Slughorn favoritism/ Snape as teacher

[puduhepa98 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 168631

 
Posted by: "Magpie" _belviso at attglobal.net _ 
(mailto:belviso at attglobal.net?Subject= 
Re:%20Slughorn%20favoritism/%20Snape%20as%20Neville's%20teacher%20%20LONG)   _sistermagpie _ (http://profiles.yahoo.com/sistermagpie) 
Thu May 10, 2007 5:37 pm (PST) 
> Alla:
>
> I do not see him treating his  non club students as nothings, I guess.
> Giving them less attention for  sure, but nothings? I do not see it.

Magpie:
I do. Maybe I wouldn't  say he treats them like "nothing," but his snub of 
Belby in the first  chapter is pretty impressive. Anyone in the class can see 
there are the  students who matter and the students who don't. I would find 
that class very  discouraging, so would that make it Slughorn's fault if I 
didn't become a  Healer because of it? He would have ruined my enjoyment of 
the  subject.

<snip>>
> Alla:
>
> I must clarify. I absolutely  believe Snape is ruining careers by
> grading unfairly ( potion breaking  scene for once), but in a sense of
> turning people away from the subject,  detesting Potions maybe, staff
> like that.

Magpie:
That's  certainly a wrong thing for Snape to do and an instance of grading 
unfairly  in that class, and while I don't defend it I don't think it has 
that big of  an influence on Harry's grade. (Which again, doesn't make it 
okay, but that  incident doesn't seem to have effected Harry's future career 
one way or  another so far.)

As for turning kids' away from Potions, I can't hold up  Snape to a super 
high ideal that no other teacher is held up to. Just as,  even though I 
wouldn't like him as a teacher, I'm not going to blame Hagrid  for turning 
students off of a career in Magical Creatures. Life is a series  of accidents 
and influences. All our lives might have been different if we'd  had slightly 
different experiences with teachers or with school, but in the  end our life 
is our own. Maybe Harry would have been a brilliant historian  if Binns 
hadn't been so boring, and he seems to have a better grasp on  Potions than 
he does on History of Magic. Harry isn't turned on by any of  his classes 
except DADA. Hogwarts is full of flawed teachers, like the real  world, and 
they're all having effects on the students we probably can't even  imagine.

<snip> 
Magpie:
So Snape is doing wrong by not making the  students personally passionate 
about the subject, and he's ruining their  careers by not creating a 
classroom situation every student likes best, but  it's fine for Slughorn to 
blatantly mark out certain kids as the ones worth  encouraging and the ones 
who aren't--that couldn't possibly make a  difference in the way they respond 
to a subject  too?

<snip>
Magpie:
Because his "club" is not just a school club.  It's a network for the 
professional world based on croneyism. Exactly the  way Lucius Malfoy thinks 
the world should work, if he might have made a few  different choices in his 
members.

I don't want to sound like I'm  comparing Snape to Slughorn except in limited 
ways, because they're apples  and oranges. I think it's wrong of Snape to 
personally pick on Harry--it's  unprofessional as well. I also don't think 
he's good for Neville--though I  think he's a lot like many other people 
Neville deals with. Remember this is  the kid whose family throws him off 
piers because he's incompetent. But I  think Slughorn also stands for some 
unacceptable things for a teacher. Snape  may do longterm damage to kids like 
Neville (though I don't think he's  damaged Neville) personally that they 
would need to deal with. But  Slughorn's croneyism seems to be just as 
serious to me in its own  way.

:

Nikkalmati
 
Snape is a good teacher.  It is canon.  His  students learn and they do well 
on standardized tests.  That's it.   No, he does not treat Neville and the 
Trio well; yes, he seems to exempt his  Slytherins from his sarcastic comments, 
but he does teach.  Should he  inspire his students?  That seems a pretty high 
standard - to expect all  students to be "inspired."  Isn't the student 
supposed to bring something  to the table?  Is learning being confused with  
entertainment?  
 
We have no canon evidence that Snape grades  unfairly.  Anyone who reads this 
list regularly knows that whether Snape  broke Harry's potion is disputed.  
It is not described in the book.   (Yes, it was nasty for Snape to snarl at 
Harry and tell him he would get a zero,  but if you don't turn in your assignment 
how can the teacher grade it?)   Harry himself seemed to think it would be no 
problem to rebottle his potion and  turn it in; how was Snape supposed to 
know Hermione would already have disposed  of it?
 
Binns is my candidate for the worst teacher, but maybe  that's because I like 
history. :>) Slughorn is far worse than Snape.   Umbridge at least allows the 
students to read the (presumably up to date) text  and they can learn 
something.  Slughorn assigns a 40-year-old text which is  out of date and just plain 
wrong.  The students can't even learn the  subject matter on their own using 
that text.  He certainly graded unfairly  when he gave Harry top marks for the 
Bezeor incident.  Can you really grade  for cheek?  
 
Slughorn (BTW I do like him as a character and assume he  is DDMSlughorn) is 
also far worse than Snape in the influence department.   Snape may not allow 
those with less than O to take Advanced Potions and may  turn off some 
students, but Slughorn actively brings together select students  who are supposed to 
advance each other and keep others down long after  they leave school.  We are 
told this is one reason Arthur has not done  as well as he should at the MOM - 
he was not a Sluggie.   DD even  wars Harry about this characteristic of 
Slughorn's and uses it to his own  advantage - to recruit him as the Potions 
Master. The smaller the society, the  worse effect this kind or cronyism has.  Some 
students may realize pretty  quickly they don't even have a chance at a good 
career if they are not one  of his chosen ones. 
 
However, I also don't see Slughorn as having a  particular pureblood bias.  
Draco is a pureblood; Ron is a pureblood.   He doesn't like either one.  He 
does advance Lily and Hermione,  despite being Muggleborn.  And his surprise that 
Lily was so  talented?  It probably is pretty rare for a Muggleborn.  After 
all,  most Muggles have no magical talent whatsoever. A truly outstanding 
Muggleborn  is probably even more rare.
 
Nikkalmati (who would be pretty astonished if  someone said their Appaloosa 
had been invited to participate in the Washington  D.C. International Horse 
Show as a jumper!).




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