Best foot forward

[alt_umbridge]

Let us all begin the new week bright and chipper and cheerful! Take the time today to remind someone how to be their best possible self in service to the school and to our glorious Protectorate.

Those students who have been selected to be of particular assistance to the school should have received notes this morning.

I am also delighted to note we are rolling out our little daily essay project. Each evening at supper, beginning tonight, one of you children, selected at random, will receive a note with two possible essay choices. If selected, you are expected to post your essay (on one of the indicated topics) to your journal the following day. Failure to do so without excellent cause will result in additional opportunities to improve yourself.

CCF students:
We will be occupied all day next Sunday in activities designed to test your limits of understanding, knowledge, and skill. I am sure you will all do as splendidly as your respective abilities allow. As with last year, a great deal of the exercise will be about how you handle the unexpected, so we are providing very little detail in advance to anyone not directly involved in planning the activities.

The following CCF students should please stop by my office for some additional information at their earliest opportunity: Marvolo, Moon, Patil, Smith, Zabini, Greengrass, MacMillan.

Comments

Private message to Poppy Pomfrey

[alt_umbridge]

Poppy -

To reassure you that you will not be overly burdened - especially as you are still, I am sure, dealing with Antonin’s care - I wanted to be sure to tell you that Luxovius Kerr will be present to assist on Sunday. As you may remember, he was a great help with last year’s outdoor CCF activity and then became the Healer’s representative to the YPL Committee this fall. And I'm sure we're both delighted to welcome him here to Hogwarts.

I believe he may be in touch to confirm available supplies in case of need, but he will also be conducting some simple research studies, already fully approved by St Mungo’s. I am confident you will give him every possible assistance, but he assures me that his demands on you will likely be very minimal other than perhaps a little treatment space if necessary.

I’m sure plenty of others have offered their assistance regarding Antonin’s needs, and that I can instead turn my attention to other demands.

D.

Private message to Marston Strangeweale and Latimer Caldwell

[alt_umbridge]

Gentlemen -

I do abhor this waiting. Regrettably for our purposes, Minerva has been rather more attentive to her duty the past week or two than months previously. Nonetheless, one must press forward. I had brief conversations with a number of the Board this weekend (I suppose that Quidditch must be useful for something) and will be following up with a number of parties on Wednesday when I am in New London.

I am glad you did not give any credence to the trivial concerns raised by Auror Wright. I am sure she does know her job, but really, the years that the YPL has been running, there have been few notable problems, and nearly all of them can be laid at the feet of the students involved, or Aurora’s poor judgement in grouping.

Naturally, when we’re working solely with the CCF, each and every one of them selected by the best possible methods devised by Ministry specialists, I am certain that the additional fussing suggested in the past will be entirely unnecessary.

Now, should I plan on time with both of you on Wednesday, or are we set given the need to wait for a suitable reason? Do alert my clerk at the Ministry if you’d prefer a teensy chat.

Dolores

I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_justin]

Hello, all,

I wonder if we went to our Professors and protested the idea that these essays are mandatory, if that might make a difference? She's not a proper teacher, after all; the CCF and YPL are meant to be additional activities that enhance our studies, not detract from them, what?

I say, this business of 'if one doesn't complete the assignment, one shall receive further opportunities'--that sounds to me like a detention. Anyone else?

I've been trying all morning to think of a way to suggest that she could be her best self by attempting to improve the Council's attitudes but haven't hit the right tone. It always comes out far too rude.

Perhaps I'm simply not feeling charitable enough this morning.

-Justin

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_sally_anne]

I got one of her essay assignments.

I get to choose between 'the benefits to halfbloods of having a defined role in society that does not place them under undue strain or stress' and 'praise for the blood purity laws.'

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_hydra]

Is this "opportunity" actually a punishment in disguise?

It doesn't sound as if you were chosen at random to me.

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_sally_anne]

It's not much of a disguise.

The reason she made me read my PM to Harry the other day was that she said it was obvious that I'd posted the briefest possible public note in the hopes that I could get away with writing a private note underneath (that was before she decided I'd written the note because I was hoping to have to read it aloud... I don't understand her at all. It's very frustrating.)

Anyway. She hinted she'd be giving me an 'opportunity' to make up for it by giving me some 'helpful ideas' for a public post I could make and of course this is it.

Whatever. I got it done while eating lunch. Hearing Sophie Fleet have to read HER PM out loud reminded me to get it done early. I guess no one better PM their mum with anything they don't want the whole school to know, right?

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_hydra]

I think I could PM my Mum and she'd leave it alone.

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_ron]

Yeah. I expect you could.

I wonder, though, if you could PM your cousin Dora or whether she'd make you read that out. I guess we're just going to have use owls more now to write people when we don't want everyone in the world to see what we say to them.

Actually.

Do you think that's it? Maybe Madam Umbridge has some connection with... I dunno, owl breeders or owl post offices or something... and she wants to make us go back to using owls so they don't lose all their business. I mean, the Ministry does all sorts of complicated things like that to help businesses sometimes. Sometimes it's completely daft what they think up.

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_hydra]

Owls can be so slow, by comparison, though. Good for packages and things, but not as good as the journals for passing along messages. Madam Umbridge seems to write a lot of private messages herself, especially to people like Mr Strangeweale. If she wanted to promote use of owls I'd think she'd not do that quite so much.

I will probably still send Dora private messages, but I'll be more careful about what I say from now on.

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_susan]

Well, Professor Gr Great-Aunt Mina's the only owl breeder I know and I'm pretty sure she's not conspiring with Umbridge.

But I could ask next time we have tea, just in case!

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_sally_anne]

And GO RAZ, I wish he'd hex that miserable cow.

Or curse her.

Not, as Professor Dolohov reminds us every chance he gets, there's necessarily any substantive difference between a hex, a jinx, and a curse, but 'curse' still sounds nastier and I am all for nasty (JUST SO LONG AS IT'S NOT ONE OF THE CARDINALS OF COURSE I DON'T WISH THAT ON ANYONE) when it comes to Hembridge.

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_ron]

I'd be happier about what Professor Raz said if he hadn't pointed out that some of us have only written about the Quidditch, and not a very long thing, either.

I didn't write at all the first week. I mean, after I had to go in and read her the PM I wrote to Arista Selwyn, I expect I'm lucky she didn't assign me an essay topic like she did you. Well, not the same one, obviously, but-

I'd better figure out what to write about, though, or she will do.

I was thinking about writing Arista another note about her cat, actually. An open one, though. Is that just daft?

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_sally_anne]

And you know, I really wish I'd been able to keep her from hating me.

I TRIED. Honestly. But all the things that usually persuade adults to like me (unless they're, like, the Carrows) didn't work with her at ALL.

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_hydra]

I don't know, I feel like Raz isn't taking her as seriously as he ought to. I mean, Madam Umbridge took the YPL away from Siz, so he knows that she has quite a lot of power, from somewhere. Maybe the whole point is to make it seem as if he doesn't take her seriously, when in actuality he does.

Maybe he's trying to diminish her? Psychologically, I mean. I don't know.

I'm sorry that she hates you (though it might say good things about you). She seems to ignore me, mostly.

[alt_rabastan]

Dolores,

I think it's fantastic that you're giving the students such a wide range of opportunities to improve and be their best possible selves. In my relatively short time as an educator, that's one of the things that's brought me the most pleasure- helping students to reach their potential.

But also as an educator, I have to say that too many 'opportunities' may end you up with some very thin effort. Not because the students don't care, but because they simply don't have the time to balance homework, studying, CCF and YPL activities, and additional essay assignments.

I think we've already seen some examples of that thin effort at work in the recent recommendation that all students make a public post to their journals once a week. Unless, of course, a series of posts that read "Go Slytherin!" and "Blimey, it's cold out today," and "anyone else feel off after eating those turnips?" were the sort of thing you'd had in mind?

[alt_umbridge]

Rabastan -

Oh, I have heard so very many stories about your willingness to engage with your students, yes. Many of them, I agree, remarkably helpful in one way or another.

However, it has been clear to me, in my observations so far, that our dear students are capable of offering their very best to the Protectorate. Here, we house them, we feed them, house-elves handle all the necessary tasks besides keeping a student's own things tidy.

What we ask of our students in return is to devote their time, their energy, their engagement, to continuous improvement. Certainly I'd agree that asking a student for an additional essay a week might be, perhaps, too much. (And yet, if it saw a substantial improvement in their writing skills - something I have discussed with Antonin and Aurora in the recent past - would it not be worth every effort?)

But in this case, I am asking them for an essay perhaps once a year, since we have a number of students, and only so many days of term. Surely that is a small thing, while yet allowing us as a community a greater opportunity for learning and growth. I am certain that once students get into practice - just like exercising muscles long-unused - they will find these little tasks go more smoothly, and we may move away from the banal to the more productive.