The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-04-22
ron SOCIAL WORK.


Recent progress in training for
new profession, that of social work, is
described by Miss Edith Abbott of Hull
House, Chicago, in publication just
issued by the bureau of education OF
the department of the interior. Ac-
cording to Miss Abbott there are now
five professional training schools for
social workers, the first professional
school of philanthropy having been
established at New York in 1905. The
example of New York in founding the
first school for social workers was
quickly followed by Chicago and Bos-
ton. In Chicago the settlements took
the lead in this work, as the Charity
Organization society had done in New
York city. In 1903, DIR. Graham Tay-
Tor, of Chicago Commons. and Miss
Julia C. Lathrop, of Hull House, in
cooperation with the extension de-
partment of the University of Chicago,
organized lecture courses in practical
work, which became in the following
year the Chicago Institute of Social
Science, and in 1907 the Chicago
School of Civis and Philanthropy.
In 1904, the Boston School for Social
auspices of Harvard university and
Simmons college. In St. Louis a School
of Social Economy, which originated
as a series of round table meetings for
local social workers. was organized in
1905; it was affiliated at one time with
the University of Missouri and later
with Washington university. Similar
-ly, in Philadelphia, courses of lectures
on the practical aspects of social work
became in 1910 a fully organized
training school, which is now called
the Pennsylvania School for Social
Service. Two events have had much
to do with the successful growth of
these schools, according to Miss Alb
bott. The first is the series of grants
of money made by the Russell Sage
Foundation, which was organized and
endowed for 'the Improvement of So
cial and living conditions in the United
States" In the autumn of 1907 the
trustees of the Sage Foundation made
what might be called substantial
grants in aid" to the four profession
al schools of philanthropy then organ
ized-those in New York, Chicago,
Boston, and st. Louis Another fact
VI lPOTldICe the recent growth OF
the schools was the generous endow-
ment of the New York School of Phi
lanthropy during the year 1909-1O by
the will of the late John S. Kennedy,
of New York, by which the school was
assured of an income from a sum
which will ultimately amount to more
than million dollars The report
lays emphasis upon the DEVELOPMENT
or field work. in connection with the
professional training of social workers.
Miss Abbott declares; 1.-The most
Characteristic feature of the school
curriculum, the feature that has most
sharply differentiated the work of the
school of philanthropy from that of
the department of sociology in the
university, has been the organization
OF field work, and upon this a grow
ing emphasis has been laid. Field
work in this sense has come to mean
a system of social apprenticeship.
From the first, the professional
schools have realized that social work
could not be undertaken without
actual practice work in the office of
good social agency; that students
could learn how to do only by doing
under expert supervision"