A consistent theme within social work has been the exploration of the conflict between the personal and the political – especially how social workers resolve conflicts between their own personal values and their political views. This account explores the clash that occurred when a researcher’s findings about school vouchers conflicted with the personal experiences of those around her

Lens, Vicki A.

Columbia University Academic Commons

361Journal of Social Work 1(3): 361–363Critical Forum1468-0173[200112]1:3;361–363;0020820For many of us social work is not simply ajob, but also an identity that infuses ourview of the world around us. We take toheart the troubling issues of the day. For usdiscussions about poverty, the lack of healthcare and the impact of AIDS are real topicsabout real people that affect our dailyworking lives. Our careers are often a wayto live out our ideals and values, a way tounite the personal and political.Sometimes, though, the personal andpolitical can collide in uncomfortable ways.We decry racism and racial profiling, butquickly cross the street upon encountering agroup of young African-American boys; weprofess a commitment to the poor, and thenlive out our lives in cloistered communitiesfar from them.Of course, we cannot all be like JaneAddams, settling among our clients (as shedid when she opened the settlement housein Chicago in 1889) and devoting most ofour waking time to helping others. The factthat we have chosen a profession that has asits goal a better world does not mean thatwe are better people. Like everyone else, weinhabit that imperfectible zone of humanbehavior where even the best among usmust daily struggle with our own racism andsexism. But we do need to strive for someconsistency between the political values weprofess and the personal lives we lead,particularly those of us who have claimedthe social policy arena as our domain andwho spend our time suggesting how to fixother people’s lives.This dilemma was recently brought hometo me while conducting research on schoolvouchers, which involves giving familiespublic funds to pay for private schools fortheir children. Couched in the language ofcrisis and hope, school vouchers have beentouted as an immediate escape route for apopulation that has historically as well aspresently been of paramount concern tosocial workers, the poor and minorities.Vouchers promise to deliver them fromdysfunctional, decaying and dangerousinner-city schools resistant to reform.My research on whether school vouchersWhen the Personal and thePolitical CollideV I C K I  L E N SYeshiva University, New York, USAAbstractA consistent theme within social work has been the exploration of theconflict between the personal and the political – especially how socialworkers resolve conflicts between their own personal values and theirpolitical views. This account explores the clash that occurred when aresearcher’s findings about school vouchers conflicted with the personalexperiences of those around her.Copyright © 2001 Sage Publications:London,Thousand Oaks, CAand New Delhi08 Critical Forum (dm/d)  11/6/01  2:51 PM  Page 361will deliver what they promise had led me toconclude that they will not. I can citechapter and verse on why vouchers are abad idea and why they will not work. I cantell you how in the end vouchers will hurtmore of the poor than the few they mayhelp. I can even call upon the exalted idealsof democracy and the common good tosupport my argument, as vouchers will likelydestroy the one place – our schools – wherea diverse people come together and learnthe rules and norms of democracy.But while my research on vouchers ledone way, a real-life conversation led theother way. While I was writing my article anolder African-American man was paintingthe hallway outside my office. One day Istruck up a conversation with him.Searching for common ground, I enquiredabout his children. He proudly told meabout his oldest daughter, a neurosurgeonwho had graduated from Yale and Harvardmedical school. He then told me how thischild, born and bred in a poor community inthe Bronx where he still lived, accomplishedthis pinnacle of American success by goingto private schools. He had worked two jobs,both involving menial hard labor, to affordher tuition. Even now, no longer a youngman, he was putting in the same long hoursso that his two other daughters could followin her footsteps.I responded with enthusiasm to his story,congratulating him on such a well-accomplished daughter. I was also veryrelieved that he had no way of knowing thatback in my office I was writing an articlearguing against his receiving some help. Thefact that I would never voluntarily tell himmy position on this issue gave me seriouspause.The easy answer to my discomfort wasthat one man’s story does not a policyargument make. Personal anecdotes are nota substitute for good hard research, and thatresearch showed that, overall, voucherswould harm more people than they wouldhelp. But this did not assuage myuneasiness. The problem was not myresearch, but something more personal.Who was I to oppose a plan that wouldalleviate this man’s financial burden when I,comfortably ensconced in the middle class,would not have to work a single extra day todo the same thing if I so chose? Who was Ito tell a family from the inner city that itshould wait for long-promised, but neverfulfilled, school reforms, while I, out in thesuburbs, send my child to a well-equippedpublic school?This dilemma is not new. Variations of itare continually played out in the publicarena. As I was writing my article, a debateoccurred in the pages of the New YorkTimes about whether the interim schoolschancellor for the New York City publicschools should take his children out of theelite private schools they attend and sendthem to public schools. In response, onecommentator asked if we should alsorequire that administrators of publichospitals receive their medical care fromsuch hospitals, and while we are at it,mandate that the head of the HousingAuthority be required to live in the housingprojects. Another commentator pointed outhow quickly things would change if those inmore powerful and influential publicpositions were required to use the sameservices and facilities that are used by thepoor.I followed this debate closely, seeking in itanswers to my dilemma. I tried to drawlines: yes, the chancellor’s kids should go topublic school, but the housing chief does nothave to live with his family in a housingproject. Clearly I thought some sacrifice, butnot too much, was required to reconcileone’s public position and personal life.Then I adopted a different tack. Is it notenough that certain people are committed topublic service and improving the publicgood rather than pursuing lucrative privatecareers? We should expect the same, or evenless, from them in their personal lives thanwe expect of others. I realized that I had inJournal of Social Work 1(3)36208 Critical Forum (dm/d)  11/6/01  2:51 PM  Page 362the past applied this principle to myself; foryears when I was an underpaid legal aidattorney representing the poor, I never gaveto charity, reasoning that I gave at the office,having chosen poverty law over corporatelaw.In the end I came up with no easyanswers, because there aren’t any. We eachseek our own level of comfort whendeciding how to reconcile our personal andprofessional lives, deciding whether we willbe more like Jane Addams or the schoolchancellor who, by the way, decided to keephis children in private school. I sent off myarticle, and then resolved to donate moremoney to charitable causes, although I amstill trying to decide where to send my check– perhaps to a family in the Bronx strugglingto send the children to private school?Critical Forum363V I C K I L E N S is Assistant Professor of Social Work at the Wurzweiler School ofSocial Work, Yeshiva University, New York, USA. Address: 2495 Amsterdam Ave,New York, NY10033-3299, USA. [email: vckilens@aol.com]08 Critical Forum (dm/d)  11/6/01  2:51 PM  Page 363

When the Personal and the Political Collide

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