Schools of social work focus on social justice; is that a problem?

In a column published in the Oct. 18 Ann Arbor News, columnist George Will vented his mistrust of social work academia. Schools of social work and the National Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics, he opined, enforce a particular agenda at the expense of a pluralistic student body.

Right-wing pundits like Will are aghast that a socially responsible president may enter in a year's time, and these pundits are at their mud-throwing finest as they attack anything remotely ideologically liberal. Through his interpretation of the NASW Code of Ethics and scant anecdotal evidence of a statistically insignificant fraction of the social work student consortium, Will builds a straw man out of hasty generalizations. His dialogue is littered with scary terms alluding to gay rights and the redistribution of wealth. This is "Reefer Madness'' 2.0.