This thread is somehow moving less toward poverty in America toward the problems of financing college...

Lets get real here... For most kids that grow up in poverty college isn't a goal or even on the radar screen... Heck, a high school diploma would be a great achievment...

This conversation about college, while intersting, has little do do with the subject at hand... It is, for the most part, a middle class conversation...

Mg, I hate to get on you again 'cause I know that in yer heart you belive very strongly in man's ability to survive adversity but...

...people tend to learn life skills very early and if there aren't the kind of role models to teach kids these skills... Kids that don't get them early ain't gonna get 'um later... What they are gonnna get is inforamtion from their peers who tend to be like themselves... By the time these kids get into their teens, unless we have thousands of Job Corpes like programs to bring these kids into the game, they won't develope these skills... Sure, you could live on $1000 a month... So could I... So could most folks who grew up in situations where these skills were taught...

I hate to keep harping on this but if you are going to be good working in any social program it's important that you at least understand that your clients don't have the same skills as you... If you truely want to help them, recognize this very important part of helping people...

Yeah, I know it is tough... And it is frustratin' but once you internalize it then you can maybe try to be what, in the wrods of the late Carl Rogers, "client centered" where you recognize that your client does not have your world of life view... It's hard to teach folks how to get there but if you can just try to see that your clients won't make the choices you would make, it makes it easier... They will make inappropraie choices and for you to say, "Hey, if you'd just do this or that then...." ain't gonna do much more than drive them away...

I'm sorry... It was the hardest lesson for me to learn but once I did then, as a social worker, it made my job easier... And, no, I'm not saying that you don't have expectations for your clients because you should... It's just that you might try setting those expectations not on what you can do with a $1000 a month but what they can reasonably do with it...

Like I said, I'm sorry but if I can just get you to see that then as long as you work with people you will be more effective... Carl Rogers called it "unconditional positive regard" and it has really to do with yer client and not you...

Enough on that topic... By now, I've either broken thru or I haven't...

Bobert