Say and Do What You Need

In the 80’s I first learned of Assertive Training My husband thought it would do me some good. I laughed myself silly As the teacher explained things. If someone tries to put you down, you say this. If a person tries to hurt you, you do that. Tears were coming out of my eyes now; I was shaking with stupid laughter. Clearly uncomfortable. This room was full of diffident, hesitant, deferring humans. When they came up front to act out a scenario given by teacher, You could barely hear them. Whispery voices Fervent glances. Shy, quiet, skittish. Win-win was our goal. We were to say and do what we needed No one received any praise, lots of criticism though. Teacher clearly did not understand win-win. I do not work well under these conditions. We took turns acting out scenarios given by the teacher. “You’re being aggressive!” the teacher would say to me sternly. “You are both supposed to win,” she would caution me. Being a warrior woman, I had trouble disengaging My foot from her neck. Before I left.