Saturday, February 14, 2009  Diversity training update  First of
all I keep thinking of the episode on the Office where they have
to go through diversity training because of Michael's blunders.
That and Stephen Colbert. Particularly when my coworkers say "I
just don't SEE color!" (Skip to minute 5:00 - basically word for
word what I hear.)  So the cultural competency educator came
back yesterday and had us go through actual scenarios from our
school. One of the scenarios we went through was the chili
pepper incident. (Second update here.) The Spanish teacher
brought out the actual poster in question (with the chili pepper
wearing the sombrero and mustache, saying "Ole!"). And, to my
great vindication, the trainer confirmed that this is not a
poster that we should have hanging up if our mission is to
create an environment of respect for all cultures.  By the end
of the morning, however, I still don't think that all of my
coworkers agreed. Why should they, when half the staff and the
students watch and love the