Willard And Spackman's Occupational Therapy

It took an immense amount of schooling for Willard and Spackman to acquire enough knowledge to write the book that OT is often referred to. Though both women ended up in the same place, they did not start in the beginning the same. Willard began her studies and graduated from an Ivy League school earning a bachelor’s degree with physical therapy (Willard, 1975). Years down the road, Willard qualified as an occupational therapist through the U.S Civil service in 1922, joined the AOTA, and then became the director of occupational therapy and chief aide on physical therapy at the U.S Veteran Hospital in Maywood, Illinois (Willard, 1975). In her road of success, Willard was placed in a position of Curative Workshop. From this position, she met
up with her future partner, Clare Spackman. Spackman received a diploma in occupational therapy from the Philadelphia School of Occupational Therapy in 1930. From there she went straight to her first job which was a position in the Philadelphia hospital. Years later, Spackman was promoted to a high position in Curative Workshop. Their students know best on how hard they pushed them and would not accept anything but their best performance while going to school for occupational therapy. They both became teachers at the Philadelphia School of Occupational Therapy, this being one of the very first occupational schools in the country. Although Spackman accepted a teaching position, she still remind a part of the Curative Workshop. Like Spackman, Willard held two teaching positions during her career. She taught at the Philadelphia School of Occupational Therapy as well as the University of Pennsylvania. From such great teaching, produced such great results. A 1937 Philadelphia School graduate, Marie Louise Franciscus, became director of the Columbia University Occupational Therapy Program of 1951, making numerous contributions throughout her career.
Due to the fact that Willard and Spackman devoted so much of their time, 50 years to be exact until retirement, lead to the specific type of lifestyle that they lived too.
Neither married nor had any children, and liked to live in a cottage type home together to escape the workplace if needed for a short time. Being raised in the time of World War I, Willard and Speckman were raised to believe in grace, elegance, and life balance. Therefore, their little private time that they were granted was cherished dearly, along with an equal balance of love for their jobs. (add little more) Willard and Spackman are responsible for a greater percentage of the original research done upon occupational therapy. These women believed in different methods to pursue the best learning, development, and expression of knowledge about occupational therapy. For example, “Occupational therapy needs to know and own its historical professional legacy (cite?). Along with “Occupational therapy educators need to prepare a workforce to meet health care needs in changing societies and to collaborate across disciplines and borders to address the complex needs of all
people.”

Personal Reflection:

My overall reflection of this article is not all bad.
There is some acknowledgement of a great written article, but it failed to meet my expectations of what it lead on to be. The article to me had a professional tone to it and sometimes a challenge to follow along and comprehend what the writer’s point was to get across. Even though I did not read what I had planned to, the information in the article may help me in my future career further down the road. I know some information about occupational therapy, more like a summary of what one in this therapy day to day tasks are. I was hoping to read more about the tasks in this article to develop a better understanding and learn more, but it turns out to be more about the founders of occupational therapy more rather than one does in this field. Although I did learn a little more on the history of the job, which making the article not a complete let down for me. I feel as if the information in the article make come up in my schooling for my future career one
day.
The information that I read about did not give me as many details of occupational therapy as I hope it would, but it gave me more of an interest of “behind the scenes” to what makes the therapy what it is today. I do not feel like it will have a huge role in my later learning, but it will not hurt me in anyway either. Overall I am mostly satisfied with the article. But my most ideal article would have been learning even more detail of what I plan to spend my future doing.