So my plans last week got changed, as I got drafted to help at the range for our current academy, since they were short on instructors. Pretty much a typical group, some good, some bad - the same things we observe most every time. I did watch some interesting dynamics though...
The first recruit in question was a young girl who folded under the least bit of pressure at any point. Tears and all. Had no real competence or drive to do more than the minimums, and more important, no confidence in herself or real character to show. The kind who every person there was discussing how soon she would quit, pretty much knowing she didn't have what it takes to finish the Academy, much less do the job.
The other one was a little wisp of a girl. Watching her throughout the week she had some first-time shooter problems, but asked good questions & more importantly, she actually listened to what we would tell her. Prior Navy, with a college degree as well, but that isn't the important part. What was important came out in her character on Wednesday evening when we started pushing them a bit more. I was watching from the side as she shot, and I could literally see tears running down her face as she winced between a few of the drills. But, every time I asked her about it, she swore nothing was wrong and kept on going. This went on the rest of the day and she never once backed down, or tried to get out of any of the drills. When we finally finished I got her to the side with the lead instructor and we got the story - she'd played rugby in school, had broken some bones in her wrist & had pins in them which were hurting when she shot from certain positions. But she was absolutely adamant that it wasn't a big deal & she was able to continue. So, we gave her some tips to help with things, and made sure that she knew that if it got too bad she was to let us know - it wouldn't be a sign of failure or lack of ability.
I can tell you, just from watching this young lady this week - she will never, ever quit on us. She may not be the biggest or strongest recruit in that class, but she has more heart than I've seen in a majority of the other men and women. You can teach skills, you can teach concepts - but you cannot teach character. She's one I really hope sticks around, because she's going to be a great asset to the department.
6 comments:
Let's hope that first one washes out quickly and you can focus on the one worth your time.
Sounds like a winner to me.
"You can teach skills, you can teach concepts - but you cannot teach character." This is the money statement, right here. The person with character is the one you want to develop. Train the other one as well as she will let you, to ensure she's not a danger to anyone else. I'm usually not a big fan of writing someone off or playing favorites, but when peoples' security is on the line, I'd much rather know that three recruits of excellent character passed, rather than a dozen wishy-washy ones.
So, how does your agency handle recruits that just don't measure up during academy? I know that you are only with them for a short portion of the academy, but I'm sure that you know what the lead trainers can do. My agency participates in a regional academy so the majority of the students are from other agencies. Thus if we have a bad student, we have to "remain professional" and send our complaints on to their agency
One of the first classes that I taught after becoming a General Instructor I had a student shout out that the class was BS because they would never have to deal with what I was teaching. (Didn't matter to them that it was only a short block that was DCJS mandated.) I forwarded a complaint but their agency failed to act on it.
" You can teach skills, you can teach concepts - but you cannot teach character."
YEP!!!!!!
Gladorn - we have a variety of things that happen, all depending on who's in charge at the time. Integrity stuff such as cheating etc, they get fired pretty quick. Competency issues are a tougher fight - we have to document, document, document - and even then, it often just turns into a "Let's see if they get better." problem until they hit the street & either scrape through field training or get convinced the job isn't for them.
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