Waste of training

carola · **Posted:** Wed Feb 25, 2004 10:27 am

Our organization is trying to impose sensitivity training on everyone. What good will this do me? None. Is it a waste of time ?/ Yes. Ive lived in another country , frequent gay bars, have lived in a black neighborhood. If this isn't diverse, then I don't know what IS?/ THE THOUGHT POLICE STRIKE AGAIN.

majorbabs · **Posted:** Wed Feb 25, 2004 11:12 am

If it's any help, remember that some trainings, for administrative and legal reasons, have to include everyone, because it's easier to include everyone, rather than singling out (and later defending) the people who believe they don't need it.And if you really want to know about Thought Police, pick up "Reading Lolita in Tehran" By Azir Nafisi. Sensitivity training in the newsroom will look a lot better.

jjmoney62 · **Posted:** Wed Feb 25, 2004 11:37 am

I went through group sensitive training a dozen years ago just a few weeks after I started at the Sun-Times in Chicago (in the wake of the "raccoon" story), and while it was mocked mercilessly during the process, it wasn't a waste of time. It only is if you make it so. Sometimes I think that defensive reactions to the very idea of sensitivity training are proof enough it couldn't hurt.

ShiningPath · **Posted:** Wed Feb 25, 2004 12:05 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by jjmoney62:
I went through group sensitive training a dozen years ago just a few weeks after I started at the Sun-Times in Chicago (in the wake of the "raccoon" story), and while it was mocked mercilessly during the process, it wasn't a waste of time. ...<hr></blockquote>
Let me remind you, Mr. Money, that the sensitivity training that you attended was a gimmick-filled carnival that included people wandering around a room with blindfolds on and later karate-chopping a piece of wood to show that they’d “broken through barriers.” If such training were sensitive instead of stupid, it would be worthwhile. Rather than karate chops, it would be wiser for people to work on their editing chops – not calling illegal immigrants “illegals” on second reference, not automatically describing what a woman is wearing, etc.

jjmoney62 · **Posted:** Wed Feb 25, 2004 12:43 pm

Yes, Mr. Path, it was gimmicky, and I'm sure I joined in the eye-rolling (if not the karate chopping) at times. But I also recall a white business reporter recalling from his childhood riding the bus with his mother and observing the physical differences of black people and telling us how he thought as a child. If it were just a matter of ordering everyone to improve their editing chops, don't you think the problem would have been solved by now? Doesn't every single editor and reporter say to himself, "Sure, this place could use some sensitivity training, but not for me! I don't have a racist bone in my body."Yes, some editors are more attuned to issues of race and ethnicity, some live in neighborhoods in which they are the minority -- and I'm sure many of us here can say "Some of my best friends are ..."But getting defensive about the issue or ridiculing attempts to address it don't seem to be the answer. Just ask President Dean.

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Wed Feb 25, 2004 3:58 pm

The Sun-Times "sensitivity training" was a sham, a cover-your-ass fraud conducted by an incompetent man of questionable ethics. It was forced upon the Sun-Times staff even though the appalling inappropriateness of the story in question was caught before publication. The copy desk's flag was ignored. The seminars were insulting to everyone, regardless of race. And the training certainly didn't "cover" sensitivity toward, say, differences in sexual orientation or respect for women in the workplace.

majorbabs · **Posted:** Wed Feb 25, 2004 4:33 pm

Well, now we know what flips everyone's trigger. Let's go on to other things.

paulwiggins · **Posted:** Wed Feb 25, 2004 8:14 pm

Perhaps they could set up a site, sensitivecopyeditors.org. No let's not. Already too much popcorn psychology in the world.

JayByrd · **Posted:** Thu Feb 26, 2004 10:46 am

I took my company's 20-hour "Breaktrough" program several years ago to improve the ways in which I deal with the public.
Since I work nights on the desk, I don't deal with the public all that often, but I did get a free sweatshirt out of the deal and we got to play with squirt guns.
I must say I am much nicer to the undertakers and the pizza delivery persons -- the only "public" i get to see.

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