Counterpoint-Muscling into the Marketplace: Social Work for the New Millennium A Response to Peter Kindle

In his “Answering the Critics: The Inherent Value of Social Work,” Peter Kindle summarizes the history of social work and outlines claims made by critics of the profession (Kindle, 2006). In addition, he leaves the reader with a glimmer of optimism. Indeed, Kindle suggests that despite low standards, ill-defined terrain and mission, and a questionable relationship to social control, social work will carry on because it offers a flicker of hope to impassioned and dedicated social reformers (2006, p.7). However, his conclusion that passion anchors the field and ensures its future also reduces the profession.