[HPforGrownups] Re: Snape as Neville's teacher

[Janette]

No: HPFGUIDX 168549

>
> Phoenixgod wrote:
> > <snip> Seems to me like he only has that job because Dumbledore
> needed him close by.  If he were a truly free man would he be a
> teacher?  Does he have the calling?  I don't think he does and
> ultimately that's what bothers me about him. I don't think he cares
> about the students and I don't think he cares if they learn anything
> or not.  He's just marking time and I think he's doing it at the
> expense of the students of  Hogwarts.  As someone who thinks of
> teaching as his calling that offends me.
>
> Carol responds:
> Although I disagree that Snape's teaching is harmful to the students
> at Hogwarts (I really don't see a single student harmed by him, and
> Ernie Macmillan, a *Hufflepuff,* seems to think he's a good teacher),
> I agree that Snape would rather be doing something else (probably
> research) involving the types of magic he excels at rather than
> teaching. As far as he is concerned, the students are there to learn
> the subject, and it's the subject (both Potions and DADA) that he loves.


montims:
and in the real world, how many people do the job they love, or even have a
calling for a particular job?  I am now nearly in my 50s, and for the first
time in my life I am in a workplace that suits me.  Until now, I took
whatever job I could (and did well enough financially) but hated every
minute of it.  Except for my 10 years in Italy, where I taught English.  And
yes, when it was a matter of getting adolescents through their
matriculation, I bullied them and ridiculed them, and did everything except
drag them by the scruff of their necks to the books, and they all had
remarkable pass rates, and they all loved me afterwards, but it took blood,
sweat and many tears to get lively kids with no interest in the subject, and
who wanted to be at the beach with their friends, to concentrate on
Shakespeare or Wordsworth...

I would add that I have some schoolteacher friends, in England, Italy and
America.  With only one exception, who still loves the job, they all started
enthusiastically and idealistically but quickly became disillusioned and
bogged down by the politics.  Again with only one exception, they have no
real liking for the students they teach, or for the syllabus they have to
follow (while loving the subject itself).  Without exception, they live for
the holidays and dread going back to school at start of term.  Yet they are
all competent teachers, and really would stand no chance now in any other
profession.  They have all also mastered sarcasm to a T...

Let's also remember Harry's creator.  She is now doing a thing she loves -
writing - but a lot of her life was just marking time in different jobs, to
pay the bills.  She also taught for a while, and if things had been
different, would probably be teaching now.  It is what she was educated for,
but would she love it?  Would she be a good teacher?

Riddle badly wanted to be a teacher, because Hogwarts was his home.  I can
see Harry feeling the same way, if he hadn't had the Weasleys.  If the
alternative is Spinner's End, why wouldn't Snape want to teach at Hogwarts?
THE school for Wizardry - the place that LV cannot touch.  He is in an
exceptional position of power as DD's right hand man, he is a strong
disciplinarian, which is important in a boarding school full of adolescents,
and he loves the subject.  I think he does care whether or not the students
learn, as otherwise he could just mark time by reciting potions theory at
them, and having them read books, a la Umbridge.  He pushes them and
torments them because he wants them to excel, and he has little patience for
those students who are not interested in doing so.  IMO.


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