Sorting and House System

[Janette]

No: HPFGUIDX 173327

montims:

I don't have my books with me just now, but I am just about to take off for
a long weekend, and wanted to reply while the threads are still fresh -

I am totally perplexed as to people's reactions to the sorting system.  I
know what the Hat said, and what DD said, but people here seem to be against
the system for its own sake, and I don't understand that.  There are always
houses and house rivalries at schools.  I didn't go to a boarding school,
but we had a house system.  We weren't sorted according to innate personal
characteristics, per se, but we were sorted according to the results of our
11-plus exams, and our likes and hobbies.  So the sporty ones were in a
totally different house from me.  Ditto the very brainy ones.  This makes
sense, because I never mixed with, or even spoke to, anyone from another
year, and very rarely anyone from another house.  Similar people stick
together.  The brainy ones did extra study which ensured they were good
university material, etc.  The Hogwarts Hat has a privileged insight into
the characters of the students.  Even if DD said "we sort too soon", we have
seen that it is right in its judgement most of the time.

Being a Slytherin does not make someone bad.  A Slytherin student is the
kind of person who will be happiest in the company of similar students -
pureblood, whatever.  I was going to make comparisons with the various
colleges of Oxford and Cambridge, and who chooses which and why, but that
might not resonate in the same way with US readers.  If I pose the question
- the "aristocrats" of the American world (the Kennedys, Bushes, Mayflower
descendants, rich kids, etc etc) - what colleges do they attend?  Idaho
University or Yale/Harvard and the like?  Why do they apply there and why
are they accepted?  They are not necessarily that smart, but daddy and
grandad went to that college and endowed a few buildings, and their fellow
students are the kind that they are comfortable mixing with.

Yet Yale and Harvard also accept "nobodies", and some rich kids choose to go
to different universities, for different reasons.  Being smart in the WW and
being sorted into one house does not make you better or worse than being
brave and sorted into another.  It means that you will be more comfortable
with your head of house and fellow house mates.

I believe that a person's essential character is formed quite young.  Life
experiences will test that character, and the character will affect how one
faces those life experiences.  But putting a Slytherin type among a group of
Gryffindor types would not be a happy experience for any of them,
particularly when they first leave their families to board, and especially
considering how closely they live, and the amount of studying they have to
do - they don't need the extra stress.

IMHO of course...


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]