I think Dumbledore underestimated the obsessiveness of Snape's personality in general. There is that part in Deathly Hallows where he sees Snape's Patronus and asks "Still? After all this time?" which does imply that he's surprised that Snape's still clinging to his love of Lily as well as his hatred of James. It's definitely not healthy behaviour, but I think we can agree that Snape is hardly the paragon of sanity.
The decision to make him a teacher - ostensibly to keep him under Dumbledore's eye/close enough to pass for a spy to Voldemort - would be good if you took the children out of the equation. None of them deserve a teacher like Snape. He's so bad he's a child's worst fear, for heaven's sake. There is nothing in the world that can make that okay.
It does have a few good ones. McGonagall springs to mind. Sprout, Flitwick. Even Slughorn - the lesson we see with him is, actually, pretty good. It's just that the conditions for the teaching are poor. The good teachers they have also have other responsibilities (Head of House, Deputy Headmistress) which means that they don't have extra staff for those roles, which - taking into account the number of named staff and the size of the student body - means that Hogwarts is hugely understaffed and that the teachers are either organised to an impossible degree, disorganised to the point where the inmates are running the asylum, or in possession of Time Turners.
I thought (when I first read the books) that the similarities between Harry and Voldemort were leading up to a "Luke, I am your father" moment. That said (and I'm kind of glad they didn't go that way) the similarities are still fascinating. (Though I did read one fic that played on there being similarities between Harry and Grindelwald, which was pretty interesting.)
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Date: 2014-05-28 05:32 pm (UTC)From:The decision to make him a teacher - ostensibly to keep him under Dumbledore's eye/close enough to pass for a spy to Voldemort - would be good if you took the children out of the equation. None of them deserve a teacher like Snape. He's so bad he's a child's worst fear, for heaven's sake. There is nothing in the world that can make that okay.
It does have a few good ones. McGonagall springs to mind. Sprout, Flitwick. Even Slughorn - the lesson we see with him is, actually, pretty good. It's just that the conditions for the teaching are poor. The good teachers they have also have other responsibilities (Head of House, Deputy Headmistress) which means that they don't have extra staff for those roles, which - taking into account the number of named staff and the size of the student body - means that Hogwarts is hugely understaffed and that the teachers are either organised to an impossible degree, disorganised to the point where the inmates are running the asylum, or in possession of Time Turners.
I thought (when I first read the books) that the similarities between Harry and Voldemort were leading up to a "Luke, I am your father" moment. That said (and I'm kind of glad they didn't go that way) the similarities are still fascinating. (Though I did read one fic that played on there being similarities between Harry and Grindelwald, which was pretty interesting.)