A Social Work Dream

School social worker...that's what I want to be. But is it really? Is that what I truly want to do for the rest of my life? Part of me is thinking no. I know it will bring me great pleasure to work in a school with disadvantaged and ill-behaved children; I know helping those kids is a large goal of mine. It's definitely a job that lets you know where you'll be years down the road, which is nice. After all, my mom became a social worker over 30 years ago and she's been in the school system at least 25 years. And I love education; that's why I chose school social work to begin with. But "to begin with" might be exactly it: a beginning career choice. I'm not completely sure what else I would do instead of working in a school, but I do have some ideas.

Every time I learn of different ways to apply social work or I hear of new injustices in the world, I immediately begin to think of how I would fit that into my life. For example, after reading a paragraph about how homeless people are treated in certain areas and the laws that affect them, I wanted to work with the homeless population and help their situation. When I hear about the plight of immigrants and what they have to deal with, I feel the need to help in some way. When I hear about drug laws and their negative effect upon society, I want to lobby for changes. My need to help people "in need" is pretty strong, so the second I see someone in a bad situation, I want to somehow assist them. A certain part of does want to escape the case-by-case situations and work toward the big picture scenario.

That "big picture" would be two ideas I've had for future opportunities. One idea is something I've been kicking around in my head for awhile, and it involves training government/city employees, and anyone else who would works with people. My company would train their employees in how to handle the population they deal with. If they know their population, they can better serve them in whatever capacity they choose. My second opportunity would involve education, except I would start a school and infuse it with philosophy and social work ideals, such as a respect for persons on the social work side, and critical thinking skills for philosophy. Those are two very reachable goals, but as of now they're still but a dream.