'Teachable Moments'

This term tends to irk me in it's usage. When it was used in reference to the case of the Harvard Professor who was arrested for Disorderly Conduct when confronted by Police after breaking into his own home, because he forgot his keys, my first thought in regard to this phrase was, "So now we are going to teach the moment, blame the moment, or otherwise hold the moment responsible for how we, as citizens and neighbors behave toward each other, that we ourselves hold no culpability for our behavior; it's all the moment's fault." To me, this makes the phrase ludicrous in it's very usage and possibly just a tool to distract from the real issue at play: how that man responded to a "white" police officer inquiring as to the situation's true, factual nature. That response by this "black" man happened to imply that the basis for this "harassment" was his race, despite the officer conducting himself in a polite, respectful manner until he had faced repeated disrespect from this man along with hasty movements from this man into the house as he went to find his University ID, which did not show a place of residence for the man pictured, who was consistent with the man in question. This officer had no record of racial bias against minorities and had personally led a program to actually reduce such behavior among officers within his area. He also had reason to be on guard at the man's hasty movements, because he could have been trying to flee the scene by going out the back way or, even worse, could have been going for a weapon to harm the officer.

I don't recall the initial use of this phrase. However, it is obvious to me that the moment bore none of the responsibility for what happened that day, but rather the responsibility seems to fall on a contentious man and the public for assuming that the incident was racially motivated. I don't think the moment actually needs to be taught anything (It probably wouldn't learn anything, anyway.) No, it's the citizenry that needs a bit of education, education in civility and reason. Perhaps a better way of conveying the idea intended by the phrase this post is based on would be 'a teaching moment', meaning 'a moment that can teach us something'.