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The Employees of Social Service
The pioneers of social service quickly became aware that the success of their work depends on the preparation of the employees to whom the task of performing these services is entrusted.
Thus a new profession arose — or perhaps it is more correct for me to say a new aptitude: the aptitude for performing social services.
The countries spread across this part of the world, and especially the Arab countries among them, are distinguished by a traditional solidarity among individuals — meaning that the family — and this word "family" is taken here in its broad sense, the one denoted by the Arabic word "al" — is what has always shouldered all the undeniable responsibilities toward every one of its members. These responsibilities were soon shared by the charitable associations attached to the religious communities. And although this form of aid and assistance still exists, it has lately become clear that it is no longer sufficient the moment it must face modern institutions such as juvenile courts. For employees driven by mere mercy and love of good works — and nothing, in fact, is more dangerous than mercy for mercy's sake — have no qualification for understanding cases of criminality with their many complex aspects. Yet it is only now, after long delay in that field, that we have begun to feel the need for preparing social employees, as the United States, Belgium, France, and all the other countries did before us — countries that felt this need fifty years or more before we felt it.
A — The Preparation of Social Specialists — The Qualities They Must Possess
Women social specialists, like men social specialists, are now prepared in special schools devoted to that purpose, in which the course of study usually lasts two years. The purpose of this study is to prepare whoever takes up social service to understand the basic principles of which human character is composed. The method is to explain the deviations, the emotions, and the deficiencies that afflict human nature, by way of the science of
education, psychology, preventive medicine, mental hygiene, and the like, together with an explanation of the basic principles on which the structure of economic and social life rests, such as the sciences of human geography, working conditions, the household budget, housing, the organization of leisure time, etc.
This theoretical instruction is completed by practical training — that is, a kind of actual exercise which helps either to confirm the information previously acquired by means of tangible reality, or to correct that information, to modify it, or to refute it; for similarity is inconceivable except in aggregates of things, whereas the human individual is unique of his kind.
The social specialists formed in this way are the qualified working staff.
It is obvious that these specialists must be chosen according to certain special conditions. The candidate for this task must possess a complete aptitude, for the essential quality to be developed in him is the capacity to understand the case that comes before him, and he will attain that only if he is endowed with the gift of sympathy. The social specialist cannot continue in his task and succeed in it unless he is granted a great deal of "patient forbearance," because his work in many cases gives him the appearance of an intruder concerning himself with what is none of his business and with what does not involve him. He must therefore begin by winning the confidence of others, and he will not attain that so long as the person to whom the services are rendered, or who is to be helped and relieved, sees in the social specialist's work and his presence near him nothing but the effects of compassion and mercy. It is the social specialist's duty to convince those to whom he renders his services that he is truly capable of serving them. He must be their personal champion, who can always settle their problems if they turn to him for that.
This is why these social specialists, however much ability and skill they may have in their work, find themselves liable to have their services refused or their advice not followed in the circles in which they work. And that is because these circles are not their own circles. Therefore we always try to join to these qualified specialists assistants chosen