Sorting Hat Paper (Eve)

Does Age Matter in Relation To Hogwarts House?

When it comes to the Sorting Hat Ceremony, I think that the age of the student is irrelevant. I think the hat can see past the age of the student because of the way it speaks about their personality. For instance, when the hat is placed on Harry’s head it comes up with two options: Gryffindor and Slytherin. The two houses are so alike, yet the engrained parts of Harry’s personality help the hat come to a decision. The fact that the hat originally suggested Slytherin shows the lack of bias when it comes to perceptions of Hogwarts houses. Whether the student is rich, poor, old, or young is irrelevant information to the Sorting Hat. It will notice the true path the student would take no matter what society thinks of the group they belong to. A potential point is made that people change over time and that does hold to be true. But in my opinion, the raw, good parts of us never do change. The potential in every human is there and it's up to us to decide how we use it. Additionally, I think that the Sorting Hat acknowledges the fact that belonging to a certain group doesn’t make you the same. The drive, potentials, and interests may be different when we compare the houses, but that doesn’t make them drastically different from each other. The same goes for people that belong to the same house; just because they share the same drives and interests doesn’t mean they’re gonna be automatically alike and turn out the same. Because of these ideas, I don’t see a significant problem in putting these students in different houses at young ages. I do think that human minds corrupt the idea that because we are different it’s inevitably going to turn people against each other. But what they don’t realize is that a lesson is being taught at Hogwarts: we are all different and should respect and honor that about each other.