What's the point of Houses?

[KathyK]

No: HPFGUIDX 75613

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "greatlit2003" <hieya at h...> 
wrote:
> Hello.
> I am wondering why Hogwarts needs these different Houses to begin 
> with. I mean, what is the point of sorting all the brave students 
to 
> live in a dorm together, all the ambitious people together, etc.? 
> What does that accomplish? Everyone receives the same education 
> anyway (different Houses have classes together). I understand that 
> the students need to be placed in groups for the sake of 
> organization, but why does that organization (i.e. Sorting) depend 
on 
> their personality? Why can't the Hat just randomly select students 
> for each House? A lot of bad will seems to crop up at Hogwarts in 
> large part to the House system. Any thoughts?
> 
> greatlit2003

I agree there is not much good in the way the students are sorted.  
Even the Sorting Hat doesn't like the division of the students.  I'm 
all for a new system of housing students.  

But the Hat is only doing what it was made to do.  It can only 
caution students about the dangers of the houses divided.  It cannot 
change how it sorts students.  When the founders created Hogwarts, 
they each had in mind certain qualities in students that they valued 
above any other.  In the beginning they chose their students based on 
these qualities and taught only those who fit the criteria (except 
Helga Hufflepuff who took all the rest).  They created the hat to 
continue this practice once they were gone.  
Essentially the sorting of students based on the founders' criteria 
is about tradition.  

This tradition does cause animosity between the different houses, 
most particularly seen between Gryffindor (with Ravenclaw and 
Hufflepuff to an extent) and Slytherin.  Surely breaking up the house 
system as it stands would change this for a while as students worked 
to form new identities for their houses if the houses stayed but 
selection was randomized.  I mean if they still used the house names.
If the competition between houses in the form of House Cup and the 
Quidditch cup remain, house rivalry would continue, anyway.  Maybe 
without the "labels" that the current sorting system places on each 
house, the rivalry would be less strong.  But who knows?  

As always, I hope I made some sense in my babbling,

KathyK