Greetings from the School of Social Work! I'm starting my second year of graduate work at BU, and beginning my coursework this semester for my MSW. (For those of you who don't know, I'm pursuing my MDiv and MSW through BU.)
Though I am pursuing my Social Work degree at the masters level and in conjunction with my MDiv, I have to admit that I really don't know much about social work - its history, practices, key leaders, etc. Needless to say, I have appreciated the readings that have been assigned since they outline the relatively short history of professional social work.
Apparently, the profession of social work has oscillated between social change and social control (conservatism). The settlement houses of the late 1800s liberated educated white women to apply their professional expertise when the societal expectation was that they still stay home and have babies (albeit smart babies). Yes - there were middle-class white women who did amazing things in their time in the name of social work. But. The profession of social work also has a history of really missing the point by neglecting racial and ethnic minorities in the inclusion, distribution and organization of aid.
I'm inheriting another history, and still trying to make sense of it. As a young, middle-class white woman, I'm "normative" in the social work field, but I'm not "normative" in ministry. (At this moment in history, the latter point could be argued, but deal with it - women haven't always had the power in the 2,000 years of Christian ministry).
What does that mean, for me to be normative in one half of my profession and not normative in the other? How does my identity affect what I can bring to the table?
I'm pursuing a relatively new degree combination. Traditionally, MTS students were the ones who pursued Clinical Social Work degrees. Now, more MDiv candidates are pursuing Clinical MSWs. MDiv kids pursuing Macro MSWs are a new phenomenon (so I've been told.) At orientation, the Dean of the School of Social Work even asked me how those two degrees could possibly go together - how does that make sense?
Well, the sense I'm making is a work in progress, but I believe in the prophets, the beatitudes, transformation and renewal, and social reform. I think the MDiv and MSW go together beautifully.
And now, the point I'm really trying to get to:
One of my readings today came from a textbook chapter titled "Understanding the Challenge to Change." The chapter opens with various depressing social statistics, and then asks the question, "Is this a situation that you are willing to accept?" (The implied rhetorical answer being a resounding NO!!!!!!) The author consoles the dear reader with the following sentence:
"Relax. Unless your presence here on earth is some fantastic historical event, you are not going to save the world (though some of you may well have a pretty significant impact on it)."
Really?
Call me young, call me idealistic, call me romantic, call me crazy - whatever - but that statement itself seems to be a fundamental problem. No, I do not expect that every problem on earth will be solved by my existence, but I DO consider a person's existence to be a fantastic historical event!! No person on this earth exists without changing the world. Maybe it's as simple a change as the ratio of oxygen to carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but that is a change nonetheless. In the words of David LaMotte, the question should never, ever be "Will I change the world? Can I change the world?" but rather, "How will I choose to change the world?"
I'm still choosing and learning my own "how" of changing the world, but I am confident that my life and others' lives are definitely a fantastic historical event.
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