[HPforGrownups] Re: (algorithmic) Sorting Hat

[Hana]

No: HPFGUIDX 38090

regant4 wrote:

>I believe it is magic, and that it assigns students to the houses 
>they will flourish in. If in an odd year everyone ends up in 
>Hufflepuff, then the school has to live with that.

I personally agree with this theory, but in all honesty, what are the chances of ~everyone~ in a particular year having the same traits?  Maybe one house would get more students, but I think that each house would get at least a few.  Everyone is different, and even assuming that there are only 28 children to be sorted, imagine an average classroom of 11 year olds -- they won't all be scholars, or hard workers, or courageous, or ambitious (trust me I know) -- there'll always be a mix, even if it was a bit unbalanced in certain years.  

The only way I see the hat sorting people by numbers would be if a child would do equally well in more than one house and the numbers for one of the choices were low, perhaps it would put that particular child in the smaller house, but otherwise I don't see how sorting by numbers would work the way JKR has shown the sorting ceremony working so far.

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--Hana



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