Now in order to earn a social work degree from Dalton State College in GA, the student must spend 10 days living with a hispanic family! This is really outrageous!

PS: We have a HUGE number of illegal aliens. Dalton is the only city listed in GA as having a LaRaza office.

From the Chattanooga Times Free Press

Social work program accredited
Tuesday, July 31, 2007

By Erin Fuchs
Dalton Bureau

DALTON, Ga. -- For the past five years, David Boyle has been working to earn accreditation for Dalton State College's fledgling division of social work.

"I was hired to do this program," Dr. Boyle joked, "so it's all my fault."

On Aug. 15, social work students at Dalton State will start classes -- for the first time -- in an accredited bachelor's program. Full accreditation was granted last month.

"It was really reassuring," said senior social work student Adam Barnette. "I'll be the first class that my diploma is under a fully accredited program. That's really cool."

Dalton State's social work program was conceived to serve the shifting demographic in Northwest Georgia, and requirements include Spanish and studies about Hispanic culture. Degree candidates also must live with a Hispanic family for 10 days during the summer.

"It's practically a necessity, but we're the only ones that are actually doing it," Dr. Boyle said, referring to teaching social work students Spanish.

Social work scholar Dr. Freddie Avant, president-elect of the National Association of Baccalaureate Social Work Program Directors, said Dalton State College's program is unusual.

"It is a very, very unique program," said Dr. Avant, who is familiar with social work programs throughout the country. "There's not many programs that exist in the nation that focus specifically on bilingual education."

Dalton State's bilingual program grew from a 1999 report from the University System of Georgia's Hispanic Task Force that said foreign language classes should be required for social work majors.

"They identified the need for bilingual social workers as a critical, unmet need," Dr. Boyle said.

Evaluators with the accreditation-granting Council on Social Work Education wrote in a 2005 report that Dalton State served the "unique needs of the region" including a "rapidly emerging Latino population."

"The program has developed its mission," the report said.

The mission of serving Hispanics doesn't appeal to all students, Dr. Boyle said. "It screens out some students," he said.

In fact, Michael Fowler, a social work major who graduated this year, said he initially balked at learning Spanish.

When evaluators visited the school during the accreditation process, Mr. Fowler said, they asked the students what they didn't like about the school.

"The biggest complaint was that most of us are adults and are now being told that we must learn Spanish," Mr. Fowler said. "It was just a constant struggle."

But he said Dr. Boyle is like a parent who forces an unpleasant task upon his children because he knows it will benefit them when they grow up.

"Several of my former classmates received jobs before others, because number one, they had a (bachelor's in social work) from Dalton State; and two, they ... had at least a functional understanding of Spanish," Mr. Fowler said.

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