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celebration
May 2008 
Practical intelligence
Inquisitive
At the risk of sounding anti-education (which I'm totally not!), I have been thinking alot lately about how nice it would be to see certain things implemented into our educational system. I got to thinking about this on more than one occasion at work the past few days. It actually came up in a few conversations I had with one or two clients, as well as my supervisor yesterday during a meeting.
How much stuff do we learn in school (primarily public schools and to a lesser extent, universities) that we really truly need? Where is the practical intelligence of learning things that have the most effect on our everyday lives?
I realize we all need the basics ("reading, writing, 'rithmetic," as the saying goes) to further ourselves beyond the 'basic' level successfully. But are the basics even 'basic' enough? While children may be learning algebra or what the term 'foreshadowing' means in English class, how is either one honestly relevant to the "real world" as an adult? Unless you want to become a Math and English teacher, not a whole helluva lot.
Again, I'm not anti-education. I do think practical life skills should be taught in our schools though. Did anyone ever show you how to balance a checkbook when you were in school? What about doing your taxes? Did anyone teach you how to effectively deal with conflict management, how to handle confrontations with other people without resorting to nasty verbal or physical fights? What about knowledge on other cultures, races,etc? What about learning how to see, analyze, and appreciate different viewpoints to facilitate open-mindedness in each other? What about teaching others critical thinking, to think for themselves on important decisions and/or developing one's worldview? How about knowing what to do in an emergency situation (how to think fast/'on the fly')? I could go on, as there are many more I could probably think of it illustrate this point if I continue to think critically about it, but that could take all day!
It may sound complex, but don't we come across this stuff frequently throughout our lives? Alot of society's issues stem from this problem area of what's lacking in the overall education system. They deserve a big fat "F" for 'failure' to teach these simple, yet key "learning objectives" in life.
Some critics may argue "Well, that's what parents are for!" Sure, in a perfect world maybe. How many people come from the 'perfect' home where their parents are around or even attentive enough to teach these things (at least without the help of a community/school teaching all this too)?
During my meeting with my supervisor yesterday, we had an interesting segment of conversation. My supervisor was giving me my annual review and we were going over work goals I had set and accomplished since last July. While brainstorming what my new goals for the upcoming year would be, one of the goals I came up with was to learn more about pharmacology/prescription meds. I was telling her how important it was for me to have a background knowledge on different medications people take for mental issues like depression, anxiety, schizophrenia,etc because I have many MISA (Mentally Ill Substance Abusers) clients. In order to understand them and help them most effectively, it would help to familiarize myself with common medications associated with certain mental disorders. I never had a class in graduate school on psychotropic medications. I told my supervisor how I couldn't understand how EVERYONE in a psychology grad school that is studying to be a therapist could NOT be required to take such a class. Sure, that's what psychiatrists are for, but again.....what about those who can't afford to go to a psychiatrist? Most of my clients are low income. They get meds from their regular doctor and get their counseling with me. In those instances, I take on the pseudo-role of a psychiatrist. I cannot prescribe it, but I certainly still need to be familiar with it. My supervisor agreed with me that people don't teach you the practical things. She pointed out that she never learned how to do a treatment plan or how to conduct a mental assessment in grad school. I didn't either!
Granted, there are going to be things in life that cannot be easily taught. Things happen and we have to utilize whatever intelligence we have at any given time to help us learn the sometimes challenging, tough life lessons. But wouldn't it be nice if at least a fraction of practical things started being taught in schools? It certainly would be one less thing to wonder or worry about.....
Access: Public
I completely agree with you, and being in the spirit of what zaadz stands for, let's think about this on the level or what can we do to start these changes?
I myself was diagnosed ADHD with insomnia when I was 18, I was never diagnosed before this because I was raised on a small farm in a small town, and my parents thoughts on this was “that's just how you are”. I decided that I would not take any medications for these things; instead I started to teach myself meditation. After years of growing up this way, and going to college, I started to believe a little in what my parents said. With all the indigo children being born to this day an age, I don't think our education system is even close to being able to keep up with these kids. I myself was one of those kids; my grades in college would sometimes fall because I would get so bored with the way classes were being taught. I did have one teacher who was also ADHD, and even though most of my class had problems in her class because she was so fast in what she taught, it was one of the best classes I had ever taken. I picked up things in that class so fast and so easy, and I was not really a fan of that particular subject. So I think it's quite funny that we haven't come up with some new diagnoses for kids like this, instead we label them with the closes thing we can find from what we supposedly already know about the mind and emotion. Even though I know it's being done slowly, I really think that we as a society really need to rethink what we believe are the standard of reality.
Absolutely! Thanks for sharing your own personal experiences/feelings about this subject. I think changing our thinking, or even being MINDFUL of what we are doing is the first critical step. And being creative!! I think things are always more interesting when you make the effort to do things creatively, think and/or problem solve “outside of the box,” ya know? But too many people are too lazy and don't seem motivated….and that is what frustrates me. It's like, how can you expect change to happen if you stand in the same place? You can look around, talk about what you observe around you,etc….but if you're standing in the same spot/never budge, how will you know any different? Interestingly, yesterday my coworker and I met with our supervisor in a meeting. She was telling us about this one guy from one of our other clinics who has become quite problematic socially. He has displayed extreme paranoia, which has been affecting his ability to effectively interact with others. He has apparently had problems with both the counselors at the downtown clinic. The first counselor he had he didn't want as his counselor anymore because the counselor had a religion/Christian book on his desk. The guy said something like “I don't want a Christian counselor!” or something to that effect. Then, when assigned the other counselor, he wasn't satisfied with him either, saying he didn't like the counselor because “he's gay” (which he's not, but that's a moot/ point anyway!) I started “investigating” more on this guy, asking my supervisor questions, as she thinks he may need to transfer to our clinic. What I find interesting is that most of the time whenever they have an unruly/uncooperative client at our downtown or suburban locations, they ALWAYS transfer such person to OUR clinic.
Ironic or not, I don't know, but I joked that our clinic seems to be the “reform” clinic. Why do I say this? Because 8/10 when people transfer to us, they are no longer problematic. So in a nutshell, it all goes back to: Doing things differently. Taking the time to help/teach people things based on what is best for them….individualized vs. the same old way of doing something (one size fits all model). That's our way of doing things where I work….working WITH people instead of in an adversarial way.
Ok, enough of my rambling…. :)
That's really awsome! So I guess the bigest thing we have to remember, is that Egypt wasn't built in a day. That as long as we are making the changes in our own personal lives, then on some level we are affecting those around us to do the same thing.
This a topic that is close to my heart as well. The total beaucracy that surounds the prescribing of meds is astounding. I don't think that it is going to change any time soon either! What might be the best possible alternative is to develop a great referral network of psychiatrists and learn as much as you can. The drug companies love to throw informational dinners in the Chicago area for workers in mental health. Regardless of who dispenses meds, it is important that a therapist understands generallly how patients should respond to meds. Adverse side effects can be a major obstacle for working with any patients. Plus, from a egocentric point of view, I would like to know as a counselor if my intervention is creating the change or if the meds are.
Two thoughts:
1. Why can't we stay different and special, but we get medicine to become “normal”?
I really like the approach of helping someone understand oneself better, instead of fixing this person to be a good and worthy part of the resource consuming and abusing society.
2. If a big industry makes profit from medication, how could that industry be seriously interested in helping or fixing people? They have no interest in us being healthy, do they.
Best wishes
Sorry it has taken me so long to respond; I'm not on zaadz as often as many other people seem to be. Anyway….
Jim: Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Have you been to any of these informational dinners with psychiatrists? Are they receptive to talking with you one on one, or at least giving you some helpful information on various medications? I try to contact my client's psychiatrists and/or general physicians at times, but I find it frustrating to reach them 99% of the time. I play alot of telephone tag and usually don't get past that stage. The one time I DID reach a client's doc though, he was very nice and helpful, which was refreshing. I agree though….as a therapist working with people who tend to be on meds, I too wonder if what most helps them is meds or my counseling them when I see positive changes. Hmmm. :)
Chryalis: To your first question: absolutely!! I like to encourage others on what makes them unique and focus on their strengths instead of always looking at what's “missing” to become “normal.” Plus, what IS normal? And is 'normal' always a good thing? Lol. Maybe having some creative abnormality would be a better 'normal' for a change! Plus, I like to encourage people to think for themselves instead of depending so much on external factors. If you take away all those external factors without the individual feeling an adequate sense of self (or soul), how can they confidently live life, ya know? This is why I think it's important….as you said too. :) As for the pharmaceutical companies, yeah, it does tend to be about profit rather than compassion. But that's a whole other can of worms for a blog. Haha! Thanks for sharing your thoughts!!