Do You Allow Your Children to Fail?

These days our children’s lives read like a Hollywood movie. People are trying to script their children’s lives.  In some cases - they are not allowed to fail. It starts young, if they are sports minded, they have to grow up to be the next Tiger Woods. If they are smart, they are pushed to be a rocket scientist or similar.  

As social services has expanded beyond the single practitioner trying to make a difference, social workers are called upon to share client information with colleagues to facilitate coordination of services.

How Bad Beliefs...

On August 22, 1996 President Bill Clinton signed into law legislation that replaced Aid to Families with Dependent Children with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. The new bill was supposed to reform welfare. At that time, most Americans believed that poverty was the fault of the poor and that it wasn’t fare for hard working people to be burdened with supporting “freeloaders”. Welfare had become a dirty word. TANF was designed to counter this objection by adding a work requirement to the welfare eligibility requirements. Now social workers are required to help anyone who can work to find a job and only approve welfare assistance when it is clear to the social worker that no job is available.

So often people ask me how I became a Child Protective Services Case Manager and inevitably the next question is why? If I’m being totally honest I kind of just fell into it and I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

For the majority of its life, Dungeons & Dragons has attracted fear, ridicule and threats of censorship from those who don’t play or understand the game. It is surrounded by a storm of negative connotations and emotions. David M. Ewalt, the author of “Of Dice and Men: The Story of Dungeons & Dragons and the People Who Play It,” writes, “If you’re an adult who plays … you’re a loser, you’re a freak, you live in your parents’ basement.”

Have you ever had one of those days where you think, "I have no idea what I am doing"?

Today’s hectic technology driven culture is so fast paced that oftentimes we need a little bit of help to get through the day.  I’ve created a list of five of my favorite apps that help me plan, navigate, and prepare for a perfect day.

Rarely does this blog get on “a roll” or a “mission”. However, if you read last week’s blog you are aware of the critical shortage of teachers our nation is facing and why the educational establishment does not seem to have a solution. I have come across additional disturbing information regarding the teacher shortage that I feel compelled to share with my colleagues working in social services. 

Reading View. Alt Shift A for Accessibility Help.

As a former social worker I found this a really interesting idea and I’m still trying to make my mind up? 

Much of the current political debate centers around:

• The loss of jobs and opportunities for the middle class-
• Whether college should be free for all Americans-
• How the Millennials can be expected to pay back the $ 1.3 trillion of college debt they have accumulated when they are left to default to jobs in McDonald’s-
• The job flight to third world countries causing the plight of our rust belt industrial inner cities-
• The cycle of crime and destitution that imprisons undereducated minorities-