Days 45 - 47 School Days are Rockin'

October 10

Today is my brother Ren's birthday. I wish I was there to give him a hug, and a swift kick in the pants.

But enough about that.

I'm loving school. Who knew how much fun graduate school could be? What a breath of fresh air from my hum-drum life.

I learned more from the reading about myself. It was interesting to learn about the mission, purposes and ethics of Social Work. In self-reflection, I recognize that I have a very strong set of values and some of them are likely to change over the course of the next two years. Hepworth et al define values as strongly held beliefs about how the world should be. I definitely have those. They seem to be so much a part of me that I wonder at my ability to be a good social worker when it comes to dealing with people who have different values than I do. I feel like my respect for individuals can help me overcome attitudes of prejudice I may have for others.
I wonder about developing a global perspective. How does a global perspective help a social worker who is dealing with micro-level problems in rural Montana? I’m sure I will figure this out as we progress into the class.

It seems to me that in our reading and class discussions we have this wonderful sense of idealism about how the world should be, then we step out into the world into the reality of practicing social work and the problems are so huge, they seem almost impossible to overcome.

I feel overwhelmed by the thoughts of not being the kind of social worker my clients may need. I am comforted by telling myself, “at least you are doing something”. I feel like the guy on the beach tossing back starfish into the surf one at a time or the lady who plants tulip bulbs one at a time. Point being, I can only do what I can do and can’t get caught up in not being able to change the world.

What I am learning about the code of ethics and basic attitudes of regard for individual worth and dignity are already making a difference in my life. I guess in a way I am learning a more global perspective and how it can apply even in this small community. I had an experience this week in which the readings I’ve been doing for several classes helped me understand a situation and take a good look at my own set of personal ethics.

I was driving in the morning on one of the first icy days of the season. I slid out of control in front of another driver, (who was going too fast for the conditions) and he ended up slamming into a parked car. I admit, I was tempted to keep going, but the whole ‘ethics’ issues we have been discussing in class and I’ve been reading about seemed to be RINGING in my ears!!! I pulled over to make sure he was okay. He called the police while I knocked on the door of the tiny house the car was parked in front of. A man came to the door wearing nothing but a beard, (that reached his obtuse belly), and a pair of jeans, (which he was zipping up). He was swearing up a storm and screaming something about my irresponsible driving. I explained that the roads are slick and accidents happen. I didn’t wait around to be verbally abused but told him the police are on their way. The most disturbing thing about the whole experience was the scared little native American gal who cowered in the background. She seemed to be trying to appear busy but kept her head down. The guy referred to her as his “woman”. My heart went out to her.

According to all of our reading this woman seemed to me to be the epitome of bottom-of-the-totum-pole in a social sense. I wanted to do something to help her. I wanted to know her story. How did she get to be the live-in “woman” of such a horrible man. Not that he is as horrid as he seemed, (it WAS a rude awakening…to have your car slammed into as it is parked in front of your house).


October 12, 2009

In class we sit in a circle and take turns being the therapist and client in the two hot seats in the middle. We call it 'round robin'.

In our round robin the ‘therapist’ assumed the guy she was counseling was married to a woman. In this day and age, I don’t think that would always work. I think a more appropriate way of asking the question would not have been, “what does your wife think?”, but “what does your partner think?”

Mike made a comment that really intruiged me. When he was in the hot seat as the client, he was talking about how difficult it was to not have an arm for 21 years of his life. He said to the ‘therapist’, “Try not using your dominant arm for one day and then times that by 21 years and see how you feel.”

I thought about it. 21 x 365 = 7665. That is 7665 days without an arm. When I got home I spent a few minutes trying to do things without my right arm. It would be even more interesting to go without my arm for a day…or a week.

I have told Mike that his handicap is an obvious one but most of us have handicaps that aren’t visible. I hope I didn’t come across as flippant.