Is Social Work a Profession? (Classic Reprint) - Softcover

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Excerpt from Is Social Work a Profession?

I assume that every difficult occupation requires the entire time of those who take it seriously, though of course work can also be found for volunteers with something less than all their time or strength to offer. The question put to me is a more technical one. The term profession, strictly used, as opposed to business or handicraft, is a title of peculiar distinction, coveted by many activities. Thus far it has been pretty indiscriminately used. Almost any occupation not obviously a business is apt to classify itself as a profession. Doctors, lawyers, preachers, musicians, engineers, journalists, trained nurses, trapeze and dancing masters, equestrians, and chiropodists - all speak of their "profession". Their claims are supposed to be established beyond question if they are able to affix to their names one of those magical combinations of letters that either are or look like an academic degree. On this basis chiropody would be a profession because the New York School of Chiropody confers the degree of M. Cp., and social work might qualify at once with the degree S. W. Some years ago the president of a western university told me that he had compiled a list of all the degrees ever conferred by his institution. In the list appeared a very ominous combination of letters, - nothing less, in a word, than N. G. I was relieved to be informed that this was not an effort to characterize the entire academic output, but signified only "graduate nurse". If the academic degree decides, nursing is a profession for that reason, even were there no other.

We need waste no time in endeavoring to formulate the concept of "professional", if the concept is to include the indiscriminate activities touched on above.

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