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Sharp Weekend

B

Brent Cross

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Hello all: can anyone drop a short note explaining "Sharp" training. It is coming up this weekend and I just wanted to be prepared.

Best regards
 
Prepared.... bring a pillow and catch up on some sleep. It‘s basically 8 hours of why it‘s not right to harass people, be sexist, racist, etc......But watch out cause theres a test at the end thats really hard (wink wink)
 
And for those of you who don‘t know how to do any of these, it‘s an amusing way to learn ;)

BTW: The Agony, it‘s actually

Sexual
Harassment
Abuse
and
Racism Prevention

;) they had the throw the abuse of authority section in at the last second.
 
No matter what the acronym de jour is, it boils down to don‘t make fun of the weak and stupid, particularly if they are female or a visible minority, as that will get you turfed.
The unspoken message is you can be physically weak and mentally feeble and still pass BMQ, but God help you if you don‘t live to obey the PC police.
Basically, if you‘ve been immersed in today‘s public school system, you‘ve already been indoctrinated to the PC Bible chapter and verse, and you‘ll know the rules about playing nicely with others and prasing everybody as being great, wonderful, equal, yada yada.
 
Sharp stands for:

Standards for
Harassment
And
Racism
Prevention

The primary objective is to deal with harassment and racism by:

Eliminating attitudes that contribute to harassment and racist conduct which, in turn, threaten:

-the well-being and the moral of DND members; and

-the cohesion and efficiency of the organisation as a whole.

Objectives of the 8 hours of dull lecture is to teach you:

-what harassment is and what it is not;
-what racism and racist conduct are;
-how your words and actions may affect others;
-what DND policy says about harassment and racist conduct;
-supervisor‘s role in the pervention of harassment;
-role of each and every one of us in the prevention of harassment;
-means of recourse if you are a victim; and
-the consequences of harassing someone.


Basically it‘s a long drawn out lecture that says play nice or your going to get into lots of trouble.
 
I wonder if your going to get the X‘s and O‘s video. Its a cartoon. After you see it you will laugh your head off at the fact DND payed someone way too much money so you can learn to treat people the way you would like to be treated or else.
 
We have the same thing all tucked into an OHS envelope, security assessment, fraud awareness, etc. Its 2 days of very dry lessons, with some visual enhancement on a gaint screen. Usually a BFA (PT test) and WTSS (FATS) also. Twice yearly, all for AIRN (Army Individual Readiness Notice) which supposed to tell us we are 30 days deployable.

However in the evening, its a sausage sizzle, with of course the traditional 2 beer, per man, per day, perhaps. In fine traduiional Aussie Digger fashion.

Cheers,

Wes
 
Originally posted by Marauder:
[qb] No matter what the acronym de jour is, it boils down to don‘t make fun of the weak and stupid, particularly if they are female or a visible minority, as that will get you turfed.
The unspoken message is you can be physically weak and mentally feeble and still pass BMQ, but God help you if you don‘t live to obey the PC police.
Basically, if you‘ve been immersed in today‘s public school system, you‘ve already been indoctrinated to the PC Bible chapter and verse, and you‘ll know the rules about playing nicely with others and prasing everybody as being great, wonderful, equal, yada yada. [/qb]
All things being equal, it‘s also not on to make fun of the stupid and overbearing... ;)
 
Mike, if you want to insult me, at least show me a little respect and come up with something far less WEAK.
I‘m sorry if I denigrated your favourite Army program, and I hope I didn‘t hurt your feelings or make you feel put down. <snort>
 
Thanks for all the info. I will make the best of the weekend however dull it might be! Hopefully our instructors will break things up a bit with some drill (we could use the practice)!!!
 
Best line from the SHARP video:

"What the ****?!?! The Sgt can‘t be a ***!!! He‘s an Indian!!!"

SHARP is mildly funny at best, mind numbingly boring at worst. :skull:
 
Originally posted by Ghostwalk:
[qb] Best line from the SHARP video:

"What the ****?!?! The Sgt can‘t be a ***!!! He‘s an Indian!!!"

SHARP is mildly funny at best, mind numbingly boring at worst. :skull: [/qb]
:D :D :D YES!! :D :D :D

that is definatley the best line... probabbly one of the only ones i remember.. its just so dumb! thanks for reminding me, and giving me a laugh on this, the day of the green beer hangovers..
 
That line is even better in French !!!

We did the SHARP "self-training" when it came out. Frankly, after a couple of beers, you actually start to enjoy those videos...
 
Originally posted by Marauder:
[qb] Mike, if you want to insult me, at least show me a little respect and come up with something far less WEAK.
I‘m sorry if I denigrated your favourite Army program, and I hope I didn‘t hurt your feelings or make you feel put down. <snort> [/qb]
I have no need to insult you, just making a statement of fact. The whole program pretty much comes down to the eye of the beholder. I thought your comment was a good illustration of that; my comment only served to amplify your point.

It‘s not my favourite 8 hours of my military career, but I see no reason to piss on the program either. Hopefully anyone going through it has learned the lessons it is supposed to teach already, but it doesn‘t hurt to confirm these things. I mean, on my basic training we were taught how to brush our teeth, wash our feet, and not clean our hands after we went to the bathroom. It‘s not like they‘re dragging people in after hours to do this on their personal time, or anything. Sit back and enjoy, and hey, maybe one or two troops will even learn something.
 
They could‘ve saved the military thousands, if not millions, of dollars. All they would‘ve had to do was buy the rights from Jim Hanson for the video. I‘m sure everyone has seen Kermit the Frog singing "It‘s Not Easy Being Green". Encompasses everything the military spends all that SHARP time and resources on, in one short song made for children. :p
 
Well then Micheal, we kinda half agree, sorta. Tell you what, next time I‘m out in Calgary to visit my buddy and his bride to be, you can buy me a pint of Guiness to ease my hurt feelings and bruised ego. :)
 
Just one, Marauder?

We can laugh about the videos and Xs and Os all we want (and Jim Henson, recceguy), and yeah, the training videos were not Shakespearean. However, given a choice between loopy videos and, say, standing on the parade square having a crusty warrant officer read the lesson to us as we stood at attention...

Besides, I think the point some of you are missing is that the humour - intentional or not - does allow for easy discussion of the subject matter, which is the real point of the training, at least if it is done correctly.

I‘ll confess, I was a bit bored with it. When the major in charge of our training related a story about a soldier who hadn‘t ironed his epaullettes and had them ripped off his uniform in front of his unit and verbally assaulted. After telling this story, there was a long silence with no discussion, as intended, so I chimed in with "so why didn‘t he iron his slip ons, then?" It got a good laugh, especially from the NCOs, and the major seemed none too pleased and changed the subject quickly. :D But again, the humour and the goofy quality of some of the visual aids may even be a deliberate attempt to soften the material and make it more palatable.

Picture the Xs and Os video without the Xs or Os, and say - nothing but David Colonette‘s talking head on the screen for 30 or 40 minutes reading out the CFAOs on harrassment. It could be a looooooooooooooooooooot worse, now couldn‘t it! ;)
 
Do you think some of the material covered gives people the wrong conceptions of the army?

Do you guys think were actually over doing it with all this hold up a red card if your stressed please dont swear near me, please take down the canadian flag from our room because i find it offensive, kindler gentler stuff?

Im all for talking opposed to yelling if it gets the point across but if someone can‘t handle basic training will they be able to handle the real world? What happens when they cant throw their notebooks on the floor take a fit and leave the classroom.

Obviously there has to be a happy medium or balance but are we leaning towards being too gentle?
 
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