01:00 AM EST on Tuesday, February 8, 2005

I am proud to be a social worker. One of the reasons I chose social work is that the code of ethics of the National Association of Social Workers encourages social workers to advocate on behalf of underserved populations and to work to alleviate social injustice.

If this is "a liberal bias," so be it. I have no interest in debating whether such a "bias" is "appropriate" for my profession; frankly, I think it's a silly waste of time. Social work has the same right to define the parameters of professional conduct of practitioners as any other profession.

If Bill Felkner ("Get the bias out of RIC's poverty classes," Commentary, Jan. 31) finds the curriculum at Rhode Island College's School of Social Work (a program accredited by the Council on Social Work Education) to be too liberal, unbalanced, or otherwise unacceptable to him, why is he working to obtain a degree for which he will clearly have no respect?

CAREN PRIDEAUX

East Providence