There's a very interesting article on Google that comes up first if you search "What American Schools Can Learn from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry". Unfortunately, you can only view the cached version, and I don't know how long that will be there. I saved it, so if it goes I might secretly tack it up for y'all.

I'm studying K-8, so I'm fascinated by this subject, and I think it makes some very valid points. The idea is examining HP from an educational standpoint, and I think some of the issues it brings up are interesting. I really don't know how other countries' education works, so if you live somewhere else, you'll have to enlighten us. One is the separation of houses, something that is quite foreign to American schools. Another is the fact that both middle school and high school are in the same building, and young students are mixed with older students in the houses.

i live in new zealand and we have both houses and having middle and high school in the same.

houses are different (in my school), we have several different houses and i *hate* them. they are just stupid ways to try to get us to be more competitive and have house feeling. they suck. i think the more private and posh schools would have more like what hogwarts has though, especially if they are boarding.

as for the second point - my old school went from year 1 (age 5) all the way to year 13 (18, leaving high school). here school is primary from year 1-6 (5-10/11/12), intermediate year 7-8 (12/13-13/14) and high school from year 9-13 (13/14-17/18/19). i dont like having all the years in the one school at all, but i wouldnt really mind having 11 up. its just young kids and high schools dont go together.

i havent actually had a chance to read the article and i havent got time but ill post here again with my opinions!

Personally, I don't know how houses could help.

This just might be my school, but age already creates a huge barrier here. People discriminate against people if they are "freshies" or have stereotypes for different grades. Sure, we still have a fair amount of grade-mingling, but for the most part everyone wants to trash the grade above/below them for being "annoying" and "stupid" when they've probably only met, what, three people from that grade? I blame the school pep rallies (ugsujhgsjkadf) for the most part because they encourage a lot of competition.

Same thing goes for clicks... ish... I wouldn't know as much about that because I try to block out all the groups at our school, but I feel like making houses would be like having several giant clicks. I can see how it brings out more spirit and competition but it sort of seperates the school as well, right?

I don't know... it seemed great in the books but I wouldn't want to be seperated from majority of my school. Besides, most of my friends are complete opposites of one another so chances of us being in the same house are minimal. Thats a detail I am sure some students wouldn't want to deal with.

Though I love the idea of houses in Hogwarts, a huge problem I see in it is that people of one house seem more likely to stick together than mingle with others. And like the gryffindor and slytherin rivalry? Who's to say something like that won't come along.

Like someone up there mentioned, I think the primary idea of houses is to promote competitiveness. I used to live in Malaysia, and there, the only houses we had were in sports.

But I think every school with a decent number of students has sort of 'houses' too. Like, in fourth grade for example, there's 4A, 4B, 4C... I guess in a way that's separating too.

Now I live in Austria. And in 'Hauptschulen' (which is where you go after primary school if you want a basic education), they separate according to abilities. Like if you're good in math, you're going to be in the Leistungsgruppe 1. And if you're bad, you go in 3.

And to the ages mixing with one another: The Hauptschule takes students from 11 to 14, and then they leave to go to other subject-specific schools. But my school, the Gymnasium is from 11 to 18 (similar to Hogwarts), and I don't see any problems at all with it. All the students are in the same building, and it works. More or less, you only mix with people in your age group anyway (plus or minus 1 year usually).

I think having all age groups mixed is a good thing though. I do mediation, and there I get assigned to younger classes and do stuff with them too and it's no problem.

But houses (especially in boarding schools) I find quite dumb. Though it depends on how strictly it's enforced. I mean, if students of diferent houses still have classes together, I guess it's OK. But if you're really only cooped up withpeople of your own house, how are you supposed to develop a sense of openness? I think that the emphasis on competion is really for the pigs. There are really more important things.

The school I attend is an all ages school that takes ages five to eighteen. All the students help each other out, and generally get along quite well. There isn't a lot of the age-bashing that Ariana mentioned, although there can be some tension (but that happens to all students). Houses are an interesting idea, but I'm not sure what I think about it. The separation might create a rather hostile environment.
It's an interesting article. I've never been to a school that uses houses, so I am curious as to what it would be like.