Oh boy!

Social work has many little dirty secrets. The obvious one is that most social workers (that is, individuals with a Master's level social work degree) are economically-speaking well-off white women trying to rescue the poor. If they are not rescuing the poor, they are opening their private offices to address the needs of the more desirable clients - those with private insurance or those who can pay $150 or more for therapy sessions.

Another little secret is that most social workers enforce conditions where social work is necessary or that is continues to infinity. So instead of ending the need of social work, social workers ensure that social work continues so that social workers have steady jobs.

Another little secret that I found out in the past year or so is that most social workers are not the brightest stars in the world. The level of nincompoopery that occurred at a Master's level program is flabbergasting! There were times when I was embarrassed for some of the stupid shit people said in class. And this also applies to faculty. Here is a small example:

So, as every social worker knows, social work school is all about "process recordings" and "journals." The student writes about her "feelings" that arise as a result of experiencing events/interactions with clients and it's a way to "discover" oneself and possibly "resolve" any ambivalence. Bullshit like that. I think I wrote about this before - it's an easy way for a supervisor or a professor to check in with the student to see how she is doing without having to spend any time talking to her. It's cheap social work-style therapy. So, of course, in one of my classes I had to keep a journal where I had to make an entry for each week. One week, the professor briefly spoke about pornography and that it greatly contributes to male violence due to its objectification and degradation of women. The professor did not permit the class to argue her point due to a "time constraint."

Ok, that statement in itself can be argued either way. But in my journal I wrote that this is a poor statement to make by a social work professional who is a dean (yes, a dean, not THE dean) at a school where there are about 700 female students. Her comment to my journal entry was: "It never occurred to me that some of the students could have been sex workers - but statistically they very well could have been and I want to be more careful in addressing the topic."

So great, a small "victory" for me. But here is how her statement is completely asinine: tuition of the school where I went is about $26,000 per year plus living costs. So make that at least $35,000 yearly expense. Why in the whole wide world would she not think that of the 700 women at the school, there is at least one person who is stripping/dancing/making money in the sex industry while in school? After all, the job has flexible hours and pays well.