Teaching as a Human Service

Here is some advice that I texted to my friend, an educator. She said that it was okay for me to share.

Me: Hi [friend], I talked to a guy named John after my session. He is a Human Services professional who now works as a faculty member in a College of Education in Washington state. He teaches courses in the teacher preparation program. One thing I remember him saying was that at one point his group was called Teaching as a Human Service.

Me: You might want to consider how you can incorporate Health and Human Services into your school curriculum as a part of what defines student success. Are you partnering with any such organizations that are designed to meet these types of needs for the students? These are just some thoughts. Happy Sunday,

Friend: Yes, specifically for next year we're partnering with ___ services.

Friend: We also have a [state] partner in health specifically too.

Friend: Not that they do much

Me: Hhhmmm...By incorporating it into the curriculum, there should be specific objectives and learning outcomes. For example, "Students will ___in order to write a resume/complete their taxes/fill out a ___[job] [housing] application."

Me: The questions to ask the students and teachers are, "What are the problems/challenges that prevent student learning?"

Me: To the partners: What can the services do to address the problems/challenges?

Me: To the curriculum: What measurable objectives can determine whether or not these problems/challenges are addressed?

Me: One of my professors set up a task for her public school students in a rough part of town. Long story short...she gave the students grade profiles of "fake students" and had them to fill in the blank for the following: "So in so would do better if___."

Me: The response a student gave was "if someone would tell him what happened to his parents."

Friend: Ahhh, yes. That's the on-site partnership for next year since that was a major gap.

Me: Now how you go about addressing a problem like that, I have no idea because that is not my specialty. But if you get students to answer questions/fill in the blank around the services your partners provide, then you can get a better idea of how to target the objectives for the partnership that can play out in different disciplines.

Friend: This is true!

Me: Math, English, Social Studies, Health, etc.

Me: Math = financial literacy associated with life skills and not abstract ideas

Me: Reading and Writing = paperwork/websites of services tied to obtaining the service they need to meet their challenges/problems head-on

Me: [And] assignments where students benefit directly from their completion

Me: The key is to ask the students and teachers for the problems/challenges and even the solutions...not just for buy-in purposes, but because they actually know.

Me: From there the partners can partner to work with students and teachers instead of work on students.