REVIEW OF ABRAHAM FLEXNER’S ARTICLE
“IS SOCIAL WORK A PROFESSION? ” BY ABRAHAM FLEXNER
The paper on “ Is social work a profession?” by Abraham Flexner, which was presented at the Forty Second Annual session of The National Conference on Charities and Correction on May 17th, 1915 at Baltimore, Maryland, is said to be an extended argument about whether social work can be considered a profession or not. Flexner shows us a brief picture of how a profession would be, where he brings in a comparison between a professional and an amateur; he portrays the professional as someone whose entire time is devoted to an activity and the latter who is transiently and provisionally so engaged. According to him, the social worker wants to be a professional, …show more content…
Even though he explains the good sides of each of them, towards the end, we can see him being a critique. Most of these professions like plumbing and banking are definite in purpose and, possesses a technique communicable through education and gives a good deal of scope to intelligence respectively. But Flexner points out that, “a plumber is just a mechanical performer acting on the instrumental rather than the intellectual level, banking regarded as a trade with certain professional learning. When it comes to a nurse and a pharmacist, the activities are not exactly intellectual in character and responsibilities are not original or primary. And according to Flexner, a physician’s function is overwhelmingly intellectual in quality and his responsibility absolutely personal. His is the commanding intelligence that brings these resources to bear; his responsibility of decision is to the problem and how it is to be …show more content…
He gives a small reference to The School of Philanthropy to make the readers understand that philanthropy includes every kind of social work whether under public or private auspices. He wraps up social work as “intellectual, not mechanical and not routine in character.” The article tries to explain itself in the form of an example whether social work is a profession or not. It gives the example of a distressed family (or a wrecked individual or unsocialised industry) to show how a social worker acts as a mediator during an intervention of a particular agency or an agency best fitted to deal with the specific emergency he has encountered but Flexner is not sure if the social worker can be considered as a professional or is he the intelligence that brings this or that profession or other activity into action. He has made the point that all the established and recognized professions have definite and specific ends and one can draw a clear line of demarcation about their respective fields. This is not true of social work. It appears not so much a definite field as an aspect of work in many fields. An part of medicine belongs to social work, as do certain parts of law, education, architecture,
“IS SOCIAL WORK A PROFESSION? ” BY ABRAHAM FLEXNER
The paper on “ Is social work a profession?” by Abraham Flexner, which was presented at the Forty Second Annual session of The National Conference on Charities and Correction on May 17th, 1915 at Baltimore, Maryland, is said to be an extended argument about whether social work can be considered a profession or not. Flexner shows us a brief picture of how a profession would be, where he brings in a comparison between a professional and an amateur; he portrays the professional as someone whose entire time is devoted to an activity and the latter who is transiently and provisionally so engaged. According to him, the social worker wants to be a professional, …show more content…
Even though he explains the good sides of each of them, towards the end, we can see him being a critique. Most of these professions like plumbing and banking are definite in purpose and, possesses a technique communicable through education and gives a good deal of scope to intelligence respectively. But Flexner points out that, “a plumber is just a mechanical performer acting on the instrumental rather than the intellectual level, banking regarded as a trade with certain professional learning. When it comes to a nurse and a pharmacist, the activities are not exactly intellectual in character and responsibilities are not original or primary. And according to Flexner, a physician’s function is overwhelmingly intellectual in quality and his responsibility absolutely personal. His is the commanding intelligence that brings these resources to bear; his responsibility of decision is to the problem and how it is to be …show more content…
He gives a small reference to The School of Philanthropy to make the readers understand that philanthropy includes every kind of social work whether under public or private auspices. He wraps up social work as “intellectual, not mechanical and not routine in character.” The article tries to explain itself in the form of an example whether social work is a profession or not. It gives the example of a distressed family (or a wrecked individual or unsocialised industry) to show how a social worker acts as a mediator during an intervention of a particular agency or an agency best fitted to deal with the specific emergency he has encountered but Flexner is not sure if the social worker can be considered as a professional or is he the intelligence that brings this or that profession or other activity into action. He has made the point that all the established and recognized professions have definite and specific ends and one can draw a clear line of demarcation about their respective fields. This is not true of social work. It appears not so much a definite field as an aspect of work in many fields. An part of medicine belongs to social work, as do certain parts of law, education, architecture,