<div class="floatright">(https://i.stack.imgur.com/ZucIT.png)</div><div class="floatleft"><div align="center">(https://i.imgur.com/FB3zljN.gif)<br/><strong><acronym title="Hunter/Huntress">Giomanach</acronym><br/>(10/09/2019)<br/>(19:07 PM)</strong></div></div><br/><div align="center"><span class="bbc_u">House Unity is a Failing System</span></div><br/>The Triwizard Tournament is rapidly approaching and I have a few things to say about my school. I have found Hogwarts, in my one year and one week here, to be a rather open place. It has it's issues like anywhere else, but I do truly believe that the environment is less toxic than it could be. It has been an interesting place to learn how the wizarding world is starting to evolve. However, with all the changes that have been made in the past two decades, one would think they would start to realize a failing within their own process.<br/><br/>The Housing System.<br/><br/>It is outdated and does not foster what it was originally intended to do and nor is it an issue with just Hogwarts as other wizarding and non-magical schools use similar systems. Let's start with the positives, because it is never good to simply point out the flaws in a system:<br/><ul class="bbc_list"><li>Housing offers a sense of familiarity and family. A place where you can feel you belong and your housemates replace what you left at home.</li><li>It allows for a school that would be mostly isolated to create competition that students can rally behind (House Points and Quidditch).</li><li>It creates a more manageable student body, allowing Professors to assume Head of House and be in charge of a small grouping of students instead of the student body as a whole.</li></ul><br/>I imagine that the last point was more the purpose than anything else. I attended a No-Maj school as a child with a large number of students. We had to take physical education classes, but there was a large number of us. They claimed to split us up into groups for this class because it allowed them to create teams for each other to play against, but how often did we actually do anything against each other? Perhaps once a month. Instead, it let the school employ four teachers to teach this class and the majority of the time we did something different from the other groups. In reality what they were attempting to do was allow a small group of children to be managed by one adult rather than a large group of children by one adult. That is all the housing system really is. I do believe the Founders had their own ideas, but in the end, it is all about management.<br/><br/>How often do we, as separate houses, actually compete against one and other? Once a month at a Quidditch match? This is not to say that Quidditch is not important. Sports of all kinds play an important part in shaping a child or young adult's personality and should never be discouraged. There are better ways to go about it.<br/><br/>At age range in Hogwarts, we are not children anymore. What we should be attempting to do is foster unity and teaching ourselves how to prepare for a world where competition more career based. Being forced to sit at one's house table was abolished a number of years ago. Many students, despite magics against it, have learned how to get into to other house common rooms. And it's the year 2019 for crying out loud. Call Houses what they really are. Dorms. Just dorms. Abolish the house names and the point system. Instead, make Hogwarts into a house it's own and compete as we should against other schools. Why should the Triwizard Tournament be the only time we set ourselves against another school? Why do we only care to interact with our brother and sister schools once ever few decades?<br/><br/>Did you know health in Durmstrang students outclasses the general health of Hogwats and Beauxbatons? Did you know students from Beauxbatons are more likely to be hired for a position? Did you know that Hogwarts was ranked as having a population of students with better mental health than those of Durmstrang and Beauxbaton? Why are we comparing ourselves to ourselves and not to each other?<br/><br/>Travel for the magical community has never been all that difficult, so why do we continue to pretend like the Triwizard Tournament bringing these students to us is something special? It's not. They could be here once a week if we wanted and it wouldn't distress anyone or anything. Why are we not creating a Quidditch team from the strongest in our school with a second string of backup players to compete against Durmstrang's Quidditch team once a month? Why should we feel our house mates are our only friends and family at Hogwarts? All of Hogwarts should be our family and friends. Let the other schools be the ones we compete against.<br/><br/>Lastly, with the Triwizard Tournament approaching again, all I continue hear is "Slytherin is going to win!" "Hufflepuff is going to win!" "Gryffindor is going to win!" "Ravenclaw is going to win!"<br/><br/>...but shouldn't we be saying "Hogwarts is going to win!"<br/><br/>The house the Champion comes from should not matter. We've created an environment where it does and that is a failing system.<br/><br/><em>“You are either supporting the vision or supporting division” ― Saji Ijiyemi</em><br/><br/><div style="text-align: right;">-<acronym title="Hunter/Huntress">Giomanach</acronym></div>