Teaching Styles / Sorting Hat

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 157872

Betsy Hp:
So Mike Smith is reviewing another Potter book.  (If you've not 
heard about Mr. Smith, he took up the task of reviewing HBP last 
year.  He was singularly unimpressed, but also side-splittingly 
funny and refreshingly non-political about the whole thing.  He 
doesn't have a dog in the race, whether character or plot theory, so 
there's no bias to influence him.  Plus, he's from Kentucky.)

He's doing PoA now, and as usual is providing some cool insights 
(and much amusement).  And he sums up beautifully exactly why I'm 
not bothered at all by Snape telling Neville to feed his potion to 
Trevor.

> >>Mike Smith (see link):
http://mike-smith.livejournal.com/125565.html#cutid1
"The chapter's a decent improvement from before, simply for using 
Neville's confidence issues to tie everything together into a little 
story. Snape breaks him down because fear is critical to good 
laboratory practice, even if the lab is for something as 
melodramatic and absurd as Potions. Fear leads to caution. Caution 
leads to accuracy. Accuracy leads to progress. Conversely, Lupin 
builds Neville back up again, since Lupin's course concerns self-
defense, where fear can only become a hinderance, even when the 
enemy doesn't feed upon it. Fear leads to hesitation, hesitation 
leads to getting eaten by a flying shark. It's a precarious balance 
Neville has to strike, but he has to strike it if he's going to get 
through life. I complain about these books for failing to provide 
any sort of moral guidance to the characters, but just this once it 
might have gotten it right. Can't fault that." 

Betsy Hp:
So Snape is making an important point.  Neville needs to learn to 
pay attention and follow directions, or someone might get hurt.  
Snape is doing the best he can to reach him.  I think it's 
especially telling that Snape expresses a bit of frustration before 
he comes up with using Trevor as a guinea pig.  Snape has been 
trying to get that message across, and this is one way he's thought 
of for doing so.

Mike's reviews have also given me a thought about the Sorting Hat 
and whether it will survive the end of the series.  He was 
discussing how Batman would break the Sorting Hat because Batman is 
unsortable.  And that's when I realized... You don't need to have 
the Hat to have the Houses.

See, my problem with the end of Sorting forever is that I much 
prefer the idea of students being in Houses, with various ages 
intermingling, than in dorms based on age.  But you can have the 
Houses and just sort students *randomly* into them.  That way being 
a Gryffindor doesn't mean anything more than the color of your 
school tie.  It doesn't say anything about your personality.

So you still have the logistical sense of the Houses without the 
psychological test that in many ways justifies cut-throat House 
rivalry.  It's win, win! <g>

(Okay, all of you "end Sorting now!" had probably figured that all 
out, but it's a new idea for me, so I'm kind of excited. <g>)

Betsy Hp (glad to have thought of something having nothing 
whatsoever to do with cabinets <g>)

PS Here are some links for those who want to check out Mike's 
reviews.

The HBP stuff: (Done)
http://pages.prodigy.net/mike_p_smith/hbp/intro.html
The PoA stuff: (1/2 way through)
http://mike-smith.livejournal.com/tag/prisonerofazkaban