After everyone had settled into a seat - or chosen to stand, it didn't really matter - Katherine waved her wand towards the entrance and magically closed the door. She didn't have time to wait around all day for anyone straggling, if they were late, they would have to let themselves in. They all knew what time the meeting was, and they all had other work to get back to afterwards. "Thank you all for coming today. I'd like to start our meeting off by welcoming to the staff Dymetris Kozlov, who will be teaching potions in place of Sydney. It's a pleasure to have you with us." The woman informed them all, gesturing toward the latest addition to the group.
The Headmistress allowed a moment for people to say hello, and gave the man an opportunity to briefly introduce himself before moving on to other matters. "Firstly, I wanted to mention a few complaints I received last year by a handful of students, particularly the new sortees. Apparently there are some questions they were uncomfortable with and found to be invasive, such as asking about their blood statuses. I would appreciate it if an effort was made to refrain from asking these sorts of questions in future, either directly or through written classwork." The issue was understandable, given some of the persisting prejudices that even professors weren't above. Since a persons magical background shouldn't really matter to a professor, there was no need to ask about it. Each and every eleven year old was learning the same magic at the same time.
"I also wanted to remind everyone that your responsibilities as a professor do go beyond simply teaching a subject. We are all responsible for the students here, and their development into adulthood. Enforce the rules, make sure the guidelines are clear, and instructions are followed. While among the younger professors there may be a desire to be seen as the," She raised her fingers into air quotation marks. "Cool professors, but there is a difference between being a friend, and being a mentor. If rules are broken, no matter how minor, don't ignore it, and keep their heads of houses informed. The children here need to learn to respect their authority figures, and understand that their actions have consequences, or they're going to have quite the shock when they graduate and realise their employers aren't going to stand for their attitude. Behaviour such as trashing common rooms, defacing school property and attacking other students is not on, and I do not want to see it happening this year. Children are going to act up, there's no denying that, but there's typical mischief, and then there's criminal behaviour. The bottom line is, don't be lax. If they believe they can get away with acting up around you, then they will." The amount of misbehaviour at the school was above what Katherine considered normal, it was downright disgusting. Some of the blame could be placed on their parenting, or the lack thereof, but once they reached Hogwarts, it wasn't up to their parents to teach them anymore.
"Moving away from the topic of misbehaviour, I wanted to once again remind everyone that exemplary behaviour can be rewarded, too. There are plenty of students here who do follow the rules, and go above and beyond to do the right thing. Awarding points and praise to these students is incentive for both them and those around them to continue to do the right thing." It was something the woman wanted to see more of, and she herself was on the look out for students who proved to be good role models. It wasn't enough to focus solely on punishing poor behaviour, if there was no incentive to do good. "I believe that's all I had to bring up today. If anyone else has anything they wanted to say, or any questions they had, now is the time to bring them up."
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