[HPforGrownups] JKR and the House system

[Shaun Hately]

No: HPFGUIDX 56836

On 2 May 2003 at 12:05, alice_loves_cats wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> something struck me few days ago, partly inspired by the "Is there
> anything that bothers you in the Potterverse" topic: JKR has stated in
> at least one interview that I've heard (I believe there's a link to it
> in the Lexicon), that she once had a terrible teacher who seated kids
> in class according to how smart she thought they were. First, she was
> put at the back with the stupid kids, and later had to change places
> with her best friend, who had until then sat in the front row with the
> supposedly bright kids. JKR said she thought this to be a terrible
> system (I agree.)
> 
> On the other hand, doesn't the House system of Hogwarts actually do
> something pretty similar?
> 
> Sure, the characteristics of every house are given in positive terms:
> Hufflepuffs are not stupid, but nice, Slytherins are not nasty and
> evil, but cunning. Still, if somebody gets sorted into Hufflepuff, the
> word goes ruond that he's not exactly the brightest of souls. And
> everybody considers Slytherins to be evil. 
> 
> The very idea of sorting kids into houses according to their certain
> characteristics is, I think, almost as horrible as JKR's school seating.

Well, as someone who went to a school that did that, I respectfully disagree.

My school had eight houses, with 30 students per year level in each house (there were 
four years so 120 students per house total, and a grand total of around 960 students in 
the school). You were placed in a particular house quite deliberately, based on a 
number of factors - personality (as indicated by testing and by observation - this school 
had the advantage that of the 240 boys coming into the lowest year, 220 or so had 
attended 1 of 2 schools, which made it easy to observe them in the year prior to entry, 
and also to talk to their previous teachers) being one of the most important.

And it worked wonders. Especially for kids like me, who found it rather hard to fit in with 
other people, who found it very hard to make friends, and who would - and up until then 
had - spent most of his time trying to be alone, because experience had taught me that 
other children only wanted to hurt me.

What our house system did was immediately restricted the number of people you *had* 
to have intimate contact with, down from 240 to 30 or so. It was a lot easier to get to 
know other people, and also a lot easier to work out if someone was being left out of 
things. We got the similar speech, about how house was something like family. We were 
told that we were expected to hang together.

I still didn't make friends easily - it took me over a year before I got that far, but the 
house system made it *much* easier for me to acquire 'acquaintances', and that was the 
first step for me. At my school, for the first year, we did do all our classes in our house 
groups (except our very limited elective subjects), the following year, we were shuffled 
so half of one house had classes with half of another, and for the final two years houses 
weren't really used for class allocation at all (mostly because by then, virtually every 
subject was an elective).

The thing is, I think the Hogwarts house system is similar to that. How many 'friendless' 
people do we encounter at Hogwarts? How many kids do we see moving around with no 
friends at all? Compare that to most schools - I suspect that in most schools, you'll see a 
lot more isolated kids than we see at Hogwarts. We have seen it, though, and the cases 
where we have is interesting

Take Hermione in her first year.

"Ron was in a very bad mood by the end of the class. "It's no wonder no one can stand 
her," he said to Harry as they pushed their way into the crowded corridor, "she's a 
nightmare, honestly. "

Someone knocked into Harry as they hurried past him. It was Hermione. Harry caught a 
glimpse of her face - and was startled to see that she was in tears.

"I think she heard you."

"So?" said Ron, but he looked a bit uncomfortable. "She must've noticed she's got no 
friends.""

I find this one interesting because of one of the questions I have seen come up so often 
in internet discussion groups on Harry Potter - why isn't Hermione in Ravenclaw? Many 
people seem to feel, based on their understanding of the novels, that she'd fit there well. 
And I can understand that myself. I think Hermione would have done well as a 
Ravenclaw. She also does well as a Gryffindor. What she seems to be is someone who 
has the characteristics of two houses. And when she acts like a 'Ravenclaw' in 
Gryffindor, it leads to friction.

But look at what else we see in the paragraph after that scene:

"Hermione didn't turn up for the next class and wasn't seen all afternoon. On their way 
down to the Great Hall for the Hallowe'en feast, Harry and Ron overheard Parvati Patil 
telling her friend Lavender that Hermione was crying in the girls' toilets and wanted to be 
left alone."

Assuming Ron is correct and Hermione has no friends, it's very interesting to see 
Parvati and Lavender - both Gryffindor girls - are apparently concerned enough about 
what is happening with Hermione to be talking about her, and the statement that she 
wants to be left alone suggests that Parvati has at least tried to talk to her about things. 
It suggests that even though Hermione may not have any friends, there are still people 
from her own house taking an interest, and probably trying to help her.

> It also gives them much less opportunity to develop their
> personalities. If you only see people similar to yourself around you,
> you will eventually become very limited in your opinions, don't you think?

No, to the first, possibly to the second. If that is what actually happens.

Broadly speaking, let's divide kids into two categories. Those who make friends easily 
and those who don't.

Those who make friends easily will do so in just about any environment - and will not be 
greatly inhibited by things like house divisions.

Those who don't, are a different matter. In my experience, the best way to help them 
make friends, and learn those skills, is to create a less daunting atmosphere. One where 
they have to deal with less people, and one where they know they are likely to be 
dealing with people similar to themselves. Such environments make it far less 
intimidating to make friends, and far easier. And once a child has started to make 
friends in that environment, they start to develop the skills that will allow them to do so 
more broadly. By giving them access to a more limited environment to begin with, you 
can greatly increase their chances of eventually being able to fit into the world in 
general.

And consider - at Hogwarts, kids do not only see people similar to themselves. They 
have classes with other houses. They see other people a lot. They can, and do, talk to 
each other. There are some friendships across houselines - Percy and Penelope is a 
pretty clear example. If they want to make friends with people from other houses, they 
can.

But the fact is, most people form friendships with those similar to them anyway. 
Especially at school. 'Cliqueishness' is rapidly becoming identified as a major factor in 
American schools, and one that causes some concern. Many kids make friends based 
on similar characteristics, without any prompting whatsoever. So do many adults.

Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
Shaun Hately |webpage: http://www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/thelab.html
(ISTJ)       |email: drednort at alphalink.com.au | ICQ: 6898200

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