Because I like to make sure my students are paying attention, and because I’m not exactly afraid of controversy, I like to start my Advanced Advocacy and Community Practice course with that classic Specht and Courtney reading, guaranteed to inflame the passions of social workers on both ends of the macro-micro continuum (and, yes, I think it’s a continuum, not two distinct camps):
Unfaithful Angels.
I mean, talk about astute titling. Could there be language more likely to spark debate?
After we read, I ask my students: Has social work abandoned its mission? More importantly, perhaps, and certainly more personally, have social workers?
There is a tendency, among my students and, I believe, among many social workers, to think that our career choice automatically implies altruism. We are social workers; ipso facto, we are in this for ‘the right reasons’.
It’s dangerous logic, I believe, both because it devalues the profession by implication, assuming that the only reason that someone would choose social work is out of a peculiar desire for martyrdom, but also because it can lull us into a sort of complacency, such that anything that we’re doing must be worthwhile…because we’re social workers.
Surrounded by worsening problems and abject need, complacency is one thing we do not need.
So I assign students to read Unfaithful Angels in part to peel away the gauze in which we sometimes place the profession, and to force us, collectively, to confront the evidence about what social workers do, and why, and the extent to which we’re living up to our own ideals.
I always wish that the debates that ensue happened in social work classes other than my own, since I tend to teach those students who have chosen macro practice rather than clinical work, which increases the risk that our conversations about Unfaithful Angels deteriorate into blaming ‘those’ social workers. And, of course, self-righteousness isn’t too becoming for anyone, nor the path I’m hoping to help my students navigate.
So what I try to do is ask, pointedly, why they care so much (because they inevitably do) about how social work is viewed, as a profession, and about how social workers devote their time. We talk about the policy structures that influence individual social worker’s career decisions, from third-party payments to the privatization of public services to the caseload increases that make adding advocacy so difficult. We talk about radical practice, and why that concept makes us so uncomfortable. We own our failings, as a profession, and then we imagine what it would look like if every social worker was committed to fundamental social change.
I make them choose a side: Has social work abandoned its mission? What was that mission, as they understand it? Is work with those who are economically poor the only ‘true’ social work? Is organizing and macro change?
They are usually at least somewhat distraught.
And then I try to use that upset as the platform for what, to me, is where we need to come down on these questions: Yes, social workers have drifted away from our core, but not because more social workers are in private practice. The profession’s mission, to me, isn’t as much about any practice venue, or even any population, as much as it is a stance of opposition to injustice, wherever and whenever it is found.
And we abandoned that mission–we actively abandon it, still today–every time we choose prestige over protest.
We’re not angels.
And the grassroots group that, even reluctantly, takes grant money from the same corporations that are funding attacks on the social safety net (in the guise of ‘more competitive tax rates’) are just as complicit as the social worker who crafts a practice providing counseling to the ‘worried well’.
That private practitioner could be actively using radical approaches to gender dynamics in her practice, taking on clients without ability to pay, and agitating her elected officials for universal access to mental health care. Or not.
Promoting social change doesn’t mean turning the social work profession into a police state.
It requires each of us committing ourselves to careers that are vehicles for justice. In all manifestations. Every day.
Classroom to Capitol 
Bravo Melinda, I so appreciate your posts. Today’s post reminded me of another article that I regularly share with the BSW students I have in class. This one was published in 2007 in “Social Impact” Fall 2007 21-22 (published by the George Warren Brown School of Social Work)
http://gwbweb.wustl.edu/research/SocialImpact/Documents/Image%20of%20Social%20Work.pdf Titled “Scattered Image,” the article shares the perspective of several “leaders in social work.” I would specifically direct you to the portion authored by the Dean of the School of Social Work at the University of Southern California. Here are some key snippets: (pay particular attention to the second and third paragraphs below.)
“All professions have image problems — physicians, lawyers, journalists. Reverence for professions has been dwindling. For social work, there’s a large gap between perception and reality. … It hurts recruiting in the sense that people are concerned about being negatively stereotyped. … But underpaid and overworked represents a lot of professions …”
“Most social workers don’t work with the poor anymore, but with the mentally ill, in schools, hospitals, substance abuse, and aging. … The majority of new social work schools are small, rural, or church-related, training foot soldiers. We need that, and I don’t mind supporting that.
“But that’s not how we prepare our students. We charge so much, we have to prepare them for something different and more broad. We have a special role as private universities. I’m interested in preparing our students for the exceptional. When we do place them in conventional roles, we train them to do exceptional things. … But others are working at Ernst & Young, in management and consulting, in public policy … “Private universities have to do training for leadership. If we don’t, we lose the rationale for a certain kind of existence. Once public universities took on the role of public service, private schools had to take on a different role …”
Ten years ago when I transitioned from practitioner to full time educator I expected to find the heart of altruism and a pervasive passion for matters of social justice. I have been more than disappointed. What I have found is a faint but steady rhythm, sustained by a scattering of faithful, passionate, articulate, and vocal advocates: struggling to maintain a presence in a system, really a series of systems (from our accreditor to our professional organizations to our universities and social institutions,) that largely treats them as an annoyance.
So on this snowy day, you motivated me to go re-read my NOOK copy of Unfaithful Angels only to realize that my wife has my Nook with her in southern Florida where she is at a conference all week. (she called this morning: the forecast is for clear skies and temps in the 80s: another manifestation of unfaithful angels…) For what it’s worth, that text is a supplemental reading in our BSW level – Macro HBSE course. I appreciate that you are regularly posting on issues so dear to my own heart: I often send our students links to your columns.
Final thought for the moment: In the past month we have made the move towards the establishment of a MSW program at Park University. And yesterday we received authorization to fill two full time faculty positions, to begin in August, who will have significant opportunities to help build that program. (One position will be for a clinical instructor, the other is for field director. -as I’m supposedly transitioning into the position of BSW program Director- Both are 10 month positions. If you know of anyone who is interested: http://newton.newtonsoftware.com/career/CareerHome.action?clientId=8aa00506324c433f013264d420f9206f
Gary Bachman MSSW, LSCSW
What a treat, Gary, to get this comment from you on this snowy day! And exciting about the expansion of Park’s program! That quote is pretty alarming. What is ‘unexceptional’ about standing in solidarity with the most oppressed in our society? And since when are people in schools, people with mental illnesses, older adults, people with addictions, and people in hospitals not poor? The idea that we can or should segment populations, and our practice, like that is really disturbing. I do still encounter passion for social justice, fairly routinely, among my students, but they certainly struggle to find mentors and organizational opportunities for social change. That is one of our greatest challenges, I think, as a profession–to nurture instead of extinguish the commitment to justice. Great to hear from you, as always.
All I have to say is that I wish I sat in your classes! This is one of my soapboxes too… and thank you for clarifying that micro to macro is a continuum! That paradigm seems to help a great deal. Thanks for this great resource!
Thank you so much, Stephanie! That is such a kind thing to say. I am sure that I would love to have you in class, too! I am so glad that you find this helpful.
Bravo to this, Melinda! Love it. I read, even when I don’t comment, but this one is just too good. xoxoxo
Thank you so much! That means so much to me. I miss you!