Our first YPL gathering
Sep. 16th, 2012 06:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alt_umbridgeDear children: Thank you so much for your attention and diligence during our meeting. I am just looking foward so much to what we will accomplish together this year. You all looked so smart and trim in your new sashes, and I know you’re all just yearning to fill them up with badges and honours.
Now, remember that we will be meeting again in a fortnight, and I will have something new for you to do, and an exciting anouncement! Won’t that be fun for everyone? Do remember that if you have any teensy questions about the programme at all, you know just where to find me. I’m so enjoying my conversations with our counsellors and CCF corps, and I look forward to having more time to speak to each and every one of you after that.
Remember as well that you all will be expected to say the new YPL pledge at that meeting. Again, it is:
By my wand, I swear to always strive my best,
use my magic only in service to our realm,
and keep myself ever strong, ready, and able to respond to Our Lord’s call.
Those who did not attend: Now, I do understand that some may have mistakenly felt that the available opportunities weren’t for them. I do hope to make it clear that the YPL can offer something to everyone so that together we may make our Protectorate the very best that it can possibly be.
To see your bright and shining faces as you join together and temper the connections of hard work and accomplishment is such a joy! And likewise, I know that in a few years, when you are all walking out into the world, you will want the connections, references, and opportunities that the YPL can open to you. If you did not come this week, stop by my office for your sash, and I’ll hope - even expect! - to see each and every first through fifth year next time.
Parents: I just know you will be bursting with pride as your children develop their skills, learn discipline, and show their mettle. I do encourage you, in your little notes to your children, to ask all about what they’ve learned. After all, our goal with the YPL is to be a source of improvement and growth not just for our young boys and girls, but for all the Protectorate.
Especially if you still have little ones at home, the skills, talents, and topics we discuss will be a wonderful guide for your own discussions around the supper table, and will give your youngest ones a hint of what they can aspire to. My office is glad to provide some materials for home discussion on request. Anything, to be of help.
Now, remember that we will be meeting again in a fortnight, and I will have something new for you to do, and an exciting anouncement! Won’t that be fun for everyone? Do remember that if you have any teensy questions about the programme at all, you know just where to find me. I’m so enjoying my conversations with our counsellors and CCF corps, and I look forward to having more time to speak to each and every one of you after that.
Remember as well that you all will be expected to say the new YPL pledge at that meeting. Again, it is:
By my wand, I swear to always strive my best,
use my magic only in service to our realm,
and keep myself ever strong, ready, and able to respond to Our Lord’s call.
Those who did not attend: Now, I do understand that some may have mistakenly felt that the available opportunities weren’t for them. I do hope to make it clear that the YPL can offer something to everyone so that together we may make our Protectorate the very best that it can possibly be.
To see your bright and shining faces as you join together and temper the connections of hard work and accomplishment is such a joy! And likewise, I know that in a few years, when you are all walking out into the world, you will want the connections, references, and opportunities that the YPL can open to you. If you did not come this week, stop by my office for your sash, and I’ll hope - even expect! - to see each and every first through fifth year next time.
Parents: I just know you will be bursting with pride as your children develop their skills, learn discipline, and show their mettle. I do encourage you, in your little notes to your children, to ask all about what they’ve learned. After all, our goal with the YPL is to be a source of improvement and growth not just for our young boys and girls, but for all the Protectorate.
Especially if you still have little ones at home, the skills, talents, and topics we discuss will be a wonderful guide for your own discussions around the supper table, and will give your youngest ones a hint of what they can aspire to. My office is glad to provide some materials for home discussion on request. Anything, to be of help.
Private message to Latimer Caldwell and Marston Strangeweale
Date: 2012-09-16 11:00 pm (UTC)I’m providing a fuller report by owl to you both (and of course Whitacre), but thought you might appreciate a short note in advance. Today went quite smoothly, all things considered - such a shock for some of them, though to work under tighter discipline than has apparently been the case. I’ll give them a meeting or two to settle, and then take stronger action as needed. I have also been finding the meetings with individual students most interesting.
Miss Padma Patil turned out to be an excellent early subject - most agreeable when answering questions about her likes and dislikes, and with a number of detailed suggestions. Not all of them are possible just yet - or desireable, perhaps - but an excellent start. Curious the differences between her and her sister, mind, that one is so successful and the other far less driven.
Others, though, I found more puzzling - Miss Lestrange, for example. Her answers were, of course, entirely proper, but reviewing my notes, they were also not as informative as I might prefer. On the other hand, there are perhaps more useful avenues to begin with, and we could come back to her and those like her.
I have quite a few other notes, as I said, and of course I’ve a number of meetings yet to document. Now, I do think another meeting would be best, before the next YPL session. Perhaps the middle of next week (the 26th?) That would give me time to get through almost all the planned sessions with our CCF corps and counsellors.
Yours in service,
Dolores
Private message to Aurora Sinistra
Date: 2012-09-16 11:29 pm (UTC)I half wondered if we might see you this afternoon, but apparently not. I do hope you made good use of your time, however you spent it. As you weren’t there, though, I do have a teensy question.
As you may have heard, part of our revised plans for this year involves making sure our students stay absolutely fit. I’m sure Rabastan will appreciate it - Rolanda was telling me that a number of his classes rely on that sort of thing. Now, I’d looked at scheduling some sessions on Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 7am, and then Sunday mornings at 8.
But I understand from a comment - young Mr Marvolo, so polite - that the fifth years have a midnight astronomy session with you on Wednesday nights, and so they’re rarely in bed before half past one? Goodness, I had no idea you taught so late. Surely there must be some better solution, that would allow you and your students to not need to be up at all hours, and would let them do their part to be the greatest possible help to the programme. Do have a word with Septima or Minerva, or whoever needs, and I’ll be glad to back you up.
Do let me know when we can start our little morning sessions properly, hmm?
Dolores
Re: Private message to Aurora Sinistra
Date: 2012-09-17 01:33 am (UTC)So glad to hear you appreciate some of the schedule challenges our students face. There are excellent reasons that we offer astronomy’s practical sessions at midnight - and have done so for far more than a century, I might add. While it does have some temporary inconveniences, I can confirm that generations of teachers, students, and heads of the school have recognised both the importance of astronomy to the overall programme, and the reasons for scheduling it as we do.
Now, I know it’s been a long time since your own astronomy classes, but I’m quite sure that Alcor Bobbin, my predecessor, must have given you the same lecture he gave to my class. In short that while we can see the brightest stars really quite easily, that much of what we study involves fainter stars or further ones - or even objects like galaxies, nebulae, or other objects that can only be seen in the darkest possible environs.
Today, sunset was about 7:25pm, and the sky appears to be dark to most untrained eyes not long after 8. But in fact, due to the angle of the earth’s axis, our latitude, and the movement of the sun, it is not truly dark - dark enough for us to do the detailed work required for OWLs and NEWTs - until hours later. More than half the year, we have a quite narrow window of opportunity for that work.
Likewise, we must have clear skies to do our best observing, and it takes time for the cloudy patterns, fog, and mist that often roll through at dusk to clear. While I usually have a good idea by curfew whether we will be outside or not that evening (drawing, of course, on my extensive experience studying and working here), it is often much less certain earlier in the day.
And finally there are some details - far too trivial for you to bother with, it not being your field - about how some of the calculations and observations we learn to take for ritual magic purposes (some of the greater locational magics, for example) must be done at precisely midnight for standardisation reasons. Thus, looking at the stars as they are at a consistent point in time each evening helps our students take these skills and apply them to their later lives in the most practical way possible.
Now, I’m glad to say that I’d already considered the particular challenges facing our fifth years at the moment. This week, I offered that on nights where it is clearly going to be cloudy, we could hold our evening session at 9pm, instead of midnight. However, I don’t know whether that will be the case for any given day until at least suppertime. And, of course, it is only through the development of my projections project - again, I won’t trouble you with the details, but my astronomy colleagues do consider it most innovative - that I can take this step without entirely derailing student learning for the week.
I do hope that’s all clear. If not, you know I love to discuss my chosen field, and would gladly explain further to you, if you really wish to immerse yourself in the complexities (though it does involve a little intermediate Arithmancy, I admit.) While I simply can’t accomodate your request - and certainly would not ask Septima for a further change at this point - I’m sure you can find some other solution for the fifth years.
ad beneficio doctrinam as my mentor used to say.
A.
Re: Private message to Aurora Sinistra
Date: 2012-09-17 02:30 am (UTC)I didn't mean to imply in the slightest that you weren't doing what you thought was best for students. Just that sometimes, a little external perspective, unfettered by habit, can be such a freeing thing.
Now, a word of advice, if I might, dear. I know it's been a terribly difficult time for you lately, the changes in your position, and all the new social considerations. Did you read The Transfiguration of Stress ? (Quercus Edmonds, such a clever man, you know.) If you don't have a copy, I really do recommend it, and would be glad to loan you one.
At any rate, he points out, ever so clearly, that even the happiest of changes is still quite stressful, so I’ve no doubt you're feeling the teensiest bit ... oh, wistful about bidding farewell to your carefree days and entering the state of married bliss. I can quite understand why you would react so negatively to a teensy request to change one little thing for our dear students' benefit, dear. Think nothing of it.
And of course, I understand that your long-term future here may not be the most immediate consideration on your mind. Certainly dear Rabastan is well-set-up enough to make sure his dear wife will never want for anything. We will all certainly understand dear, if you wish to cling to tradition during what may turn out to be your last year of teaching.
But, back to our tricky little problem. I am sorry you don’t feel you’re able to give - even just a little - to help us balance the needs of all. After all, I suppose we do all have those days when we fall a little short of the ideals we strive for in serving our glorious Protectorate. You mustn’t feel badly, Aurora, dear.
Now, take a little time, do at least speak to Minerva and Septima before you decline so precipitously. And my door is always open to you. Well, of course, it's open to all my dear colleagues here at Hogwarts, but I have a special place in my heart for a sister in Hufflepuff who is clearly trying her best to do the absolute utmost she can in service to our shared ideals.
Together - and with just a little cooperation - we can do far more than we could invidually, and I’m sure I can count on your help and compromise in the future. Do tell me it’s so.
Dolores
Re: Private message to Aurora Sinistra
Date: 2012-09-17 02:41 pm (UTC)I quite agree, this is not a topic for precipitous action. I hope you don’t mind my sleeping on it, but taking a little time did give me a few ideas. Of course, I’ll have a word with Minerva, but alas, the planet’s axial tilt is not under either of our control, and I am as bound as any other professor by the expectations of the OWL and NEWT examiners.
That said, I did have a few ideas if they’re of use. I know that Dark Arts classes are running later than usual this year, but surely there’s an afternoon or two where you might schedule a session before supper? There is something of a challenge with the Quidditch practices (especially in the midwinter and the short days) but of course the Quidditch teams manage their own fitness regimens as well.
I know early morning activities have been tried a few times in the past, and they’ve rarely been successful, even without my class as a consideration. The chill in the winter does make it particularly hard to make it out of a warm bed, but more than that, I understand from Poppy that there are specific (good) reasons teenagers prefer to sleep as late as they can in the morning. I do think you’d see a far more enthusiastic response in the late afternoon. (And so many of them want to burn off some energy after a long day of sitting in classes by then, too.)
If I might suggest, you could ask the CCF students to arrange several gathering times on their own.They know best how their fellow students might respond, and it would save you having to be the unpopular voice while you’re building a rapport with the students. More than that, it would give them some very real and practical experience encouraging and directing others toward a goal.
As to the rest, thank you, but Campanella gifted me with a copy of the Edmonds book last spring, and I try to put it to use where I can. And I do appreciate where your worry for my future comes from, truly, but please don’t spend your time and energy there. I assure you Raz and I are entirely in agreement, and we’ve talked to Minerva about our plans. While I recognise circumstances may eventually combine to lead me in some other direction, I do intend to continue teaching as long as possible.
Aurora
I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good
Date: 2012-09-16 11:36 pm (UTC)The way she talks to us as if we're three years old. What a ridiculous old bat.
I thought she'd never let us out of there ever today.
Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good
Date: 2012-09-16 11:56 pm (UTC)Well, that might just be the sort of child I was, anyway.
Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good
Date: 2012-09-17 12:11 am (UTC)I say, I thought you'd be disappointed you're not a Gryffindor. You could have had a pink sash, what?
Did you hear most of the fourth trying not to snicker when she was talking about wand readiness? And about finding the small things one can do to fill the odd moments in the day when there's not enough time for a larger task?
I hope she listens to Marvolo, though, what, about our Astronomy lessons. And meeting twice a month? We shall have to use every waking moment, at this rate!
-J
Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good
Date: 2012-09-17 02:02 am (UTC)I think it's a bit strange that everyone's gone a bit silly over that book. I mean, Mummy was always very frank about things of that sort, no matter how much Daddy protested. She always made it sound
almost- well, very not-mysterious, if you see what I mean.Anyway, I wish people would stop talking about it. Especially if they're going to be so charmless about it, like Zacharias Smith.
I hope so, too. This is still Hogwarts, after all. It isn't the YPL Institute.
Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good
Date: 2012-09-17 02:04 am (UTC)He asked me for advice, in point of fact. I hadn't the first idea what to say to him because 'Be yourself' didn't seem the best thing to offer, what?
Anyway. He's all right. He's simply never had to look over his shoulder, if you follow me.
-J
Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good
Date: 2012-09-17 02:12 am (UTC)He might as well be himself, though, since everyone more or less knows what he's like by now. But that doesn't mean that someone out there might not find him...quaint, somehow.
He is all right. But he is charmless.
Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good
Date: 2012-09-17 02:24 am (UTC)I let him look through that book JP gave me before he left. Not that I think it should help him greatly but I thought it could hardly hurt. But I don't think it's Daphne, what, or he wouldn't have been so quick to fence with her.
I gather Diggory called him on the carpet for starting all those cracks. I don't well look forward to the dormitory tonight. But at least there are a number of us, though he tends not to have much to do with Hopkins, Summers or Stebbins.
I've my meetings with Madam Umbridge and Professor Dolohov this week. I say, I've no idea what to expect from either of them.
-J
Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good
Date: 2012-09-17 01:15 am (UTC)Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good
Date: 2012-09-17 02:02 am (UTC)Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good
Date: 2012-09-17 02:19 am (UTC)Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good
Date: 2012-09-19 12:55 am (UTC)From the sounds of the way people are complaining, she does.
Private message to Minerva McGonagall
Date: 2012-09-17 03:09 am (UTC)Sorry to trouble you this late at night, but it occurs to me that you and I would do well to sit down in the next few days, and talk through a few of my plans in more depth than we've had time for so far. I do have a number of appointments with students scheduled, but if you let me know some times you're available, I'd be glad to stop by your office.
I did try to have a word with Aurora this evening, about whether there's any flexibility in her evening teaching times, but she's most insistent she can't budge. I did wonder if perhaps you might be able to help with that Gordian knot, or if it's truly as necessary as she implies.
I do look forward to our conversation.
Dolores