My priest said something during Saturday night’s mass that really resonated with me outside of religiosity and spirituality. He said, “We get ready, but we aren’t really prepared”. He was speaking about Christmas, but these words took on a larger meaning for me. Like usual, my thoughts lingered toward my profession. I asked myself, “Do I just get ready, or am I actually a prepared social work educator, practitioner, and researcher?” The answer that immediately came to mind was “I feel like I am constantly getting ready, almost nonstop for what my profession throws at me”. I then wondered if my constancy translated into competency and preparedness. I set my thoughts aside last night to transcribe, not quite sure how to answer my own question.
I woke up to a text message with some alarming news from one of my clients. I knew that I had to set aside all that I had planned in my day to address this situation adequately. Before I reached out to my client, I not only got ready, but I prepared myself to ease my client’s distress. I was mindful of my preparedness this morning, but honestly I’m not always prepared for my various social work roles. I don’t know if it’s possible for any of us to every fully prepare for our profession. It’s just so unpredictable at times. We are also human beings that make mistakes too. I thought back to a time recently, where tiredness translated into me being ready, but not fully prepared for a family session. Or how tiredness again, had me ready, but not prepared for my final interview with a participant. I realized that constancy leading to tiredness, definitely negatively impacts my ability to be prepared. Then I started thinking what does this mean for me and my profession as a whole, and social work education specifically? My answer was mindfulness. I was prepared to deal with a difficult situation today because I took the time to mindfully plan how I would intervene. I felt prepared to collect data for my dissertation because I mindfully, in an almost painstakingly way, got myself ready to implement my research. I think sometimes social work, or any work really, becomes habitual and that is the space that requires our attentive preparedness. We need to get creative, be different, pay attention more closely to what is around us, express care, and cater to our profession instead of engaging habitually in any social work related activity. This is especially true in regard to social work education. I truly believe that we do our very best to prepare students for a challenging profession by getting them ready. For example, I have spent the past few days getting ready to make a social justice quilt with my class. I had to make a list of what I needed, buy the materials, find images to print, practice transferring an image to fabric, figure out how to mirror an image using Word, share that knowledge with my students, and then cut 23+ quilt squares. Tonight, after I finished transcribing, I searched for the perfect Theatre of the Oppressed videos. I carefully got ready so that I could prepare students to become creative advocators. I’m not just ready or prepared, but I am also excited to see what they come up with. I know that as long as I am a social work educator, I will take the extra time to mindfully get ready so that I’m prepared to prepare my students for a profession that likes to keep you on your toes. I know that I am not alone, and that many social work educators carefully ready themselves to prepare students. Social work educators reflect deeply on their own education, practice experiences, our profession and its values. Social work educators throughout the world carefully ready themselves through mindful preparation to prepare students for a beautiful, but difficult profession. However, and I think most of us can relate, no matter how much we try to prepare students, sometimes all we can do is get them ready for social work. Students must take the steps to prepare for social work. However, because social work is unpredictable and we really go into the trenches with people, there is no way to prepare for everything. We still keep trying. The point here is that we all do our best, even when we are tired. And although I, or you, or future students might not be prepared for every situation, at least we are ready. We are ready because of Schools of Social Work across the world. We are ready because of our Codes of Ethics. We are ready because of past social workers. We are ready because of our educators. We are ready because of our students, they are educators too. I then realized, while writing this blog that it does not matter if I am a “ready” social worker or a “prepared” one. What matters is that I keep trying to actualize our profession’s mission- to enhance societal well-being for all of its members. In closing and because tomorrow is Theatre of the Oppressed day in class, I just wanted to remind all who are reading of a very important truth. “We are all actors and we are all spectators to our actions and the actions of others” ~Boal. It is choosing to act and reflecting on those actions that make us who we are.
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Today was an incredibly difficult day to be a social work educator because of Donald Trump’s win. I looked at the faces of my students, all in despair. They expressed fear, confusion, anger, and shock over Trump’s win. Forlorn faces gazed at me as we all attempted to process our feelings of dread. My students seemed more disappointed in a country that could elect such a president than the actual election. Dreary and dreadful worry over the future of our country, encompassed the room. What will happen to us with an incompetent president backed by a Republican congress? What will happen to the environment and the earth? What will happen to people that are LGBT? Will women’s reproductive rights become non-existent once he appoints a new Supreme Court Judge? Will the mission and values of our profession be ignored? Will minority members and females be attacked? Will our country start enacting censorship? Will our computers be hacked? How will other countries view us as a nation now that we are overtly backed by Russia? What will happen to immigrants? These were some of the questions/fears that were brought up in class today. Fear and dread evaded my classroom. To some degree, we were all traumatized by the election of a man so antagonistic to the mission of our profession.
I tried to help navigate my students through these fears and emotions. Who really knows what is to come? None of us- not I, my students, or anyone reading this blog can guarantee that our rights will be protected. No one can ensure the security of less fortunate countries, now that two military powerhouse nations have aligned. No one case ensure the safe-keeping of immigrants seeking asylum. However, like the social workers we all are, we redirected our conversations to solutions and hope. My student, Sunshine, once again shared her rays and urged all of us to keep trying , working, and getting educated so that we can all challenge an unjust system. Although still sad, we were uplifted by her unrelenting hope and motivation toward change. We, as a class, then spoke about the need for “A Call to Arms” by social workers across the nation and increased advocacy efforts. Micro and mezzo social work simply isn't enough. “A Call to Arms” by all social workers to start emphasizing social justice and garnering a national presence in political matters. Some of the solutions we came up with were: 1) Getting more social workers elected to office (particularly to Congress), 2) making our collective social work voice be heard through advocacy, 3) sharing our beliefs with people outside of the classroom, 3) processing the election with others on campus, 4) making a lot of noise as social workers, 5) remembering the past and our ability as a people to rise above discrimination and injustice, 6) having hope despite all odds, and 7) continuing our educations. Although, we were and are collectively still in shock, we supported each other in our efforts to make the world a better place. We were ignited by a love for our profession and a desire to ensure equality for all people. I admittedly am someone who loves children and can say with all honesty that some of my happiest memories are times when youth were present as a family members or clients. Youth in general love me, and I love them too. Thankfully today I kept encountering younger children. Children were everywhere I went and they literally waved at me, almost as if to remind me that hope is not lost. I ended my day providing counseling to a child attending elementary school. She echoed the sentiments of my students and the children I saw earlier today. This wonderful young child said to me, “Ms. Jessica I was like really are you serious, you can’t be serious. That mean man is our president”. She talked about wanting a nice person to be president. These young children reminded me today that our future is not determined by Donald Trump. Our future is in the hands of our children and I believe in them. I believe that our children will remedy any damage that is done by Donald Trump. Donald Trump was elected, but other “mean” men have been elected and yet we overcame it all. We ended slavery. We secured female voting rights. We regrouped after Jim Crow Laws. We regrouped after the Vietnam War. We got the Civil Rights and Roe v. Wade legislation passed. We regrouped after Presidents Reagan and Clinton attacked welfare and imposed stringent prison laws. We made sure that same-sex marriage became legal. We regroup, come together, and overcome. In essence, we are a nation of resilient people characterized by diversity. We are a population of people capable of creating positive social changes. Although diversity is not represented in our political system, it is omnipresent in American social life. We are not a nation defined by our president or political system. Right now, this very second, we need a social work “Call to Arms”. We must make our political presence an absolute agenda of the social work profession by furthering our advocacy efforts. Now is also a time to support our students and youth. We must have faith that they will fix whatever goes wrong. |
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