On Severus' attitude to students: We do see once when he is sarcastic with Slytherins - in his comment to Crabbe how potentially killing Neville would look bad on his resume. I think he would have employed even more sarcasm towards other students had they earned it. The 4 Gryffindors do a lot to earn Severus' attitude towards them (though occasionally the cause is an honest misunderstanding and very rarely his comment is the result of his overall feeling about said student based on past interactions rather than justified by the student's behavior immediately prior to the comment. As for his punishments, well, why should he let students get away with being disrespectful, talking out of turn, yelling at him or telling him how to run his class? Harry thinks Severus' not punishing Slytherins for flicking ingredients at him and Ron was a sign of unfairness, but in the same lesson he gets away with throwing a firecracker into Goyle's cauldron - simply put if Severus doesn't see who did it he doesn't punish - and that goes for both Houses.
We do not know how he interacted with Hufflepuffs or Ravenclaws, but considering that Hufflepuffs are hard workers and Ravenclaws like being challenged intellectually I tend to think he found teaching them more rewarding than teaching Gryffindors and I expect that his lessons with them went more smoothly. Gryffindor culture, which encourages risk-taking (even when it is pointless and counterproductive) is anathema to Severus' view of what a Potions or DADA class should be like.
Also, we have no point of comparison - we never see classroom interaction between known Gryffindor teachers and Slytherin students. I'm willing to bet that Remus' classes with them were quite antagonistic from his part and that Minerva gave other Houses extra homework just before their teams were going to play against Gryffindor. It would be in line with their behavior elsewhere.
So is Severus really unfair to Gryffindor students or is he simply responding to behavior he doesn't like that stems from a House culture he disagrees with?
Re: Entitled?!
We do see once when he is sarcastic with Slytherins - in his comment to Crabbe how potentially killing Neville would look bad on his resume. I think he would have employed even more sarcasm towards other students had they earned it. The 4 Gryffindors do a lot to earn Severus' attitude towards them (though occasionally the cause is an honest misunderstanding and very rarely his comment is the result of his overall feeling about said student based on past interactions rather than justified by the student's behavior immediately prior to the comment. As for his punishments, well, why should he let students get away with being disrespectful, talking out of turn, yelling at him or telling him how to run his class? Harry thinks Severus' not punishing Slytherins for flicking ingredients at him and Ron was a sign of unfairness, but in the same lesson he gets away with throwing a firecracker into Goyle's cauldron - simply put if Severus doesn't see who did it he doesn't punish - and that goes for both Houses.
We do not know how he interacted with Hufflepuffs or Ravenclaws, but considering that Hufflepuffs are hard workers and Ravenclaws like being challenged intellectually I tend to think he found teaching them more rewarding than teaching Gryffindors and I expect that his lessons with them went more smoothly. Gryffindor culture, which encourages risk-taking (even when it is pointless and counterproductive) is anathema to Severus' view of what a Potions or DADA class should be like.
Also, we have no point of comparison - we never see classroom interaction between known Gryffindor teachers and Slytherin students. I'm willing to bet that Remus' classes with them were quite antagonistic from his part and that Minerva gave other Houses extra homework just before their teams were going to play against Gryffindor. It would be in line with their behavior elsewhere.
So is Severus really unfair to Gryffindor students or is he simply responding to behavior he doesn't like that stems from a House culture he disagrees with?