Writing Teaching Book

I'm toying with the idea of writing something about teaching social workers research methods. There's a lot of textbooks that discuss research methods but not a lot that discusses the process of teaching them. Social workers in particular are expected to pickup research methods and understand them but very few are eager about it. Most social work students are there to pick up practice methods and research is just a bitter pill they have to swallow.

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How True

Junk Mail

Terry O'Reilly's Age of Persuasion segment on 23 things I'd like to change about advertising is great stuff. An interesting note: his website includes a link to the red dot campaign which suggests that in addition to posting a notice on your mailbox indicating you don't want junk mail, you need to send a note to Canada Post that indicates your wish to not receive unaddressed junk mail (or ad-mail as Canada Post prefers to call it).

 

The note that the red dot campaign supplies for you reads:

Please remove me from all unaddressed mail distribution. This letter, combined with a “No Junk Mail” sign on my mailbox, expresses my wish to stop receiving unaddressed flyers and mail. I understand that it may take a couple of weeks before the database is adjusted and the junk mail stops.
I also understand that Canada Post will still deliver some unaddressed items, such as community newspapers and letters from the House of Commons, provincial and municipal electoral offices and Elections Canada. And I realize that some unaddressed mail comes from distributors other than Canada Post, so I may still receive mail from these other services.

This would be ideal. After listing to O'Reilly's episode, but before I knew about the red dot campaign, I wrote Canada Post a rather testy email:

I understand there is a way to opt-out of unaddressed admail but after searching on your site for 45 minutes I've given up trying to find the form I need to fill out.

I received this response:

Consumers who do not wish to receive unaddressed material should put a note to this effect on their mail receptacle. The note should be placed inside the receptacle in the case of a community mailbox, group mailbox or postal box. As a result of such a note being placed on or inside a mail receptacle at a particular address, Canada Post will no longer deliver the following mail items: free samples, coupons, flyers and newspapers, government mailings, free distribution magazines, catalogues, non-profit and event information. As well, Canada Post will no longer deliver municipal service notices (e.g. schedule of snow removal, changes in garbage pick-up, announcement of town hall meetings). However, since Canada Post is only one of many distributors of unaddressed materials, consumers may continue to receive these materials from other distributors. The only unaddressed materials that Canada Post will continue to deliver to these customers are as follows: community newspapers, as well as House of Commons, provincial chief electoral officers, municipal electoral offices and Elections Canada mailings.

NB, that the list I received from Canada Post is a lot more exhaustive and includes things I would actually like to get, like municipal service notices (it also doesn't say anything about having to send a note to Canada Post which actually makes things easier). Sigh . . . I can't decide if I want to opt-out or not because, as usual, they make you opt-out of so much more than you want.

The Agenda with Steve Paikin - Wanted: The Perfect Parent

Oh how true. Aunthood or Unclehood is parenting-lite. But I suppose the question to me seems why NOT support for the mother? Support for a decision that ensures your child's safety doesn't seem so outrageous to me.

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How I See My Wife

 

It's the classic soft focus, sepiatone nostalgia shot that's perfect for Valentine's Day.

Alarming Bus Trips

I'm on the bus with Asha taking her to a birthday party when I hear a squeal from the back of the bus. It peaks my attention but I don't think anything of it. A few minutes later it happens again and I can see that close the the back of the bus a man and a woman are sitting beside one another and the woman looks upset. As the bus moves along it's becoming more and more clear that the man is somehow hurting the woman (I can't quite tell how). I'm becoming concerned about letting this go so I tell the driver that I think there seems to be something up with the couple at the back. The driver says OK thanks but keeps going. Finally, she yelps again and I tell Asha to stay where she is and I go to the back of the bus. Something has heated up between the guy hurting the woman (I'll call him jerk from now on), and another guy sitting opposite them (I'll call him Ted-although I don't know him or his name). Ted saying things to jerk that he'd like to take jerk outside and beat the crap out of him. Jerk's responding things like "fine--anytime". It seems clear to me that Ted is on a similar page to me and sees jerk abusing his girlfriend or partner. I ask Ted if he needs any help but he doesn't quite understand me. I turn to jerk's partner and ask her if she's alright. She says "I'm OK". I turn to Ted who says "she's not OK". I think Ted's right. Ted and jerk continue by trading insults and challenges whereupon it seems like it's Ted's stop and, all the while Ted gets off the bus. The driver has come over by this point and suggests to the woman that she sit closer to the front. She moves to a two-seater in roughly the middle of the bus and I go back to be with Asha. A few seconds later jerk moves beside her. I go over and politely ask jerk to move. He says he says he just wants to talk to her. I repeat the request and he insists he just wants to talk to her. It's clear he isn't going to move. I shrug my shoulders and go back to my daughter. By this time it's out stop so I make sure the driver knows that the jerk is beside her again and get off.

I feel really badly about this. I wish I had done more. Maybe I should have been more forceful with the jerk. Maybe I should have insisted the driver call the police. It made me question some things. I guess there will be people in the world who will continue to do bad things no matter how nicely you ask them not to. That sounds ridiculously naive but it really was a shock to me. Particularly as a social worker and someone who really believes there are peaceful alternatives to every conflict. Am I wrong?