Rural Camp of a week-long duration after the observation visits to welfare institutions and hospitals was the best part of our social work course. Group living, knowing each other very closely, team work in camp activities ,and spending time meaningfully with the village community were of invaluable learning.
Looking back, I feel that the course on History and Philosophy of Social Work could have been handled in an imaginative way. The teacher who was entrusted with this subject was a soft-spoken person who preferred to read out from his notes. His class was very noisy by all the students talking in small groups. But our teacher was always unperturbed : a philosophical point driven home to all. The selection of the teacher for this subject perhaps was because the faculty as a whole gave least importance to social work's history and philosophy. My Professor was a wonderful human being and he is no more with us now. Years later, a young teacher Henry J D'Souza made the subject extremely popular and interesting. Dr. D'Souza is now Professor of social work at the University of Omaha, United States.
Social work education's major strength is the theory- field work integration. Three and a half days allotted for theory, and two alternate days for field work. But there was only field work and no field instruction. Barring the PMIR field work where the field suprevisor explained the relevant topics, there absolutely was no social work instruction in the welfare institutions as most of the institutions did not employ professionally trained personnel . Back at MSSW, there were Individual Conferences every week with the faculty supervisors. But most of the social work teachers had no experience in social work practice. So conferences were generally conversations between the teachers and the students,the importance of which cannot be undermined in the development of the young learners.
The Project Report was an academic hurdle to cross. Selection of topic during the last part of the first year, preparation of the questionnaire before the year end, data collection during the summer vacation, data analysis and drafting the report during the second year were routine tasks. Generally it was an enterprise in plagiarism. Library was fully utilised for this work.
Social work course influenced me considerably. What Did MSSW teach its students ? It did not teach. That was the great learning. The freedom in the campus, the exposure to social realities , accessibility to teachers, free interaction between boys and girls , functions where students could express themselves, an independent students' union which was consulted on all important matters, a feeling of assurance that MSSW would help in securing employment, and many other small small matters helped all of us shape our personality. For this ,only one person was responsible : K.N.George , whom my classmate late Dr. N.Subramanian, described as King George in an article in the Students' Union Magazine during the period in which Subramanian was General Secretary and I was President.
Looking back, I feel that the course on History and Philosophy of Social Work could have been handled in an imaginative way. The teacher who was entrusted with this subject was a soft-spoken person who preferred to read out from his notes. His class was very noisy by all the students talking in small groups. But our teacher was always unperturbed : a philosophical point driven home to all. The selection of the teacher for this subject perhaps was because the faculty as a whole gave least importance to social work's history and philosophy. My Professor was a wonderful human being and he is no more with us now. Years later, a young teacher Henry J D'Souza made the subject extremely popular and interesting. Dr. D'Souza is now Professor of social work at the University of Omaha, United States.
Social work education's major strength is the theory- field work integration. Three and a half days allotted for theory, and two alternate days for field work. But there was only field work and no field instruction. Barring the PMIR field work where the field suprevisor explained the relevant topics, there absolutely was no social work instruction in the welfare institutions as most of the institutions did not employ professionally trained personnel . Back at MSSW, there were Individual Conferences every week with the faculty supervisors. But most of the social work teachers had no experience in social work practice. So conferences were generally conversations between the teachers and the students,the importance of which cannot be undermined in the development of the young learners.
The Project Report was an academic hurdle to cross. Selection of topic during the last part of the first year, preparation of the questionnaire before the year end, data collection during the summer vacation, data analysis and drafting the report during the second year were routine tasks. Generally it was an enterprise in plagiarism. Library was fully utilised for this work.
Social work course influenced me considerably. What Did MSSW teach its students ? It did not teach. That was the great learning. The freedom in the campus, the exposure to social realities , accessibility to teachers, free interaction between boys and girls , functions where students could express themselves, an independent students' union which was consulted on all important matters, a feeling of assurance that MSSW would help in securing employment, and many other small small matters helped all of us shape our personality. For this ,only one person was responsible : K.N.George , whom my classmate late Dr. N.Subramanian, described as King George in an article in the Students' Union Magazine during the period in which Subramanian was General Secretary and I was President.
Well described Prof. I was one of the beneficiaries.
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