You're The Counselor...What Would You Do?

For each of the following scenarios, what might your goals be for the client and what possible action strategies might you use for achieving these goals?

1. A white graduate student comes to you because she is distressed at her family's rage about her romantic involvement with an African-American student. She also feels that other students in the dorm are talking about her behind her back and that she is being shunned by both white and African-American students.

2. A high-school teacher comes to you for advice about how to manage one of her classes. A male is being scapegoated by all the other kids, who taunt him about being a "queer." The teacher does not know the boy's sexual orientation, but she is anxious about his classroom antics (acting like a "class clown"), which elicit these responses and which she finds disruptive. She asks you what she should do.

CONFLICTING VALUES

In the following scenarios, what might some of the conflicting values be between societal expectations and the individual...

...a man who is married to an active alcoholic; they have two young children, and both parents are employed full time

...a supervisor who is sexually attracted to an employee who has let it be known that the feeling is mutual; both recently ended long term relationships; the "break-ups" were talked about quite openly around the office

Here Is The Whiteboard From This Mornings Class...

"Teach Us Something"

I'd like to do something interesting and a bit different for your assignment that will be due for the 6th class. Its called "Teach Us Something" and your task is to do just that. Teach the class something.

You'll need to think of a topic and prepare a five to ten minute presentation on, well...something. Now, if I were participating, I'd do mine on perennial gardening, specifically, how to construct plantings so that there are flowers in bloom from late March to Halloween. Or, I might do a presentation on some aspect of digital photography. Get the picture? I want your topic to have as little to do with human services as possible.

You might be wondering why. Why do an assignment that has little or nothing to do with human services?

My reasoning goes something like this. We are unique individuals whose paths have crossed at a place called Hope...I mean Post...and our varied interests speak volumes about the diversity of those who seek to help others, to make a commitment to the helping professions. It is in our uniqueness that our commonality of purpose and conviction is realized. This assignment is to recognize, even celebrate, this inspiring reality.

Back On The Blog: Your First Discussion...

Faulty Assumptions Are Barriers To Interviewing/Counseling, Effective Helping

We all carry faulty assumptions with us; they are about groups - races, ethnic groups, people in various occupations, of different ages, of different social classes. And there are many more.

Identify some of your faculty assumptions AND identify faulty assumptions that you have heard other people articulate.

Back On The Blog: Your First Discussion Topic

What are the expected behaviors (from the societal level) for the following scenarios:

(1) You are the star quarterback of the Post University football team;

(2) You are a 7th grader who has been diagnosed by Clinical Psychology with

ADD/ADHD and Oppositional-Defiant Disorder

One More Time...

Now, analyze the "social problem" called obesity in this way...

Critically Analyzing Social Problems

Analyzing a "social problem" like poverty requires us to consider all of the (1) contributors to and (2) ramifications of poverty. Analyze poverty in this way.

Supervisory Skills

Please compile a list of the five most crucial aspects of the supervisory experince. Add a bit of explanation for each of your choices.

The Morrison Foundation

The Morrison Foundation is destined to be a successful social services agency thanks to all of your hard work. Please search the web for an image of the building that you feel would be ideal for the Morrison Foundation. Please upload it so we can all review the choices.

Presentation Topics. Claim Yours!

Pick Your Topic & Identify Your Choice On This Thread...

Traumatic Brain Injuries / Soldiers Returning From Iraq

F.W.S.N. (Family With Service Needs) Petitions / Child Neglect

Methadone Maintenance / History & Current Statistics

Juvenile Offenders

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder & Acute Stress Disorder

1996 Welfare Reform's Core Concept: "Welfare To Work" And The Emergence Of The "Working Poor"

History Of Public Housing & Section 8

Reactive Attachment Disorder

The Foster Care System

For Next Class...

Write a two to three page paper on the following statement from your book...

"...Human Services professionals need to discover how their personal attitudes, biases, beliefs, and knowledge about different ethnic groups (races, religions, etc.) might affect their ability to consider problems objectively, define them accurately, and present acceptable solutions. They should be particularly conscious of the ever present danger of using stereotypes and generalizations as explanations of behavior." (217)

Identify your attitudes, biases, generalizations (etc.) that you would need to work on changing.

What Do You Think? Class Discussion...

Imagine you are the caseworker or counselor. (1) What client behaviors would you have trouble accepting? (2) What types of clients would you not want to work with?

For Next Class...

What are the three most important Social Problems facing our country today? Write a few paragraphs about each Social Problem explaining why you believe it is significant.





The Lower East Side, New York City, 1969

Intro To Human Services - First Topic For Discussion

Please add your comments about any topic that was discussed in class that you found to be the most interesting or intriguing. Did something surprise you or "cause you to pause"? Was a perspective from Human Services or Sociology particularly interesting you you? (Write about an issue of your own and also feel free to leave comments responding to other learners' statements.)

Double Stuff Speaks

Can't Blame White People
by: Bill Cosby

They're standing on the corner and they can't speak English.
I can't even talk the way these people talk: Why you ain't, Where you is, What he drive, Where he stay, Where he work, Who you be...
And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk.
And then I heard the father talk.
Everybody knows it's important to speak English... except these knuckleheads.
Mushmouth is what they speak!
You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth.
In fact, you will never get any kind of job making a decent living.
People marched and were hit in the face with rocks to get an education, and now we've got these knuckleheads throwing that all away.
The lower economic people are not holding up their end in this deal. These people are not parenting. They are buying things for kids. $500 sneakers, for what? And they won't spend $200 for Hooked on Phonics.
I am talking about these people who cry when their son is standing there in an orange suit. Where were you when he was 2? Where were you when he was 12? Where were you when he was 18? And, how come you didn't know that he had a pistol? And where is the father? Or who is his father?
People putting their clothes on backward: Isn't that a sign of something gone wrong?
People with their hats on backward, pants down around the crack, isn't that a sign of something? They're walking around with their nasty underwear showing, and holding onto their pants to keep them from falling to the ground!
Or are you waiting for Jesus to pull his pants up? Isn't it a sign of something when she has her dress all the way up to her panty line, and got all types of needle piercings going through her body? What part of Africa did this come from? We are not Africans. Those people are not Africans; they don't know a thing about Africa . With names like Shaniqua, Taliqua and Mohammed and all of that crap, and all of them are in jail.
Brown or black versus the Board of Education is no longer the white person's problem. We have got to take the neighborhood back. People used to be ashamed.
Today a woman has eight children with eight different 'husbands' -- or men or whatever you call them now.
We have millionaire football players who cannot read. We have million-dollar basketball players who can't write two paragraphs. We as black folks have to do a better job. Someone working at Wal-Mart with seven kids saying... you are hurting us. We have to start holding each other to a higher standard. We cannot blame the white people any longer.
It is not for media or anyone of this time anymore to say whether I'm right or wrong. It is time, ladies and gentlemen, to look at the numbers. Fifty percent of our children are dropping out of high school. Sixty percent of the incarcerated males happen to be illiterate. There's a correlation. Tell the media to stop asking me what I think about people who don't believe what I'm saying,
or feel that I'm too harsh or feel that I'm just running my mouth because I'm old. Seventy percent of the teenagers pregnant happen to be African American girls.
Don't ask me to soften my message.

Bill Cosby