Happy Thursday everyone! Thursdays are like Fridays for me, since I don’t have class or work on Fridays. So once Thursday evening rolls around, I am a free woman! Well, if you don’t count the chores and homework and papers and projects and errands that are usually on my weekend to-do list…oy vey grad school.

My official graduate school degree – still not accepting that I’m a Cardinal now!

Speaking of graduate school, that brings me back to my November goal of educating the public about social work. Like I said last time, I will be the first to admit that I knew nothing about social work before about twelve months ago. I was right there with y’all, thinking that all social workers do is go into homes and snatch kids away from their parents! Hence I was not interested at all, since those are two things that I do NOT want to do – home visits and work for Child Protective Services. But social work is so much more than that.

According to Wikipedia (aka the most reliable source on the planet), social work is “a professional and academic discipline that seeks to improve the quality of life and wellbeing of an individual, group, or community by intervening through research, policy, community organizing, direct practice, and teaching on behalf of those afflicted with poverty or any real or perceived social injustices and violations of their human rights.” (source) Social workers are simply people seeking to improve the quality of life of the general public. While that sometimes equals home visits and removing children from dangerous situations, that also encompasses so much more.

Social workers work in hospitals, in schools, in community organizations, and in advocacy centers. They even work in politics – before the recent elections, there were seven social workers serving in Congress. Two senators, and five representatives.

And contrary to popular belief, not all social workers are liberal Democrats! There are multiple people in my classes who have spoken up as Conservatives. Yes, social workers tend to work with clients who rely upon liberal social policies. But some social workers believe that this kind of assistance can be brought about in a different, more fiscally conservative way.

In light of the vitriol hatred that has been popping up on my Facebook and Twitter newsfeeds left and right, I think it is important to remember that we are privileged as Americans to have the right to voice our opinion. And we are privileged to have the right to choose our President. And it is our civic duty not only to vote, but then to support the winning candidate as the President of our country. Party lines and radical politics are not going to advance our country, compromise and cooperation is!

And that is my soapbox for the day. Takeaway points? Social worker does not equal baby-snatcher. And social worker does not necessarily equal bleeding liberal. Not that there aren’t plenty of social workers who fulfill both of those roles! It’s just important to remember that those are only part of the overall social work picture.

Did you think that social workers were one-dimensional like I did? I hope I’ve taught you otherwise now!