Am I the only one that thinks the idea of deciding a persons future by their eleven year old personality is stupid?

I, as an example, am ashamed and embarrassed by the stuff I did as a kid, hell, I am ashamed of stuff I did last year.

Beyond that, JKR just didn't shape her character's personality in concordance with their houses.(i.e. Draco parading throw Hogwarts announcing his allegiance to the Dark Lord)

Now, I am not asking for 11 year olds plotting for world domination but how about more subtlety for the Slytherins, or some nobility and solidarity for the Gryffindors (when they turn their back on Harry) or some common sense for the Ravenclaws

On that note I would also like to ask what exactly are the traits( excluding parseltoungue) that would have made Harry a good Slytherin. If you sort them after their personality then there must be some dominating trait or characteristic, no?

 

Sorting into houses is just a way of trying to create a more community feel. I don't think the original founders intended for there to be so much rivalry between the houses; indeed there might not be - our view of Hogwarts is Harry's view and he is very house-prejudice. For most people who are not Harry, house may be less of a boundary.

At my school they sort us into 4 houses (they've done this for over 200 years so they're not copying anyone). We pretty much ignore it and pretend the houses don't exist, except for the odd inter-house sports game and at the end of the year when the house cup is awarded.

So sorting people into houses isn't really all that bad, 'cos it is not the be all and end all of anything - just an attempt to get the children to develop strong friendships through competition and the closeness that being able to identify with one particular house brings.

Edit: The more I think about it, the more my school's system is similar to Hogwarts. We have four houses, and they even have the same colours as the Hogwarts houses...

 

If you think about it that way, you are right...however the houses at your school don't determine who you are or how you are going to develope

 

Ahh, Taure's A Wizard. Run For Your Lives!

 

We had houses at school, and all but Gryffindor colors matched. Also it was only with regard to sports and other extra-curricular actvities. While it shouldn't decide who we will become it seems that people in Wizarding world have taken it upon themselves to do so.

Oh, and what Surry said.

 

House system isn't bad if you don't separate people with absurd criteria.

In a fanfiction the author wrote "There's an old headmasters saying: wait three more years and everyone will be sorted in Slytherin". I'm not sure which one it is though it's quite right.

At eleven, child are often naive and have no idea how the real grown-up world is. The most naives are going to Hufflepuff and Gryffondor. The one with a bit of a brain or more mature are going to Slytherin and Ravenclaw.

Besides, sorting someone whose personality isn't fully developed is really stupid. No wonder many wizards are nuts, dress in kitsch colors, etc. I mean, how are child supposed to grow up when you put every naives and stupid kids together. It will only accentuate what they were.

And it would be much better if they were offered a choice to choose the house. What if a child find himself way too 'Hufflepuff' and wants to change, to become more? It will be much more difficult for him if not impossible.

It's the same in the real life. When someone grows up, let's say, without friends. He will have difficulties making friends later.

 

Word.
But then again, the sortinghat IS an MAGICAL hat, a hat that possibly may have prophetic abilities, it can forsee it all!

Or just ignore my previous statement and concider that children during the time of the founders (middle ages) were conciderd to be "tiny adults", rather than actual children.
This way of thinking didn't change untill the 1700's or early 1800's, with the comming of the industrial revolution.
This means that people didn't concider the maturaion of childrens minds as they age. And they probably never removed the system becouse it is "tradition" to do it that way.... Or becouse the magical society STILL more or less live in the middle ages and know nothing about simple psykology or pedagogics...

 

The system was put in for a completly different purpose. The purpose lost its meaning after the Hogwarts four separated and quickly deteriorated into intense rivalry.

Around after the age of eleven no matter how innocent a kig is, he/she will be corrupted by the ways of the world. My it be from fellow peers or from older friends, also as competition increases as the 'young adults' enter the rat race of life. Where there is competition there is hard-work,persevearance,courage to take risks and ambition. Hence the children could go any house after a certain age.

That is where it all starts going downhill.

 

It could also be because back then there weren't really any teaching as in classes, but rather in apprenticeships. So it is possible that they took apprentices based upon their values and heritage, and when the founders died the system had to be abolished, since there were no-one to be apprenticed to. So they invented the house system, based upon what the founders were looking for in their apprentices.

 

The children are sorted by their qualities, but that does not mean sorting them by their personality is stupid. Is it? Like how the sorting hat sings at the start of the year, children are sorted by the qualities they have. Look at Hermione, she is so smart that she should be intended for Ravenclaw, but her qualities have made the sorting hat choose her destined for Gryffindor. Same for Neville. And lots of other characters in the story. I do deem that it is not say... smart to sort them by their personality, but that does NOT make it stupid, so i think you are wrong.

 

You do realize intelligence is not personality correct? It is a quality a person possesses, so in that case she should have went to Ravenclaw. But her personality took her to Gryffindor.

 

Personally, I think Ravenclaw is about more than intelligence--it's also about a certain intellectual mindset.

 

This I agree with. You need to have not only smarts, but a thirst to gain a higher intellectual ground. A thirst not only for knowledge, but understanding.

Although I do think the hat being magical means something, I admit to having an idea for a one-shot about the hat throwing people and families into houses randomly.

 

How exactly does this apply to Neville? Isn't the hat supposed to put kids into houses based on their most dominant quality or part of personality?

Yes, Neville showed signs of courage in book 1 and later in book 5 but many ordinary people do things that they won't normally do when faced with an extraordinary situation, that isn't by far his most dominant quality/flaw.

Another plausible theory of mine that is slightly confirmed by Harry's sorting is that the hat places kids into houses based on what the kids think will better suit them...but isn't that equally stupid, to allow a kid to choose his future at age eleven? (also...this could explain how ferret got into Slytherin)

 

My theory is that the founders were trying to do one thing and screwed up really bad but what they got was what they really were trying to do to begin with. I think that the damn hat just has so much magic in that its capable of seeing the inner part of the students mind not just what the student thinks and feels but also feelings and thoughts that are hidden. And according to JKR in canon its more of where the student wants to be so its really according to the family. Like Weasleys are always in Gryffindor because they have been brought up thinking that they are supposed to be in that house. Malfoys are raised all the same so they grow up thinking HEY I HAVE TO BE IN SLYTHERIN!!. Harry was told slytherins were all evil and bad and that Gryffindors were the knights in shining armor.

It has partly to do with that He has Voldemort in his head. Also Had he not been corrupted by Ron and the Weasleys he probably wouldnt have been in gryffindor well ron and Hagrid corrupted him at first. He has intelligence and is capable but just he has ben serverly corrupted by Ron's lazy and just dont give a crap about learning. I mean Hell why do you need to learn you have a know it all friend who had read half the library.

 

Go back and do it again. I don't know if English is your first language or not but this post reads like a 4th year's homework. Capital letters aren't where they should be, tense mistakes are abound and commas are missing in several places. This is what it should have looked like:

Sorry if you're not a native English speaker but I don't like bad grammar and I'm feeling just a little cranky. Be glad I'm not taking rep. If you are foreign, just ignore my mood and try just that little bit harder in English class.

 

Im sorry I have this problem sometimes where I type like I think when Im distracted. This is why I dont even attempt to write a fic. Im a little messed up in the head if your wondering why i even think like that.