Wednesday, April 11, 2012

two things about social work

first

throughout my years in school i have learned some things about how the classroom works. i was taught to address my teacher by mr/mrs/ms/miss, to always raise my hand when i wanted to answer a question, and to sit in nice neat rows.

i thought these were pretty basic things that would always apply to a learning environment...
then i came to social work school.

here all of my teachers insist we address them by their first names (they even handout their home phone numbers - seriously!). they get all crazy if we raise our hands and always mention it if we raise our hand this late in the semester - they just want us to talk and have open discussions. my teachers also insist that we move the chairs from their nice neat rows and we all sit in a circle together... always, always, always.


second

remember when i contemplated dyeing my blonde streak purple last june? a number of people were against it - mainly my family members - but the main reason was because i was entering graduate school. you know, becoming a professional. well, i would like you to know that my supervisor at my field placement (an LICSW and director of the program) and i were just chit chatting and she mentioned how long my hair had gotten and i told her i wanted to re-dye my streak soon because i wanted a change, but didn't want to chop my hair. and she asked me, "have you thought about dying your streak a cool color?" i laughed! i told her i contemplated dyeing it purple last summer, but thought it wouldn't be professional enough for grad school. her response, "but it's social work."

well, social work is awesome.

1 comment:

Monique said...

One of the main department directors at the Utah Department of Health just put a bunch or bright purple streaks in her hair this last week. I don't know if that's permission or not, but just thought I'd pass that along :)