some point, the better students should have
realized that they followed the procedure correctly 
and DIDN'T get the desired results. That should have 
been a clue they needed a better procedure.

So why didn't they? Answer: they are typical lazy
students who just plod along through school doing
what's required and little more. Though I have to
say, I'm a bit disappointed in the Ravenclaw 
students. You would think they would have more
intellectual curiousity, and more determination not
to be defeated by 'bad procedure'. 

Harry had the advantage because he took the added
initiative; OK, it was a pretty easy intitiative, but
why should that matter? Yet, whatever intitiative he
did take, was equally available to the other students
even if that particular book was not. 

Finally, to the idea that 'Harry cheated himself' by
using the book. Again, I point out that they are all
using a book. They are all using instructions given
to them. Harry is just getting his instructions from
a better source. And I say, that 'better sources' 
were available to all the students if they had taken
the intitiative to seek them out. They could have 
compared the recipes in their class books to books in
the library. They could have gone to Snape and said,
'I followed this procedure exactly, but it didn't 
work. Can you see anything wrong with it?'.

I'm far more annoyed with Hermione than with Harry. 
Hermione KNEW from Harry's experience that there
were better potions instructions. She knew the 
resource she had been given was out-of-date and
ineffective. But rather than run to the library and
find a better source of instructions, she doggedly
carries on with instructions she knows are flawed. 
Very UN-Hermione-ish and very Percy-ish.

Just one man's determined opinion.

Steve/bboyminn