I met with a client (23) who told me when I asked him who his heroes are "I don't have heroes. I like the villains better."
A confluence of topics dealing with mental health, substance abuse, health, public health, Social Work, education, politics, the humanities, and spirituality at the micro, mezzo, and macro levels. In short, this blog is devoted to the improvement of the quality of life of human beings in the universe.
Monday, January 10, 2022
Therapy discussions, "I like villains better than heroes."
I met with a client (23) who told me when I asked him who his heroes are "I don't have heroes. I like the villains better."
Sunday, January 9, 2022
Social Workers in Primary Care Practices Found to Increase Access to MH Care
Saturday, January 8, 2022
Therapy discussions - January 6th is Treason Day
Therapy discussions are composite descriptions of therapy conversations. They are not a transcription of a discussion with a particular client.
Yesterday , January 5, 2022, was quite a day in the office. In addition to the client who wanted to discuss the blue-footed booby bird, another client brought up "treason day." He said, "Ya know, Mr. Markham, tomorrow is treason day."
Sunday, January 2, 2022
It is hard to understand what one doesn’t know
He (Eric Kalenze) also discovered books by E.D. Hirsh Jr. and Diane Ravitch that reinforced his initial feeling that what was called “progressive” or “constructivist” pedagogy didn’t place enough value on building students’ knowledge through explicit instruction “ Wexler, Natalie, Why So Many Kids Struggle To Learn, American Scholar, Winter 2022,P. 41
The basic idea is that reading comprehension depends on stored knowledge so that the reader has a context for the new information being obtained. Without this context the reader is confused or bypassed as the information goes over their head. Explicit instruction of primary concepts and knowledge is needed for understanding to be achieved. Merely decoding words with phonetic articulation doesn’t provide the meaning of the word.
In other words it is important for a person to know stuff if they are to learn more about it.
The even more problematic situation is when people think they know stuff that they don’t. This is a common phenomenon called the Dunning Kruger effect. The Dunning Kruger effect is acknowledged in the slogan, “A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing.”
The Dunning-Kruger effect also highlights the difference between being “dumb” and “stupid.” Dumb is when a person is ignorant and doesn’t know. Stupid is when a person thinks they know but doesn’t.
Dumbness can be easily dealt with. Stupidity, however, is a whole other challenge.
Grilling with dementia
My dad, who is in early stages of dementia, just got a new tall grill for Christmas and I'm worried he'll get hurt trying to use it. The steaks have never been higher.
Saturday, January 1, 2022
Epictetus and the Serenity Prayer
The Serenity Prayer is famous and often shared in Alcoholics Anonymous and addiction treatment programs. It seems fundamental to a positive path of recovery. The Serenity Prayer has been attributed to many sources. I was surprised to read this entry for January 1 in the Daily Stoic day by day calendar from Epictetus
The chief task in life is simply this: to identify and separate matters so that I can say clearly to myself which are externals not under my control, and which have to do with choices I actually control. Where then do I look for good and evil? Not to uncontrollable externals but within myself to the choices that are my own..." Discourses, 2.5.4-6