A comment in Tuesday?s story about the resignation of Madison schools Superintendent Dan Nerad caught me short. “You can?t behave as a social worker and run a massive complex organization,” said Don Severson, head of the conservative watchdog group Active Citizens for Education. First, Severson’s comment speaks to a long-standing disrespect for the profession and what Kristen Slack, director of the UW-Madison School of Social Work, called an occasional “misunderstanding.”
“I think (Severson’s) comment itself is a gross mischaracterizing of the skills social workers bring to a role,” she said.