The Curriculum

For myself, I found that I was fitted for nothing so well as for the study of Truth; as having a mind nimble and versatile enough to catch the resemblances of things … and at the same time steady enough to fix and distinguish their subtler differences; as being gifted by nature with desire to seek, patience to doubt, fondness to meditate, slowness to assert, readiness to consider, carefulness to dispose and set in order; and as being a man that neither affects what is new nor admires what is old, and that hates every kind of imposture. Francis Bacon 1605.

Today I am beginning to add the links for you and it has occurred to me that the greatest travesty in the way a social work course curriculum is set up is that they wait until junior or senior year to introduce a student to philosophy. I was only required to take intro to philosophy. Once I took that one course I felt as though I should by all rights and consequences go back and retake all my social work courses taken until that date because now I had the skills to think critically. In taking other philosophy courses I learned to properly assess an argument which is one of the most important things in social work practice when dealing with co-workers and administrators in being able to present your side logically. It is quite possible that I could spend days, maybe even months listing all the philosophy-related links I found. I won't do that to you though...after all you might not be as interested in the course as I am. :-) I do hope you check out some of the links though. If you can just get past thinking that all the early philosophers must have been smoking something funny, back in the day, then I think you will find that you enjoy the course and will learn to be a better social worker for having taken it.