I still believe that Snape let a childhood grudge (however justified) influence his behaviour towards Harry to an excessive degree (and initially it was based on nothing but physical resemblance and preconceived notions), which -- as the adult, and as an educator/authority figure -- he shouldn't have done
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We rarely see Snape actually teaching. The two introductory lectures we are shown-in first year Potions and sixth year Defense-make him seem like an enthralling speaker, but in day-to-day class we never hear about him explaining theory or giving practical demonstrations. It’s always, “Instructions are on the board; start brewing
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Severus has the students learn the theory through the essays they are required to write for his class. I'm wondering if he got his students to advance faster than the Ministry expects by careful curriculum design - by choosing which potion to teach when based on which skills they develop in the brewer.
I'm wondering if he doesn't use his improved versions too when he teaches. He puts the instructions on the board he could easily modify them from the Ministry standards to have his students achieve better results immediately.
In fact I would have loved to see Snape teach a NEWT level potions class (without the Harry filter) because all the students there have achieved the grades he wants to see and are they because they genuinely want to learn the subject for their careers and so forth. He might be far more open to discussion and applying theory in the classroom - "My instructions differ from the textbook and have given you better results, which one of you dunderheads can tell me why that is?" - rather than hovering over everyone because he has to worry that someone isn't paying attention and going to blow up themselves and their classmates in the process.
There were so many missed opportunities here. Like much of the rest of the series, JKR set up something really interesting, and then wimped out on following through.
For instance: if Snape is so horrible, then shouldn't Harry eventually grow to the point that he notices McGonagall is actually quite similar overall, but isn't specifically focused on Harry? (Neville might have noticed more similarities...) That plenty of people Harry likes say just as many thoughtless or nasty things, or have prejudices, or hold grudges? This would require actually interrogating what all this means. Decide to let everyone off the hook, including Snape, because turns out everyone does it? Decide to condemn everyone as lost causes? Try to work out the exact proportions of each person's guilt? Try to figure out what actually does the most harm (e.g., not just "am I the target or not," but "is this action actually worse/aimed at a more vulnerable target/etc.")? Decide since everyone's hopeless, he should just judge based on whether he likes someone or they
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Harry could have realised not paying attention in History hurt him. In DH having to make a deal for the sword with the Goblins - thinking if I had listened I would know the history of Goblins and how to approach them.
Or thinking about how fake Moody fooled him, realizing someone could pretend to be on your side, yet really working against you.
Oh, yes. Don't even get me started on how this series stomps all over the idea of history as something that matters. (And, you know, an actual discipline where it takes a lot of work to research and piece together fragmentary and contradictory sources and you will never have the One True Answer to most questions...) For having a plot that depends so much on stuff that happened in the past, the books really go out of their way to spit on history.
You'd think being tricked by Fake Moody for a whole year would have been a good wake-up call to be careful. Apparently not...
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I still believe that Snape let a childhood grudge (however justified) influence his behaviour towards Harry to an excessive degree (and initially it was based on nothing but physical resemblance and preconceived notions), which -- as the adult, and as an educator/authority figure -- he shouldn't have done ( ... )
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In fact I would have loved to see Snape teach a NEWT level potions class (without the Harry filter) because all the students there have achieved the grades he wants to see and are they because they genuinely want to learn the subject for their careers and so forth. He might be far more open to discussion and applying theory in the classroom - "My instructions differ from the textbook and have given you better results, which one of you dunderheads can tell me why that is?" - rather than hovering over everyone because he has to worry that someone isn't paying attention and going to blow up themselves and their classmates in the process.
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For instance: if Snape is so horrible, then shouldn't Harry eventually grow to the point that he notices McGonagall is actually quite similar overall, but isn't specifically focused on Harry? (Neville might have noticed more similarities...) That plenty of people Harry likes say just as many thoughtless or nasty things, or have prejudices, or hold grudges? This would require actually interrogating what all this means. Decide to let everyone off the hook, including Snape, because turns out everyone does it? Decide to condemn everyone as lost causes? Try to work out the exact proportions of each person's guilt? Try to figure out what actually does the most harm (e.g., not just "am I the target or not," but "is this action actually worse/aimed at a more vulnerable target/etc.")? Decide since everyone's hopeless, he should just judge based on whether he likes someone or they ( ... )
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Or thinking about how fake Moody fooled him, realizing someone could pretend to be on your side, yet really working against you.
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You'd think being tricked by Fake Moody for a whole year would have been a good wake-up call to be careful. Apparently not...
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