Chamber of Secrets Chapter 18: Dobby's reward Snape's teaching

[nikkalmati]

No: HPFGUIDX 189352



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> > Joey:
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> > True and that is why I think he could do great in research. Do you think a person who *genuinely* wants to teach will be that horrible with students like Neville and Hermione? I'd think they would rather offer help to students like Neville or at least refrain from being that nasty. 
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> Pippin:
> Snape was Head of Slytherin. I think that indicates a degree of approval for the way he does his job and a certain ambition to be recognized for doing it. He didn't need to be a Head of House to protect Harry.
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>  I think "teaching" has to be broken into its constituent bits before we consider whether Snape liked doing it. Clearly he enjoyed lecturing, he liked being considered an authority, and he was proud of that high pass rate. He thought it important to organize the material and present it to the class in a logical way -- as we can tell from his complaint about Lupin's lack of organization and  Hermione's protest when he takes up the topic of werewolves out of order. He liked to see people appreciate the beauty and power of potions, and he wanted them to be able to protect themselves from those who used the Dark Arts.  
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> What he didn't like was coaxing better performance out of the inept or the uninterested. Nowadays  that's  an important part of what a teacher, especially a teacher of children, is supposed to do and Snape was obviously lacking. However, there is the alternate and older philosophy that treated children as miniature adults, according to which  the incompetent and the uninterested deserved to fail. I think that is the tradition that Snape was brought up in -- it is certainly  one which accords with the general elitism of Slytherin House. 
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Nikkalmati

I have wondered about this situation before.  All the teachers at Hogwarts are expected to teach students from ages 11 to 17.  In the US that would be part of elementary school, middle school (or junior high), and high school.  That's impossible.  Leaving out the number of class preparations, very few would have the personal skills to handle students of all those different ages and we certainly don't expect it of our teachers.  Snape is shown as being very bright or at least very academicly inclined.  Teaching the equvalent of chemistry to very young children would have been extremely stressful for someone of his abilities.  
I think he may have liked teaching some of the older students.  He certainly took pride in his students' OWL and NEWT pass rates.  

Nikkalmati
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