"For starters," Adam drawled, laying it on thick, "I have no interest in owling your ministry, since I work for the American government, not the British one. Second, are you naive as to believe that your system isn't flawed? That one of your houses doesn't foster cunning little cutthroats and turn out an astonishing number of dark wizards?" Surely Pete knew his own history - even Adam knew that.
"You're right. I have never done a single whit of research, nor have I experienced anything that might lead me to believe that a person's personality isn't fully developed at the age of eleven and it's completely irresponsible of me to believe that a child's personality will develop and perhaps change completely between the ages of eleven and seventeen, and further on, or that your system's fundamental flaw is that it chooses characteristics then fosters them, and they're not necessarily all good." Adam took a deep breath. "Why on earth do you think it is a good idea to place children together based on like attributes, rather than allowing them to move among other students and develop attributes that are not already developed in their personalities? Are you so determined that Hogwarts must be doing it absolutely correctly that any knowledge I may have, having gone through a completely different system that has also produced a thriving society for a couple of hundred years simply because I am American and a lesser human than your holy Britishness, may be entirely valid?"