Jasmine Mason

3/30/20

ENGL 1001 English Composition

Professor Jonathan Maxey

Child Protective Services Needs to Change

      Children are a joy to have in the world. While there are people who think differently about it, there is no doubt that children are precious being that should be protected. Children need to be protected at all costs even if it means taking the out of the home. Last year, 437,283 children were taken from their homes due to claims of child abuse and neglect. However, while it’s important to take children out from the home when abuse is suspected, what if even though you know you’ve done nothing wrong or you know you can change yourself to get your kids back takes too long? What if the children that are taken away are living in hospitals for unnecessary periods of time? What if the abuse is obvious and nothing was done to stop it? What should be done? CPS should change how they function, their process of taking children out of the home, relocating, and overall treatment of the children. The purpose is to shed light on the flaws of Child Protective Services (CPS). It’s important to shed light on these issues so then we can identify more problems like these and learn how to fix them in the future. Things that need to change within CPS are how long children are away from their parents, the treatment of the kids and where to relocate them. Hopefully through this essay the problems mentioned will stick with readers and will open the minds of others who believe what CPS is doing right now is okay to consider hearing this side of the argument.

      One of the few reasons why Child Protective Services needs to change is because of the length of time that children stay in hospitals after they have been removed from the home. If the children live in hospitals, and if the children are staying in the hospitals for a long period of time, then these children can be subjected to living in unusual living conditions and can face trauma. According to the Baltimore Sun News outlet and Maryland Department of Human Services, which was charged with ensuring the well-being of the children, it was reported that a child was living in a hospital for 636 days. It has also been reported that in the first 11 months of 2019, an average of 36 children were overstaying in hospitals. It’s already traumatic enough for these kids to be taken away from their homes, but it’s more traumatic for children to stay in hospitals for long periods of time. While these children have been overstaying in the hospital, it has also brought up another issue. What are suitable places for children who have special needs? Not just learning disabilities, but also those who have suffered traumatic sexual abuse. Every child has a different set of needs, some are placed with other family members or in foster homes and hospitals. However, this may not be enough for the children who need help. CPS and the Maryland Department of Human Services need to shorten the time that children are in hospitals or in foster care homes, so the children have a safe environment to call home. It is also important that they should start finding ways to fund for more housing with safe environments so then children can live there.

      If the amount of time the children are away from their parents is too long, and if the amount of time is not consistent, then the system needs to be fixed to allow children to get back to their families quickly. Even if there is a court case that must be attended to whether the accused is guilty of child neglect or not, they should be able to see their kids. According to the Washington Law Help, CPS can keep a child for 90 days. There are even cases where CPS can take your child permanently. There are also even moments when you don’t get to visit your children. It’s important that the children still have their parents in their lives. If they don’t have their parents in their lives, they start to lose connection with them. Some parents could possibly lose the motivation to get their children back if it’s something serious. It’s already difficult enough to punish the parents for taking their children away from them, but it’s even more heartbreaking when their children are their world, who they wake up to everyday, who they talk to, who they need to protect, and who they love. It is important that CPS should have consistent time periods for children to be away from their parents, and for the parents to see the children on a regularly monitored basis. This so that the parents can have the motivation to get their children back and for the children to still have their parents in their lives.

      The final thing that needs to be changed with CPS is how they determine if children should be taken out of homes. If the CPS can’t determine when it is appropriate to take children out of their homes, and if the children are being abused or neglected, then this can cause further harm or death to a child. In 2013, Antelope Valley, California the case of Gabriel Fernandez, a child who died at the age of 8, suffered extreme abuse from his mother, Pearl Fernandez, and her boyfriend, Isauro Aguirre. These parents would beat this child repeatedly, force him to eat cat litter, shoot him in the face with a BB gun, make him wear dresses, call him gay, pepper spray him, and lock him in a cupboard for hours. This later resulted in Gabriel being beaten to death. What’s worse is that the Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS) were called to the residence multiple times before Gabriel’s death and no action was taken. Even social workers were ordering Gabriel to “stop lying” which is despicable. What’s also shocking is that the DCFS had similar cases that have had similar endings too. Another boy by the name of Anthony Avalos, a 10-year-old who died 5 years after Gabriel, was denied access to services. There was even a court order to remove the child from the home and DCFS didn’t follow through with it, because of that the boy later died. Cases like these are some of the main reasons why any department of CPS needs to change.

Works Cited

Varghese, Rani, Rani Varghese, and Hye K. Kang. “Essential Knowledge for Clinical Social Work Practice: Social Work Faculty Perspectives.” Smith College Studies in Social Work, vol. 89, no. 3-4, 2019, pp. 200-219.

“Methodist Children’s Home Society acquires Community Social Services; Deal creates one of region’s largest foster care providers.” Crain’s Detroit Business, vol. 35, no. 30, 29 July 2019, p. 0001. Gale In Context: Biography, https://link-gale-com.proxy.libraries.uc.edu/apps/doc/A595175640/BIC?u=ucinc_main&sid=BIC&xid=9915d991. Accessed 23 Feb. 2020.

Stuck, Taylor and Amelia F. Knisely. “CPS Bill Does Little to Address Retention, Advocates Say.” Coal Valley News © Copyright 2020 The Coal Valley News, 85 Town Square / PO Box 500 Danville, WV https://www.coalvalleynews.com/news/cps-bill-does-little-to-address-retention-advocates-say/article_d9d5b318-e3f3-53be-8323-7989f0244a9c.html

Jasmine Kay Mason

2/28/2020

ENGL 1001 English Composition

Professor Jonathan Maxey     

Social Work Exploratory Essay

      To be able to help people all the time with many different problems is a beautiful thing. As a Social Worker that is your job twenty-four seven. When you get into this line of work you are working with all kinds of populations such as children, adults, families, military veterans, older adults, people who suffer from addiction, mental illness, people with special needs, prisoners, etc. What’s amazing about this line of work is that after you study every population of people, you can specialize in who you want to work with. You help these people get the necessary resources that they need so they can live on their own. While the pay can differ depending on where you work as a social worker, you can earn between $22,000-$45,000 a year. It might seem like it’s not much, but if you’re happy with helping people it’s not a problem at all. You must be kind, caring, understanding, and open-minded. Some fields in social work do require you to travel. You are going to be traveling a lot if you’re working with active duty members of the military. The type of environment that you will work in will also depend on the field that you specialize in. You might be in a prison, a hospital, in an office, and sometimes in another person’s home. The hours depend on the field. You will need prior experience. Within the field there are health benefits. There are so many amazing jobs as a Social Worker.

      When you work as a Social Worker, you can work in different working environments. If you’re working with the military, you’ll always be traveling from base to base. If you’re working in Case Management, another line of Social Work, you might be working in an office and for an organization. Some other examples can include working in any of the Department of Veterans Affairs facilities, Lighthouse, Hospitals, Nursing homes, schools, etc. Each facility requires different expertise. For example, if you work in the VA, you’re working with veterans and families of veterans. Each line of work usually requires the same amount of education. A BSW (bachelor’s degree in social work) is what you need to start practicing in you desired field. After a year you will be eligible to test and receive you MSW (master’s degree in social work). Once you get your MSW in your desired practice, you can stay there and work or continue to get your LCSW (license in clinical social work). With the LCSW, you can work as a counselor for family counseling. While all of this is amazing to think about, there are some things to keep in mind. As an MSW or LCSW, you must take mandatory courses that help renew your license. The classes can be taken anytime online or with other social workers before a specific cut off period and you must complete ninety hours. Failure to complete these classes can result in the CSWE revoking your license. Don’t worry it’s easy.

      While the salary for social workers depends on the practice, there have been some problems going on in West Virginia with the CPS Social Worker salary. The starting salary for a CPS worker is $28,000, which doesn’t seem enough to keep many social workers within this field. West Virginia Governor, Jim Justice, vowed to have the best CPS system in the nation. He has even hired 87 CPS workers to help with this cause. He hopes that this can help influence others to join the cause. Due to the shortage CPS workers, the system doesn’t have enough people on the frontline to help get children get out of endangering situations involving drugs, alcohol, and abuse. In 2019 there were about twenty percent of DHHR’s (Department of Health and Human Resources) CPS jobs were vacant. This was a problem back in 2018 as well, the main reason why they couldn’t investigate half of the child abuse cases. This source also talks about how they had a thirty-five-year history of not being able to find qualified CPS workers, which could also be a reason for this issue. The source also states, “…even after the state employee pay raises the past two years, which Hill said was a concern. The language in the original bill would have raised the starting salary to $32,500.” Hopefully, this could help bring in more CPS workers.

      In the line of social work, there are many types of fields you can go into. One of these fields involves working with children in the foster care system. In July of 2019, a trade publication was posted about the Methodist Children’s Home Society. It talks about how this society has become one of the largest foster care providers in the region. They have achieved this by combining Community Social Services to their society. Since this event, they have also begun the process of creating a deal that can help young mothers struggling with substance abuse and transitional living. With combined nonprofit companies working together, they can serve 2,500 children and families a year, including 300 children in direct foster care. It has also been reported that there are no plans for CSS directors to join the Methodist board, since there are 50 remaining employees at CSS. However, CSS President and CEO William “Chuck” Jackson are joining as a strategy offer. “Over the years, (CSS) had just simply not done the work it needed to remain competitive, It came down to a desire to increase our impact … and a recognition that we were not able to be able to do that on our own…” Jackson said. Other than the new partnership, they have also implemented child-abuse-prevention and substance abuse services to help more children in need. This is just a sample of what this field can do. This field has more to offer, and the other fields do too.

      There are many amazing things about social work, but there are some negatives too. There are some negatives with being a clinical social worker such as how it relates to social justice within any type of community. “The tension between clinical social work and social justice is a valuable one that directs our gaze back to our dual focus” (p. 197). Another negative is also the fact that as a clinical social worker, you are on the front lines to some of the social issues such as poverty, mental health, some of which involve topics of cultural differences and racism. While these may seem like negatives there are some positives in being a clinical social worker. The line of clinical social work is widely regarded as the guiding orientation of social work. In this field you are working on the micro or smaller end of social work. You work with families and individuals, and you can work independently in this field too. While the macro or larger scale of social work is mainly focused on changing the environment, clinical social work focuses on the individual and helping them receive the help they need. In the clinical field of social work, you will have a more personal relationship with your clients. You’ll need to learn everything about your client in order to help them find the resources they need.

      Through my research, I didn’t run into to too many problems trying to find the information to answer the questions I had. Even though I found everything that I needed, there were many challenges while trying to find the information. I struggled finding specific information on the salary for social workers. I also struggled finding the what each of the fields of social work did specifically. Overall, this was a very interesting assignment. It felt as though I have found more information about what I really wanted to do, and it helped me narrow down my choices. I would highly suggest finding a field that has the population that you want to work with rather than researching social work in general. Through this assignment I have learned so much about my field and now I feel like learning more.

Works Cited

Varghese, Rani, Rani Varghese, and Hye K. Kang. “Essential Knowledge for Clinical Social Work Practice: Social Work Faculty Perspectives.” Smith College Studies in Social Work, vol. 89, no. 3-4, 2019, pp. 200-219.

“Methodist Children’s Home Society acquires Community Social Services; Deal creates one of region’s largest foster care providers.” Crain’s Detroit Business, vol. 35, no. 30, 29 July 2019, p. 0001. Gale In Context: Biography, https://link-gale-com.proxy.libraries.uc.edu/apps/doc/A595175640/BIC?u=ucinc_main&sid=BIC&xid=9915d991. Accessed 23 Feb. 2020.

Stuck, Taylor and Amelia F. Knisely. “CPS Bill Does Little to Address Retention, Advocates Say.” Coal Valley News © Copyright 2020 The Coal Valley News, 85 Town Square / PO Box 500 Danville, WV https://www.coalvalleynews.com/news/cps-bill-does-little-to-address-retention-advocates-say/article_d9d5b318-e3f3-53be-8323-7989f0244a9c.html

      When you work as a Social Worker, you can work in different working environments. If you’re working with the military, you’ll always be traveling from base to base. If you’re working in Case Management, another line of Social Work, you might be working in an office and for an organization. Some other examples can include working in any of the Department of Veterans Affairs facilities, Lighthouse, Hospitals, Nursing homes, schools, etc. Each facility requires different expertise. For example, if you work in the VA, you’re working with veterans and families of veterans. Each line of work usually requires the same amount of education. A BSW (bachelor’s degree in social work) is what you need to start practicing in you desired field. After a year you will be eligible to test and receive you MSW (master’s degree in social work). Once you get your MSW in your desired practice, you can stay there and work or continue to get your LCSW (license in clinical social work). With the LCSW, you can work as a counselor for family counseling. While all of this is amazing to think about, there are some things to keep in mind. As an MSW or LCSW, you must take mandatory courses that help renew your license. The classes can be taken anytime online or with other social workers before a specific cut off period and you must complete ninety hours. Failure to complete these classes can result in the CSWE revoking your license. Don’t worry it’s easy.

          To be able to help people all the time with many different problems is a beautiful thing. As a Social Worker that is your job twenty-four seven. When you get into this line of work you are working with all kinds of populations such as children, adults, families, military veterans, older adults, people who suffer from addiction, mental illness, people with special needs, prisoners, etc. What’s amazing about this line of work is that after you study every population of people, you can specialize in who you want to work with. You help these people get the necessary resources that they need so they can live on their own. While the pay can differ depending on where you work as a social worker, you can earn between $22,000-$45,000 a year. It might seem like it’s not much, but if you’re happy with helping people it’s not a problem at all. You must be kind, caring, understanding, and open-minded. Some fields in social work do require you to travel. You are going to be traveling a lot if you’re working with active duty members of the military. The type of environment that you will work in will also depend on the field that you specialize in. You might be in a prison, a hospital, in an office, and sometimes in another person’s home. The hours depend on the field. You will need prior experience. Within the field there are health benefits. There are so many amazing jobs as a Social Worker.

Summary of “Inventing the University”

      Dr. David Bartholomae’s article talks about how as teachers, writers, or anyone who gives out information to the readers, should speak in the language that is familiar to that reader. One of Bartholomae’s points is that teachers should speak and teach the students in a way that they can understand. This can also tie into how a one should write a paper that gives information. An idea that sticks out within the passage is that as a writer you must know your audience. If the person who reads the paper is a scientist, the writing should include the language that is used by scientists. This idea can go for any topic. Bartholomae talks about an essay called, “Clay Model.” He talks about how this essay doesn’t achieve the idea of knowing your audience or remotely communicating in the reader’s language. Bartholomae continuously brings up the idea of knowing your audience by stating that if one can understand who their writing for and be able to manipulate them, they will be able to reach a level of privilege and imagination. All these ideas and techniques can be used to become an effective writer, but only if the teachers can guide the students (Bartholomae). Bartholomae’s article is a guide for professors who struggle with guiding and teaching students how to write for their audience. Bartholomae guides professors and the professors guide the students. When that happens, a common language is spoken. 

Purpose and Audience

The overall purpose for this article is to inform the professors that they must teach their students to write in the language the understands. You must be able to write as if you are the expert. The overall purpose of the article gets clearer as you read the article. The article did affect my thinking when I write my papers. I never really gave much thought to writing as if you were an expert in a subject. The actual purpose of the article wasn’t really hidden, but instead kept on building as you read. The intended audience is any professor that reads this article. I am not a part of this audience since I’m not a professor. Bartholomae assumes the professors would believe that they too need to guide their students. This point of view is from Bartholomae.

Content Analysis

The problem that Dr. David Bartholomae addresses in the article is that students struggle with learning how to write in the language that a reader will understand. Bartholomae structures the content by giving out example of written pieces of work from students. Bartholomae’s thesis is that professors need to guide students to write as if their the expert. Some of the key moments in the text include one when Bartholomae gives an example of the essay “Clay Model.” This is an important section because this shows the intended audience that as writers we should act as if we are experts. Honestly nothing really bothered me while reading this article other than that I couldn’t understand what Bartholomae was talking about at first. As I continued to read the article, I was able to understand it better.

Organization, Language, Structure

The language that Bartholomae uses within his article is a Tongue and Cheek type of language, slightly sarcastic tones when describing works such as the “Clay Model” and other essays from certain subjects. While the slightly sarcastic tone is kind of amusing to me personally, that doesn’t take away from the Toulmin style that his information is structured. This was in my opinion a perfect way for him to talk about his claim and provide his reasoning. This mixture of Tongue and Cheek, logical reasoning and evidence were the amazing ways that Bartholomae was able to write a great explanation for his claim.

Evidence

The evidence that Dr. David Bartholomae relies on is ethos. He uses analytical reasoning to explain his thesis/claim. Bartholomae uses past experiences as well to help explain his reasoning. The evidence that was the most effective was when he talked about the essay called the “Clay Model.” He talks about it from his own experience and this helps give the reader a sense that Bartholomae is the character of nature or also known as the person of authority for the topic. Overall, I thought that the quality of the author’s evidence was good. I was expecting it to be good since Bartholomae has had experience in this field.

Overall Analysis

Bartholomae does amazing job discussing his claim about how professors should better equip their students for writing. He also does a great job in including all the subjects that require writing papers, so that the audience of professors is of all mixed academic subjects. Bartholomae often talks about how students should write as if they are the expert, that if they were to go to their respective fields, they would be able to have an audience that understands them. This makes an interesting point that if professors are supposed to help guide students to their fields of study, they should better equip them with writing techniques.

Conclusion

”Inventing the University” was a splendid piece of work from Bartholomae that gives amazing insight on not just how professors can improve on their teaching, but also how students can improve on their writing. As I read this article, I constantly kept thinking to myself if I was writing as an expert. Now, I know that as a writer no matter what I write, I can now confidently write for any subject knowing these skills.

The problem that Dr. David Bartholomae addresses in the article is that students struggle with learning how to write in the language that a reader will understand. Bartholomae structures the content by giving out example of written pieces of work from students. Bartholomae’s thesis is that professors need to guide students to write as if their the expert. Some of the key moments in the text include one when Bartholomae gives an example of the essay “Clay Model.” This is an important section because this shows the intended audience that as writers we should act as if we are experts. Honestly nothing really bothered me while reading this article other than that I couldn’t understand what Bartholomae was talking about at first. As I continued to read the article I was able to understand it better.

      The overall purpose for this article is to inform the professors that they must teach their students to write in the language the understands. You must be able to write as if you are the expert. The overall purpose of the article gets clearer as you read the article. The article did affect my thinking when I write my papers. I never really gave much thought to writing as if you were an expert in a subject. The actual purpose of the article wasn’t really hidden, but instead kept on building as you read. The intended audience is any professor that reads this article. I am not a part of this audience since I’m not a professor. Bartholomae assumes the professors would believe that they too need to guide their students. This point of view is from Bartholomae.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.