one time i went to see my grandma in the hospital when she was just waking up from surgery and the first thing she said (really feebly) was “neil… what does… your shirt say” and i had to say “skate and destroy” in front of the nurse and my whole family
snape could’ve been an awesome teacher if he wasn’t a disgusting waste of a human being. he knew from age 16 that the instuctions that the textbooks were giving weren’t as good as they could be. he improved the potions and recorded his methods at age 16. if he weren’t such a shitbag, he could’ve either written the damn textbooks himself, or taught his students his alternate methods. he could’ve revolutionized how potions were being brewed, teaching whole generations a superior method of potion brewing. instead, he spent his time bullying children.
What a brilliant point.
Apart from the fact that canon rather hints that Snape did teach the kids the revised instructions.
Prisoner of Azkaban:
Didn’t you hear me say, quite clearly, that only one cat spleen was needed? Didn’t I state plainly that a dash of leech juice would suffice?
It’s evident from this that Snape wasn’t solely teaching from the textbook; he clearly instructed the class verbally.
Order of the Phoenix:
“The ingredients and method” — Snape flicked his wand — “are on the blackboard”
and, in another lesson:
Determined not to give Snape an excuse to fail him this lesson, Harry read and reread every line of the instructions on the blackboard
Snape doesn’t instruct them to use the textbook; he puts the instructions on the board.
Order of the Phoenix gives us some other clues.
“And I must tell you that Professor Snape absolutely refuses to take students who get anything other than ‘Outstanding’ in their O.W.L.s,”
So McGonagall knows that Snape only takes Outstandings, which means it’s been an ongoing decision - it’s not new for Harry’s year. And why would Snape get away with only taking the best?
Well:
“Moronic though some of this class undoubtedly are, I expect you to scrape an ‘Acceptable’ in your O.W.L., or suffer my … displeasure.”
He expects everyone - even Neville, Crabbe and Goyle to gain an A. That’s his absolute baseline. He doesn’t anticipate anyone getting a P, T or D - which is a huge ask, expecting his class to attain the three top grades, without any one of them getting one of the three bottom grades.
“I advise all of you to concentrate your efforts upon maintaining the high-pass level I have come to expect from my O.W.L. students”
Yet evidently, he’s been succeeding.
So doesn’t that rather suggest that he’s teaching them from his own textbook? Is it really plausible that every student would succeed, and not a single one would fail, if he was only teaching from the textbook?
After all, Umbridge says:
“Well, the class seems fairly advanced for their level,”
And the real litmus test?
Well, in Half Blood Prince,Slughorn doesn’t write on the blackboard at all. Not once. Instead, he points the kids at their books:
“Scales out, everyone, and potion kits, and don’t forget your copies of Advanced Potion-Making… .”
So let’s look at Hermione and Harry. Hermione’s potions are perfect under Snape. She can follow instructions to the letter, and she always creates a flawless potion. She enters Slughorn’s class, continues to follow the instructions from the textbook, and she flails.
In contrast, Harry was continually distracted in Snape’s lessons - usually because of their joint animosity. Harry was less inclined to concentrate, and Snape made it impossible for him to relax - and for the most part, Harry was preoccupied with other events (e.g. Triwizard Tournament).
Under Slughorn, Harry finally follows the Prince’s instructions to the letter (he can follow Snape’s instructions, as long as he doesn’t realise Snape’s at the helm), and he creates flawless potions.
It suggests that neither of them is capable of seeing instinctively what’s required; both only succeed when they’ve got the notes before them and follow them to the letter. Snape, by contrast, was an instinctive Potions maker - it appears Slughorn is teaching in the same way he always did, and we know he taught Snape - so his flair wasn’t taught to him.
It all rather indicates that Snape was teaching the kids his revised methods. It’s plausibly less apparent during the early years that we see him teaching, because presumably, the easy potions do not require intense modification.
i am not joking we need to force teach cooking in schools. like. it is an essential thing for survival. do you know how easy it is to make things if you know even the bare bones shit about how cooking works. we need to teach teenagers how far you can take an onion and some other veggies it’’s sad that people grow up not knowing how to prepare literally anything. and i’m not talking about oh this home ed class taught me how to make chicken nuggets at home i’m talking about learning the balancing of sweetness and acidity and saltiness and bitterness and shit like that and techniques and oil temperatures and how meats cook. it needs to be taught because it’s literally not even that difficult and it matters so much
i truly believe that knowing how to cook is a basic survival concept and the fact that so many people can’t even make simple dishes is depressing as hell this is the sorta thing that should be taught at a young age. being able to take the ingredients you have around your home and turn them into a meal is like, essential and will make life so much better. you don’t need to be a high end chef you just need to understand some things that can be easily taught… but then again maybe the education system is playing a roll against this and ultimately they want you to grow up to rely on mcdonalds for dinner. i don’t know. please learn how to cook for yourself if you’re able. i’m not asking you to hunt for specific ingredients to make some expensive youtuber’s “best” recipe but if you know the basics of cooking you can do a lot with cheap canned ingredients. cooking can be affordable i promise you just need to learn how to make do with what you can get
Can anyone point me towards resources that teach those basics cus I would LOVE to teach my child this stuff but i dont know how to cook
kitchen tools (although the specific suggestions are pretty expensive even with the lower end scale items the basic categories are solid, and you can evaluate what items you will realistcially need - eg. if you dont need to read temp for steaks etc the temp reader will not be relevant) &
the western supermarket playlist of chinese cooking demystified (more recipes available but these are accessible if you dont have “specialty” ingredients)
cooking with boris (bear with me here i know he does it exaggeratedly humorously but a lot of them are actually solid and beginner cook friendly. mostly slavic/russian)
you suck at cooking (also falls into the intentionally humorous category but most of the recipes are pretty solid anyway)
how to cook that (baking, also does debunking videos of viral cooking hacks - breaks down the reasons the hacks dont work, pretty important to understand those basics imo)
i REFUSE to recommended joshua weissman because he is fucking insufferable but if you want you can try if you can deal with it, the techniques/recipes seem fine for the most part
also disclaimer: these are channels i watch and cuisines i most often cook with (save for YSAC and boris which i just find funny) - there are tons of cuisines that are missing completely but i don’t cook with them much so i don’t really know who to rec
again definitely not a comprehensive list but it touches on most of the basics
