In the first article No Mad Dog Looks: Group Work and Mediating Differences by

Cynthia Duncan, I liked how the social worker found a non-traditional way to help these young
girls deal with their issues with each other. I dont feel like there would be many other school
staff that would have took on this situation like she did. Many schools would have just
suspended the girls because they were threatening each other and causing a disturbance but this
social worker did not do that. By working in a group setting, she was able to help these girls
develop a relationship with one another. I also like how the social worker took on the role as a
mediator and not a therapist, I think this allowed the girls to learn to cope with their own
difficulties in life. I feel that more schools should allow students to do this instead of just telling
them to get over whatever their problems are. I know that I personally had difficulties in high
school with another group of girls that were constantly trying to fight me or talk about me behind
my back. When I finally went to the councilors about it, I was told the councilor would talk with
them and figure out the issue. I eventually was called to the principals office and was told that
he talked with the other girls about the problem and they were told if they do not leave me alone,
then they would be suspended. This helped with the problem but was not a solution. I feel that if
we had met in a group setting like this we would have been about to work out our differences.

In the second article, In the Best Interest of the Child by Lockhart and Issac, I found this
to be a difficult topic. While interning in foster care I have found that many families use physical
punishment on their children with the belief that it was done to them so it must be ok to use on
their children, especially the older generations. I think this would be hard to put my own values
aside to understand where the family is coming from with their religious beliefs and behaviors
towards their children, but in the state eyes it is abuse. In the end, the child was returned home

since the family had been following all of the court ordered treatment plan. As for the worker, I
feel that she did the best she could with the situation she was facing. I am sure having the child
placed back into the home was a difficult thing for her to see since the child clearly was not
happy with the beliefs of the family. This would have been a difficult case for myself because I
would not want this child to be forced into the religious beliefs of this family since she was
clearly saying that she did not want to participate or be part of the familys religion. In the end,
the court makes the final ruling and as a social worker, we have to be accepting of this even if we
do not feel that it was an appropriate ruling.