Why Snape isn't a good teacher

[k12listmomma]

No: HPFGUIDX 165551

> I have a question on this topic: If the HBP's methods were superior to
> what was being taught, why didn't Snape teach those methods, and keep
> using them himself while he was the Potions professor? Plot hole?
>
> Draeconin

Funny, I started writing a lengthy post on the subject before you asked this 
question! I have finally finished it up, and so here it is:


All this talk about how Harry uses this (HBP's copy of the textbook) I think 
is a distraction from some points we may have missed. I haven't read all of 
this thread, so it may have been brought up before, but something 
significant comes through when we see Harry using the HBP's notes to great 
success. Slughorn hasn't been
teaching potions for a while- he hasn't been using the Standard Book of 
Spells text for years on end to know if they are particularly "good" 
potions, but he knows when he sees the results that Harry's potions better 
than the other students. I think of these "book of spells" as a cookbook. 
You can have 2 cookbooks, side by side, and can be following almost the same 
recipe for something such as a cake, but little things like creaming the 
eggs into the sugar, or separating an egg and whipping up the white to be 
added back into the recipe at a later time can make a noticeable difference 
in the lightness and texture of the cake, even if all the ingredients and 
basic steps are the same, and it was cooked for the same length of time. 
Those "points of skill" define the good chef from the casual cooker. 
Slughorn hasn't been teaching potions recently, so maybe he hasn't really 
evaluated this text thoroughly. If he did, and compared it with other items 
on the wizard book market, he might find a potions book that is more updated 
to include the tricks of the trade to get better results. But, since he 
steps in last minute and reuses the same text as the previous teacher, he 
really has no way of telling that Harry is obviously using some "better 
source" to enhance that textbook. He would have no way of telling if Harry 
is using a version of today's cliff notes, or if the skill came naturally. 
Having known Lilly, he just presumes that Harry is gifted with natural 
skill. That, plus part of his "ego" revolves around "building up" students 
for his own benefit, so that later he can say that "he was their teacher", 
so that part of the glory for having "made" that child who he or she turns 
out to be belongs to him. Slughorn has his own selfish motives for praising 
Harry; his apparent blindness for where Harry got this knowledge isn't for 
nothing, because later he wants to take credit for being Harry's potions 
teacher. Slughorn may have known the truth all along- it wouldn't have been 
the first time he kept a student's secrets!

Snape, on the other hand, knows better. Had it been him teaching that year, 
he would have KNOWN that the Standard Book of Spells produces mediocre 
results, and that Harry's results weren't typical at all. He would have 
recognized that Harry was getting "help" from an additional source. Yes, 
everyone can get a cake that tastes good, but to get a wonderful cake, you 
have to deviate from those instructions in small but very significant steps, 
and those small deviations are never part of Snape's class. (The flattening 
of those pods with the flat of the blade is a trick very similar to rolling 
a lemon around to bruise it up before slicing it in half to juice it.) Thing 
about it- Snape HAS this knowledge in his head- it's been there all the 
years he's been teaching- WHY does he never share his "expertise" in class 
with his students? As a cook, if I see someone else cooking in front of me, 
I can't resist showing off those little tricks to get better results, and 
yet Snape never teaches his students these things. He never gives away that 
there is a "slightly better way" to do this. Instead, he knows the students 
are using a mediocre text, and he grades them solely based on this text's 
results. In reality, if Snape were a good teacher at all, ALL of the used 
texts would show these same notes and updating from the constant years of 
classes, or he would have flat wrote a new set of texts to highlight his 
great knowledge base.

I think there is an explanation for why he does this, why Snape plays this 
"slightly less than Superbly Brilliant Snape" in public, and it revolves 
around my view of who Snape is. I hate to say that, because I detest all the 
theories of "Dumbledore's Man" Snape or "Pure Evil" Snape, because I think 
none of them even come close to hitting the mark.  We have it in canon that 
Snape is a double agent, and has been the entire series. Dumbledore thinks 
Snape is working for him. Voldemort thinks Snape is working for him. To be a 
successful double agent, one must never give away the full truth, and one 
must always retain cards up your sleeve or tricks in your hat that you can 
use to get out of sticky situations when someone asks you to explain 
discrepancies in your behavior.  A double agent is never fully truthful to 
either master, for that would end the double agent role. Thus, Snape would 
not have the incentive, as another teacher would, to really help the 
students succeed to their fullest. His loyalties lie elsewhere. A real 
teacher would teach the kids all he or she knows, and would impart ALL of 
their knowledge, but Double Agent Snape can't afford to give that much away. 
He's trying for a different position- the DADA job, so why show off to be 
the "Best Potions Teacher That Ever Was"? That would be counter productive. 
We know he has the talent for that, but in demonstrating that level of 
knowledge in the classroom would hinder the desire to get the other job, and 
maybe even hinder the direction that has been keeping Voldemort's trust in 
him. He can't love his students, love his job without compromising 
Voldemort's tough stares that probe into Snape's loyalties. To be that 
involved with the students would betray that Double Agent position. I can 
see Voldemort saying to an attached Snape, "Your loyalties belong to ME- not 
your students, not to Hogwarts, and not to Dumbledore! You shall love me, 
and none other!"

I think this shows up in more than just the Potions class. He never gives 
his caring concern to Harry in Occulemency lessons, either. He certainly 
hides his skills and talents there, and I don't think messing Harry up in 
that subject was pure accident. Dumbledore presumes this "goof" of Snape's 
is mere trouble over forgiving, but Snape needs to keep his loyalties to 
Voldemort in tact for the Double Agent role to continue to work. Giving his 
"all" to Harry in that arena wouldn't have pleased Voldemort, and I think 
Snape is perfectly willing to further along Dumbledore's slightly misguided 
theory because it masks his real motives. Both Masters are playing games 
here- DD uses Slughorn to get what he wants (the memory) and Voldemort 
certainly uses people in more sinister ways, as we've seen again and again 
in the books. I would have no doubt that Snape didn't teach to his full 
measure in DADA as well, for much the same reasons. He can't afford to tell 
all he knows! DD knows some of Snape's true abilities, and so he's content 
to have him around to save him and other students from dangers, but even 
then, I don't think DD fully knows Snape as well as he thinks he does- in 
fact, for a Double Agent position to work, surely DD must realize that Snape 
must have secrets that he cannot even tell DD without compromising his 
position. Thus, I think all the way through the books, we've never seen the 
real Snape to even judge his character. We've only seen what he needs to 
propagate his Double Agent role. He's not evil, he's not good- he's a spy. 
You will never see his real hand, nor will you ever get to see all the cards 
he's holding.

Shelley