Open Letter to Social Work Professors Who Love Social Work Month

With Audio by Jonathan Singer of the Social Work Podcast

by Jonathan B. Singer, Ph.D., LCSW

Dear Professor Blah,

     Today is the first day of social work month. But, you know that. In the first 12 hours of March 1st you’ve managed to send us - your poor students - a dozen emails that all have the subject heading, “Check out this cool Social Work Month event/blog/podcast/meme/post/story.”  Newsflash: I don’t open your emails. Maybe if you would GRADE MY PAPERS, I wouldn’t be like, “swipe, swipe, swipe….” Don’t get me wrong. I know you’re proud to be a social worker. I knew that the second time you talked about the client you worked with in 1987. Newsflash: I don’t get your jokes about the 1980s. What I do get is that it is easier for you to forward Social Work Month emails than it is to GRADE MY PAPERS. There’s only one subject header I’m interested in getting from you: “Graded your paper - outstanding. See Attached.” OMG.

     Since this is anonymous, I have to be honest about something else. I don’t like Social Work Month. Don’t get me wrong. I understand the value of enhancing the visibility of social work. We talked about that in my community organizing class with Dr. Rockstar, who, BTW, is AWESOME. Who knew mezzo-level social work could be so great? (Quick question, is it spelled m-e-z-z-o or m-e-s-o? I can’t get a solid answer on that one.) She’s tough, fair, and grades our papers really fast (don’t hate - I’m just saying). Good-bye Brené, hello Dr. Rockstar. #lifegoals

     So, why do I dislike Social Work Month?  (Aha! You thought I forgot. Assumed this was a first draft. But NO. I’m voice-to-text typing this email which means I spend twice as much time fixing all the autocorrect errors and adding punctuation.) I think we should celebrate social work every month. Without social workers we wouldn’t have social security, fair labor laws, minimum wage, the forty-hour work week, unemployment benefits, child protection, community organizing, narrative therapy, solution-focused therapy, or Brené Brown (OK, I can’t say good-bye to Brené). I can’t imagine a world without social work.

     And since we’re talking about things I can’t imagine, here’s the rest of the list:

  • My paper. Graded. No rush. Just my life we’re talking about.
  • Why it is so hard for you and your colleagues to agree on what “APA Style” means. It is a book, people. Read it. 
  • A good parking space close to campus.
  • A regular schedule for the Social Work Podcast. How hard can it be? Four episodes in one month, none for three months, then two more, a Part 1 without a Part 2… Redic. Everyone else has to keep a regular schedule. inSocialWork posts every 2 weeks. I’m switching to Blake Jones’s Social Work Conversations.

     OK. My phone is at 2%. Last thing: I believe in social work so much that I’m PAYING to think about it 24/7.

Sincerely,

Future social worker

Jonathan B. Singer, Ph.D., LCSW, is an associate professor of social work at Loyola University Chicago and the founder and host of the Social Work Podcast. He is the author of dozens of publications, including the 2015 Routledge Press text, Suicide in Schools: A Practitioner’s Guide to Multi-Level Prevention, Assessment, Intervention, and Postvention.