Today's discussion sparked a lot of emotions in the class as a whole -- some who spoke openly about it; others of us who may (will) blog about it later. Any way, this discussion stems off of the activity/discussion in our Human Behavior class today. We took sides based on who felt that social workers should approach inequalities at the local level (one community at a time), or at a global level (taking the world by storm). I was caught in between, because there are some issues that a social worker may feel which are better approached at the community level first. Whereas, other issues may be addressed at the global level if there are already workable programs in place (of course, there's always room for improvement, and for newer/better ideas to "fix" problems).
Anyway, I feel that whenever people want to affect change regarding obvious injustices in the world, then anger and frustration have just as much of a right to be included as do their passion and compassion for the people affected. Sometimes, it's our anger and frustration which cause us to be motivated enough to take action for positive change. Someone made a comment about how we may feel that the bigger problems should be addressed at the global level because they're TOO BIG and overwhelming for one person to tackle alone. While that's so true, I'm glad that we have this forum to start putting our heads together now, so that we'll be that much more ready for the clients and issues that we'll face once we're in the real world of social work. I appreciate the conversations, feedback, critical thinking, and brainstorming activities that we have now. And, I know that with as much anger-frustration-love-passion-compassion expressed in our classroom settings, and the research/resource provision that goes on with the blogs, etc. -- WE ARE ALL GOING TO BE GREAT SOCIAL WORKERS !!!
of course we are all going to be great social workers :)
ReplyDeleteShirley,
ReplyDeleteI agree there is a lot of frustration and anger that goes along with our personal choice of becoming a social worker. I wish social workers as whole would stop figting about who is doing more and come to realize both aspects are needed to make lasting changes.
Shirley,
ReplyDeleteI totally think the same and I appreciate the fact that we all want to change the world but in a different way. We are definitely not robots therefore we can't think the same but we are definitely going to do our best to work together to change the world! I like that:"anger-frustration-love-passion-compassion" and I am glad we feel all of these things!
Great Post!
I believe change can come from both community and a global level. I think if something needs to be changed anyone can make a difference no matter what level the change is being made. If we feel passionate about something we should do something about it, whether it be in your neihborhood or at a political level. If no one does anything to change something, than no change will happen. Thanks for the post.
ReplyDelete