Open Answering Student Questions - Campaigning Continues

[Victoire Fontaine]

Victoire had interacted a lot with adults on the campaign trail, but she knew it was important to incorporate what kids felt, and how they were feeling about a future candidate, a good number of them would be voters, or would end up working in the ministry and she wanted her campaign to consider children, to consider the young people, their issues and what they were keen to see change. The woman had set up a very simple area in Brightstone, knowing that the brightstone weekend was happening and had a few leaflets and was stood around waiting to see if anyone would approach her. She had a sign saying "Ministerial Candidate here to answer your questions" and was waiting to see what the appetiate of these young people were.

 

[Aine Thompson]

Aine was far too young to vote, but she was invested in the electoral process regardless. It was so different from what she'd seen in Australia, what she'd learmed about at school and the people around her. She'd be able to vote in the next election, sure, but living between two worlds she wanted an understanding of this new society she'd fallen in to, and what she could expect when she did become an adult and have to inevitably choose.

"Good morning," Aine said very politely to the candidate, realizing it might actually be past midday and cringing internally. She was nervous, but awkwardly smoothed her palms on her jeans. "Your campaign is very interesting to listen to. I have a hypothetical question, though. Say I completely bomb my NEWTs. In that case I'm completely scr- uh, unable to get a job at the Ministry, like, ever. If you become Minister, would you promote ways to get in to careers that aren't just succeed at your NEWTs or else?" She was parroting what Violet had told her, she knew, but she was curious all the same. The guy who ran the wizard pub in Melbourne worked in a sort of muggle support role and she thought maybe she'd like to do something like that if the wizarding world accepted her.

 

[Victoire Fontaine]

Victoire was a little surprised when a young girl approached, she wouldn't have thought that someone so young might be interested in it, but she had done this to reach out to all interested students. This girl would probably graduate during the period of the next minister, so would be affected by the policies put in place. Victoire leaned forward at the girl, "Morning," it wasn't morning anymore but she wasn't going to embarrass the young girl by correcting her. She wondered why someone so young might be worried about such a thing. "Well, I would yes, I think it's important to support young people who decide that the ministry isn't for them," Victoire said, "As minister I'd be keen to fund and promote places in apprenticeships like potioneer, herbologist etc.. If you were interested in pursing a career or going to a muggle learning institution, I would be keen to provide an allowance for those people so that they can dedicate themselves to it." Victoire said. "Is there a particular job or career path you are considering?" ​

 

[Aine Thompson]

Aine paused, thoughtfully, not sure she'd worded her question correctly. She often seemed to struggle with that, not makimg herself understood. "I mean what if the ministry is what I, or someone else, wanted to do, but we didn't manage to get the marks for it? My mentor says it's no wonder the Ministry is understaffed when any employment there rests on what you did for a few hours when you were 17 or 18." Aine blushed, her hand flying to her mouth when she realized what she'd said, knowing she absolutely was not meant to repeat that, least of all to an actual ministry employee and minister candidate. At least she'd sanitized the language. "I, um, wanna help muggleborn kids like me when they go to Hogwarts, maybe."

 

[Victoire Fontaine]

Victoire it seemed that she had misunderstood the girl's question and then gave a little smile of surprise at the girl's statement, but did just nod at her, it was a valid point there were fewer recourses for people like that. "That's a good thing to want to do, I'm muggleborn too, it's quite a learning curve at times," she started, "let's take that example then, NEWTs don't go well, and you can't join the ministry to do that, but, then you decide to start up a group that runs classes in Brightstone for new students joining or run events between years to give muggleborn kids the opportunity to meet up and spend time together, so they don't have to spend all of their times in non-magical places answering awkward questions about where they've been," she said, these were things that could maybe done, "Then you hit 24 or something and you decide that you'd like to join the ministry, do you think the grades you got at 17 or 18 would matter more than the real life experience that you've gained subsequently, the work you've put into the field already?"

Victoire said to her, posing the question to her. "Not doing well at 17 or 18 doesn't mean you couldn't do what you wanted, it just might mean you can't do it immediately, and really, would it not be as valid to work at something and decide if that's right for you than going straight into an office job at the ministry," She might've gone immediately into employment at the ministry but she'd known what she'd wanted to do, had worked for it too. Not everyone had that, and not everyone needed to decide what they were to do at 17 or 18. There were other paths. "I'm not saying that the ministry wouldn't consider introducing a process of redoing NEWTs, and it's something I would look at if elected, but exams aren't the only way to succeed, even in the ministry,"​