Another Day, Another Course

So I haven't written for a few days because I have been stewing about whether to write a particular post. I've decided it needs to be said.

But first, I have started my next course at FSI, this one on managing a Public Affairs Section. I think it has the potential to be a good course. It has already been interesting so far, even the sections I thought would be repeats of similarly titled sections from the CAO course. And even better, several of the folks from the CAO course that I really liked are in this class as well. So it should be a fun two weeks.

But now on to the post I have been stewing over.

So as you know, I missed last Wednesday and Thursday because my ceiling collapsed. Still working on that issue...it may take as much as a month. Sigh. At any rate, the course instructors are working with me to make up the sections I missed.

But apparently class was not all I missed. I missed drama as well.

A few posts ago, I wrote about a community theater we had two sessions at. I offered what I thought was constructive criticism and positive feedback. But they were apparently so upset at the critical part that they threatened to sever their ties with FSI. I think that is a bit juvenile...I mean, they had no way to know that there would be anyone in the Department who could contact me about the posts, so they were threatening to sever their contract over something that was not officially connected to the Department. How much money would they be walking away from over something they had no idea that the Department could change?

But fine. I removed the name of the community theater from the posts, because I really thought the training was beneficial. Everyone was happy.

Or so I thought.

Apparently, this theater also submitted a names of 10 of my classmates to the Dean's office complaining about their behavior in the class (no, I wasn't one of them). The offenses included rolling their eyes and sighing. One person was even accused of sexual harrassment. Yes, seriously.

All of this strikes me as really absurd and juvenile. First, because part of the idea of this training, I would think, would be to move beyond your comfort zone, try something new, and benefit from it. I suspect the eye rolling and sighing are a reflection of people doing just that. And for the sexual harrassment comment...it just wasn't. I was there and heard the comment, No one in our class said anything about being offended, including the person he made the comment to (she laughed), and if the instructors were offended by it, they could have said something to the commenter privately. He is a good guy, and I suspect would have been mortified if he had thought he offended anyone.

But no, instead, these folks too sensitive for me to offer constructive criticism by name were certainly fine with naming others.

And that is just childish. We are professionals.