By
Hank Huber
If we aren't supposed
to eat animals, why are they made of meat?
Did that get you to smile? Good. It’s
little jokes like this that can snap the boredom of a lecture
and help you to pay attention. Laughter, the so-called best
medicine, is being used by a local organization to teach
more effectively.
The Center
for Development of Human Services, located in several
offices in the first floor of Bacon Hall, provides advanced
training for New York State social workers employed in a
wide range of fields, including the very serious areas of
foster family care and AIDS prevention education.
Although their work is nothing to joke about,
some of the training they receive is a refreshing blend
of attention-grabbing humor and magic.
R. Bruce Baum, a certified
Laughter
Leader and exceptional education professor at Buffalo
State College, says that breaking up the tedium with a joke
or unexpected magic trick can invigorate the monotony of
a long instructional period.
That’s what the CDHS tries to do in
its training sessions.
Dr. Baum said they like to “use humor
and magic to try to keep it interesting for the participants.”
He added it’s also good to throw in “some relevant
joke” when the situation calls for it. For instance
the one-liner at the beginning of this article could be
interjected during a discussion about people’s dietary
needs. More examples can be found at Dr. Baum’s Web
site, HumorCreativity.com,
or at the Web site of the Association
for Applied and Therapeutic Humor, where he is a member
of the board of directors.
The CDHS has been on campus for nearly 20
years, and has been operating for more than 25 years out
of their main office at 1695 Elmwood.
The organization started in 1976 with a federal
grant budget of $500,000. Today the federal Department of
Health and Human Services, combined with the New York State
Department of Health, and Erie County consistently provides
annual grants of $30 million, said CDHH-College Relations
Director Angelo Conorozzo. This funding
allows the center to offer the best possible training to
people in social services careers.
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