The Sorting Hat

[arielock2001]

No: HPFGUIDX 87765

Arianna boldly splits infinitives:

	Many have pointed out that...
*Hermione could have done well in Ravenclaw.
*Neville seems more like a Hufflepuff.
*Cedric was quite brave.
*Percy shows Slytherin traits.
*Dumbledore states that Harry was put in Gryffindor because he 
asked not to be placed in Slytherin.
*We are all reading the same books, yet cannot agree on what 
houses MWPP belonged to.
*Some think Snape is brave, some think he is a coward, I don't 
think there is anything wrong with him that Wayne and Stacy 
(What not to Wear) couldn't fix  (I mean really, can't you just 
picture Snape standing, arms folded, in that 360 degree mirror 
room scowling,  racks and racks of black clothes on wooden 
hangers  "Oh look, Wayne, another black cape" being tossed in 
the garbage, "What we'd really like to see you in is a nice khaki, a 
nice clean line, something professional, but something you 
won't be too afraid to wear when you mix your potion."  But I 
digress...)

Back in topic: The Sorting Hat
	  We have discussed the criteria that the Sorting Hat uses to 
place children in their houses, debating the number of students 
per house and the possible ratios of students assigned to one 
house or another.    A lot of excellent questions have been 
raised, and our analysis of various characters quite often 
contradicts other evidence. 

This is part of the hat's song in OoP
"though condemned I am to split you 
still I worry that it's wrong, 
though I must fulfill my duty 
and must quarter every year"
	It sounds as if it is dividing the new students fairly close to 
evenly.

	Wouldn't it be cool if the big red herring is that the Sorting Hat 
just *randomly* splits the children into houses?   We have seen 
that the hat can sense where they want to be assigned, and if 
they have a preference, that is where they go.  If the child has no 
preference, it places them randomly.  While at school, the 
children appear to take on the characteristics of the house 
because they and everyone around them believes that they must 
posses those traits.  Gryffindors are brave because it is expected 
of them, Ravenclaws do well in their classes because they 
believe that they must be smart, since the Sorting Hat put them 
in Ravenclaw and everyone knows that Ravenclaws are bright.   
Slytherins are incouraged/allowed to get involved in the dark arts 
because many assume that they are likely to anyway.   I am *not* 
arguing that the children are blank slates who are molded into 
conforming to their houses, I am saying that it influences how 
they are *percieved* and labeled by others.  Children do 
internalize labels placed upon them.

If placement is initially arbitrary and has always been, it is 
entirely possible that no one (teachers, previous headmasters, 
Dumbledore) is aware of it.  

Arianna (who still thinks Trelawney is a squib, thanks everyone 
who responded to her first post, and would love to have Penn 
and Teller investigate her little 
look-over-there-while-I-dim-the-lights routine.)