Why did the founders retain Slytherin's house?

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 117910



> bboyminn:
>snip 
> In addition, and regardless of what the books would lead us to
> believe, being ambitious and cunning are not crimes. You are not 
evil
> by virtue of the desire to be successful. But among successful and
> ambitious people, there are those, those but not all, who will 'use
> any means to achieve their ends'. And that is not a tendency that 
is
> limited to Slytherin. 
> 
> True, many extremely ambitious people, in the fictional world and 
the
> real world, make morally, ethically, and legally unsound choices, 
but
> that's human nature, and not something reserved exclusively for
> Slytherins. And, is not a require trait to be successfull.

Potioncat:
I agree with Steve.  Although I'm not sure if JKR agrees with us.  
Within a group of ambitious individuals some will be so driven by 
ambition that they will choose less than honorable means. Slytherin 
House isn't the house for Dark Wizards, but becoming Dark Wizards is 
one of the tempations facing that house.

Based on the qualities given for Slytherin, we should see some 
highly competitive, successful individuals.  We don't.  But if you 
look at house points, they must be doing well somewhere.  Someone is 
giving them points.  

We started out like Harry, hearing some rumors about Slytherin 
House.We don't see any of the gossip about Gryffindors, although we 
do see some about Hufflepuff. (Duffers) And we do get a little look 
at  how other students sometimes see Harry.  Quite a few of them are 
afraid of him at times, so Gryffindor isn't seen as a Purely Good 
house.

So I'm not so sure the adults at Hogwarts view Slytherin House as a 
house of bad kids.  Although it does seem to me that the rowdy, hard 
to handle kids might tend to come from Gryffindor and Slytherin.