If the human service system is really a system, what are its goals and outcome expectations and how are they measured? This examines some of the pitfalls of the traditional system of providing services to people with problems in living.
The school can and does influence the social sanctions that implicate our sociocultural behavior. Therefore it behooves us to begin to dissect those aspects of schools that enhance the ability of students not only to learn, but to become prosocial citizens.
Almost everything we do involves either interacting with other persons or inhibiting interactions with other persons. If we fail to follow the often unspoken rules about these interactions, the consequences will be clear: others will judge us to be socially incompetent. Social competence and the resultant social affiliation have both an individual and a collective social impact. While public schools can certainly not take responsibility for the entire cultural capacity for social affiliation, they can and should take a responsibility for the social competence of those they teach. Administrators will need to determine whether a restructuring of the culture of the school is necessary to achieve socially competent children.
Changing paradigms is not easy. But focusing on problems avoids focusing on solutions. The questions is ‘Who’s solutions shall we provide?’. LaZara has posed the question of problems from the perspective of business management. This article examines the implications for the helping professions administrators.