We are all superheroes ! We just need "training"

The modern employers panacea for any dysfunction in the workplace is to propose some "training". The unchallenged and unstated assumption is that there is no limit to any one persons performance. Job expectations can be expanded without limit as long as "training" is provided. The mantra is most commonly espoused by governments that cannot seem to give up on trying to be "all things to all people". Yesterday the idiocy was repeated by a very frequent offender, the Victorian Education Department. "A Government spokeswoman rejected the need for new laws to protect teachers. She said the Government was taking action to reduce parent-rage incidents by providing training for teachers on how to defuse possibly violent situations." (Parent Rage pushing teachers to the edge 10/6). Teachers are being "trained" not to cope better before the police arrive, but to avoid the need to ring the police. The inference for teachers is that intimidating and violent behaviour is part of life and we must learn to handle it - not stop it. Similarly, despite the recent blustering about mandatory reporting of drug use in schools. The government's policy of "harm minimisation" is designed to "train" teachers to cope with and support drug using students in their classrooms. After all, drug use is part of life and we must learn to handle it - not stop it. But there's more... The government continues to push students with severe disabilities into "normal" classrooms maintaining that the teachers can be "trained up" to meet any parent's expectation about their child's special needs. There are many more examples of this dangerous fallacy in the way employers respond to when their policies create impossible situations in nursing, the police force, social welfare etc.
Training is seen as the cheap alternative to workable policy.

Stephen Digby