I was driving home after attending our city’s Homeless Coalition meeting, thinking about a young family I had helped get housing. I remembered years back, while in graduate school for social work, we were given an assignment where we had to write about how our family of origin shaped our values, beliefs and opinions; and how this affected our work.

Being from a large Italian, Catholic family and being what my kids call “old school,” I have really come to appreciate all that that means. I began reflecting on what being “old school” means, and how I probably thought my parents were “old school” as well.