sev: (Default)
sev ([personal profile] sev) wrote2011-02-07 09:52 pm
Entry tags:

Teachable moments

Been participating in a comment thread over on shakesville and the comments thread was closed while I was in the process of writing. Since my every word is precious (ahem!) I figured I'd put it here instead. This may turn out to make absolutely no sense out of context; sorry about that.

my snarkiness aside, regarding teachable moments:

It's my experience that when somebody puts their foot in it, it's mostly a teachable moment for the spectators. Many of whom we've seen here in the last two days: multiple commenters have spoken here for the first time & stuck around to learn things in public.

Personally, my own process tends to look like:
  • I screw up publicly
  • I get called on it
  • I get defensive
  • I retreat (or flounce off, if I've gotten *really* defensive)
  • I shut up and listen
  • I watch somebody else screw up in the same way
  • I watch yet somebody else screw up in much a similar way
  • eventually when somebody is in the process of screwing up like that, I can see it coming...
  • ...and then finally I can claim to have learned something from my initial screw-up.

At best, I can say that after 17 years of talking about social justice, I'm better about being quiet when I'm feeling defensive. As it turns out, there's a lot of dignity available, there.

Post a comment in response:

(will be screened)
(will be screened if not validated)
If you don't have an account you can create one now.
HTML doesn't work in the subject.
More info about formatting