What is the MSW?

So, I'm back. I'm going to try and post from day to day as part of my current job to "find myself". Do you love the hippie word selection? A bit more on me. I bitched and moaned about everyone else in my profession, but didn't tell you how I got to be my jaded self.

About four years ago, I was really excited about going to graduate school to get my master's in social work. I had been working with people with developmental disabilities for about 4 years and decided that I wanted to get my licensure in order to be able to be a counselor for people with disabilities- contrary to a popular belief that people with disabilities can't benefit from talk therapy.

I went into school with a really fresh outlook, feeling positive about my work and anxious to be stimulated by an intellectual environment. Needless to say, I was sorely mistaken. I spent most of my time (as most of you know who got their MSWs) de-constructing racism without really talking about the issue of race and analyzing power dynamics in Asian porn (I'm not kidding). This was higher education. Here I was expecting to learn more theory and how to implement different types of therapy from knowledgeable professionals and I slept through lecture after lecture about how Asians are perceived as more submissive (our teacher was Asian) and crying students talking about their "woe is me childhoods".

Impressively, these sob stories were often presented by students in front of classrooms of 50. Good for you for feeling so comfortable with yourself that you like to talk about being raped in front of the whole school, but how is that really helping everyone else? Especially for all of us who don't have the money to buy Henry Bendel jewels and actually want to get our money's worth out of classes! (Side note: Many of the students at my school were married to Wall Street Bankers, under 25 and wore these HUGE blinged out rings that were often bigger than my eye... DANG! Now I do have to say that these were NOT always the people who pissed me off. I appreciated their somewhat clueless and completely inappropriate and judgmental comments. Especially because they were always the ones who shocked the hell out of the raging feminist liberal types who were so tolerant that they were intolerant. You know who I'm talking about and I LOVE (make that present tense) to see them at a loss for words. (If you know what I'm talking about, you should check out the following book.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blinded_by_the_Right

I grew increasingly frustrated with the set up of the classroom. I was interested to learn that, in fact, schools used to mandate everyone in social work to attend private therapy outside of school and for some reason they abolished that rule. Now instead, students use their classes as private therapy sessions and waste everyone's time and money when they want to learn something. It should be mandatory that anyone in social work should have undergone some type of therapy and be familiar with the process in order to be both educated and self-aware. This was no longer the case. Now I understood why many applications for masters programs in psychology and social work stated, "this program is not to be used for therapy". That's right- students actually had to sign agreements for schools. At the time, I couldn't figure out why they would do that on an application. I figured, this is higher education. People couldn't be that stupid that they would not think of this as an EDUCATIONAL experience. I guess I was mistaken.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but talking about your personal life in class at business school or law school would be off limits, unless used appropriately to represent a point about the class. In law school, you would know about a certain law because your family practiced that type of law. Or in business school, someone you know was sued for liable and you were actually talking about liable in class and specifics about a liable suit. Now, for social work school. Which is appropriate for Abnormal Psychology? 1. "I have a client with Dissociate Identity Disorder and here are some of the symptoms". Or 2. "my mom has bipolar disorder and she gets really crazy and throws things at me sometimes. That really hurts me and I've been damaged for life ever since, that's why I have anxiety"-followed by sobs. Yes, sadly enough the latter is what would happen. Then the rest of the class would put on their best, "oh my god poor you" face- you know which one I'm talking about, slightly cocked head, eyebrows raised in the center of the forehead, lips pursed... as I quickly placed my head on the desk to hide from laughing or abruptly left the room.

Ok, quick sideline about the student population at my school- (By the way maybe you all think I'm a bitch for being so judgmental, but being someone who came to school to learn, I got really frustrated that teachers would sometimes cancel half their classes during the semester for "personal reasons" especially because I can't even make in a half a year the amount of money it cost me to attend one of these classes and that I didn't learn a damn think in class that I couldn't have learned online). I won't mention the school name, but it is rated in the top 5 in the country.

An occurrence that really sticks with me was one time we had a speaker from Rwanda come in and talk about the tribal wars. A student raised her hand after the speech and said, "I want to give you a hug". Without asking permission or without any warning, she got up and gave him a hug in front of a roomful of students. I was hoping that most peoples' mouths were agape, but no. Apparently, the only person that actually shared my shock and disbelief was the speaker who looked like he had never seen such a stupid idiot in his life. Once again, it was time for me to leave the room before dissipating into giggles (or puking).

On top of the amazing lack of tact on the part of the students, teachers and the system contributed to it. While we were encouraged to think abstractly and talk about Asian porn (sorry that I'm so focused on that but it's just too funny. The best part about it is that when I simply queried why we were talking about Asian porn in school for three classes, I was accused of being homophobic and racist! Classic), we never took a simple test. In fact, while there were many people who were entering an MSW program who had never taken a psychology class- or were economics majors in college- our human behavior in the social environment class told us that in order to learn about basic western psych theories, we were to read a book and take an online test. We never talked about any of the content in class and when we asked questions about it, our teacher told us that she did not know anything about psychology theory because it was chauvinistic and she was a philosophy professor, oh and did I mention Asian, just in case you didn't get that yet? So, when time came around to cramming for the on-line test, we took it and were told that we could retake it three times. You are on an honor code system that you are not allowed to use the book. I busted my ass studying and passed the test the first time. However, there were people who later said that they took the test three times and it was the same every time. The questions weren't any different! I was not upset about the fact that it was unfair that I busted my ass studying, but that enough people freaked out about the test that teachers made it possible for anyone with Stage 2 Alzheimer's capable of passing the test.

So you are probably wondering how the hell these people got accepted to school if it's supposed to be so high up in the country. Well, sadly enough, the school had built a new social work building and were going to pay for it by expanding their admission to include any asshole who really applied. No, I kid you not. In other words, nearly 100% of people who applied were accepted. Have you ever heard of such a profession? I think we really need to rethink our definition of social work as a profession. If this is happening at the top schools in the country, what are the lower schools experiencing? Who knows, maybe they're better off. God, I hope so.

Anyway, this was my education. The only time that I really learned anything, and in my opinion the best part of my education was the field study. Being in a school program located in the heart of a big city, I was able to receive some of the best training and field placement. I felt happy to have this because otherwise, I would honestly say that there is no reason to even offer higher education. However, this did not do anything to quell my frustration at the school for stealing my money and 2 years of my academia, considering that all the people at my field placements shared my view. So I know there are people out there who don't think I'm insane. Even though I've been surrounded by enough people who do that I now am beginning to believe it.

At times, I wondered whether I was the victim of a conspiracy or cruel reversal of fortunes. Just as underprivileged clients that we treat on a daily basis are frustrated, feel hopeless and not heard in a tripped out, foreign system, I felt eerily similar. Was this the purpose? Was I being taught a lesson? Pay a shitload of money to get ripped off and figure out how not to get frustrated and push through the struggle? Persevere dammit! I pushed this theory of paranoia to the back of mind only to be reminded of it each and every day of school. Be annoyed, don't say anything, and if you do, you will be reminded that you are a racist homophobic piece of shit! I still am convinced that this is the case!

Now, given this experience (and I'm assuming that this is not a unique experience or I should publish a book!) what has placed me in awe is that according to current statistics at NASW, there have been more complaints and grievances filed against social workers this year than in any previous year. Hmmm. If my experience was not unique, (as it seems to be so far, or people notice and don't care about this kind of thing), there seems to be some tie in here. We are expected to be these entirely ethical beings with the ability to be always moral, always appropriate and always capable of making good judgment for people. That's a big responsibility to take on. And, wait this is the best part. So how in the fuck are they selecting us? Oh, wait. We are self-selecting. No other fucking profession out there self-selects. We are taking on this responsibility of being “God” to some extent, determining the future of families that we have met for 10 minutes. And yet, all we have to do to go to graduate school is to be rich or to go into a shit-load of debt! Or even a little bit of debt. Even psychology students have to take the GREs to get into school. They have to take a standardized test and get acceptable scores. They have to take tests during school and spend a few years mastering theory. Nope, social workers apparently aren't important enough to endure such training. Or they're not smart enough. But they are expected to perform the tasks of someone with expertise. Sorry, am I missing something here? Does this seem fucked up to anyone else?

By the way, I love the survey that came around from NASW about this increase in grievance asking for opinions and comments to start a dialogue about why we might postulate that there is such an increase. Of course, you guys are getting the idea- I am perfectly happy to share why I think. I never received anything back.

Anyway, after I graduated, I saw the validity in getting the “Ivy League” type degree because I was already hooked up with 3 interviews right after grad school in a week. I felt pride in the place I went to school (as long as no one knew the reality of it), was happy with my field placement and felt confident about my future. I was looking for a place to keep learning about achieving. I felt far from finished, but was ready to tackle a challenge.

Needless to say, I turned down two hospital jobs for an offer closer to me that sounded like it would offer me not only supervision, but an opportunity to work on a small team to develop a newer branch of the organization. If only I would have taken the hospital job, I most likely wouldn't be where I am today. However, I'm a firm believer in that nothing happens by accident. I am where I am now because of the choices that I made. I'm just figuring out now what that means. More tomorrow.