Political Cartoon

1st political cartoon
Summary:   It makes social workers look bad by any little thing they take kids away for no reason. That if they are sent to foster homes it is to make them suffer and not for their protection. The mom here is telling threatening the child if child keeps playing 70's music he will get sent to the foster home assuming any little thing kids do or the parents complain they could get sent away.

2nd  Summary: political cartoon is a mother yelling at her child in bed and the social worker is behind her telling her not to scream to her child. It's basically saying that they tell the parents what to do and what not to do but parents will do it anyways. Or another perspective can be that he's just finding reason to tell her that she's doing something wrong and he just saying it like he doesn't care.

Analysis- An analysis of both of the political cartoons is that social workers are just taking kids away or being the type of people who are on top of you just to annoy you. That if their jobs aren't important or they are careless. Many people may have bad experiences with social workers but their jobs aren't to make people lives horrible or to destroy but to improve a better life for people. 

Response: My response to both of these cartoons are just silly to me. I have experienced both types of social workers and have hear two different stories. Before I wanted to pursue into the work of a social worker I would of never chose it because all I hear is bad things. For my english class we had to research for our major and the sad part is I saw many bad articles on social workers. Although I found many stories that were good, of cases of people who social workers became a blessing to their lives. 

The first political cartoon I was just not happy about it, it's basically saying that social workers will take kids to foster home for any reason. Which I believe wouldn't be a easy job to choose especially if the child is attached.

The second cartoon shows me from my perspective that parents sometimes don't listen to the social workers as much of on top that they could be at the end it is their decision to treat their child's good.

Cultural Humility

- This video depicts the importance of cultural humility when it comes to professions such as nursing, psychology and most importantly the career I want to pursue in which is social work. 

Opinon based Articles

These are articles I found having different opinions on what social workers are and what they do .

I was interested to see and find out the benefits in being a social worker and how it could help children or if it really affects peoples lives in a positive way. In researching I knew I would see negative articles about social work and how challenging it is to deal with so many cases. Recognizing that I would see negative articles it did help me understand and see the other side of the career.

First Article:

The first article I chose was from The Los Angeles Times, “To limit child tragedies, give social workers what they need.” The article argues that social workers have heavy stress in dealing with many cases up to 30 to 40 cases at at time. How they have overwhelming caseloads that sometimes not all the children make it. A story of an 8 year old boy named Gabriel Fernandez had passed away due to abuse from his mother and mothers boyfriend. Gabriel had been under investigation for months, when he passed away the paramedics said he had a fractured skull, missing teeth and broken ribs. Due to this story allegations started to rise and assumptions of social workers not caring for their cases and not worrying enough about their jobs. Nancy Razo the person being interviewed in the article says “ For social workers, the top priority is making sure the children are safe given the resources and the time to ensure they can do that.”

Analysis: 

In analyzing this article I was hoping to see more evidence on how they wanted to change the situation or how they can improve the situation of losing less children. One hidden assumption I saw was when Razo says “we need more smaller caseloads and more social workers.” I don’t understand how by getting more social workers it’s going fix a problem of losing children when they have already been under investigation such a as Gabriel. I do understand they should get smaller caseloads because the article explains how they should only be dealing with 12 to 17 cases but they deal up to 30 or 40 cases. They can’t deal with so much and try to save every child. Although by making the conclusion by getting more social workers to “fix” the problem is just an illogical conclusion. Social workers should be able to work out the cases and be on top of them especially if they have enough proof that child is being abused or neglected. Another hidden assumption I found was when razo mentions “abused kids don’t trust strangers.” If kids are being abused that doesn’t mean they don’t want to be helped, they can be able to trust. Social workers should try and work with the children in every way possible, in working with them to gain their trust. It wouldn’t be impossible because then the social work career would have not point.

Response: 

In response to this article, at first I felt so bad for the social workers on how much load this career really does carry. I agreed with everything it said but after analyzing it I realized some of the stuff said it felt more like excuses given. I do agree that they should be given smaller case loads for they can be able to give more time on cases and focus on them. I could imagine turning in so many cases a day would not be easy when some are still in progress or you haven’t gotten all the evidence you need, and the result doesn’t turn out fair to the child. Also that they won’t be able to save every child that comes by due to the judges decisions, parents who threaten them, also shortage of foster homes. Razo mentions “you always have to choose the lesser of two evils, we’re our own worst critics.” If something goes wrong they feel guilty about it.

Second Article:

The second article I chose is “We Should All Hug a Social Worker." This article is about a man named Dominic Carter a keynote speaker attending the conference named “Crimes Against Children Conference in Mississippi.” During the conference he invited some social workers and law enforcements officials to go on stage and he asked them “why do you do, what you do for others?” A woman Kimberly Hall a social worker took the stage and started to explain how grateful she was with her job and she felt joy to work with children. One of her biggest joys was seeing the children she helped walk the stage in their graduations. The other officials also came up to the stage expressing the same stories and experiences such as Kimberley's. Carter starts to explain why he was grateful for social workers because he was an abused child himself. When he was younger he had a coach who helped him, and was a father figure to him. He finishes saying that we should appreciate these people in our society because if we didn't have them we don’t have another alternative. He states “social workers are their to fight, advocate on our behalf, and also to help those that don’t have a voice in society to stand up on their own.

Analysis:

Analyzing this article I found that this article was more positive side for the social work career. One part that I found was not so positive but realistic was on how Kimberley answers that the worst thing about her job is when you lose children. That she has seen several children on her caseload murdered. One faulty judgement I found is when carter claims “that social workers are angels on the earth” because not all social care about helping children some get even stressed and don’t help the children knowing the problems they are going through letting the case be dismissed. This speaker was talking so positively of course about the social worker because he was in a conference that was about the work of social workers and law enforcements. The speaker made it difficult to find something wrong with it because of the way the article was built to be positive. An illogical conclusion I found stated in the article was “at one point or another in all of our lives, we will all need the assistance of a social worker.. someone to fight, and advocate on our behalf, and also to help those that don't have a voice in society to stand up on their own.” Comparing this to my first article we come see that children like Gabriel sometimes aren’t being payed attention and aren’t helped.

Response:

In response to this article it was pretty tough to find hidden assumptions or illogical conclusions because it was positive. I do agree that some social workers really put effort on this job and nice to see that this article does support and shows them appreciation on the job that they do. Also Carter was an abused child as well so he has been through the experience of being helped and getting out of bad life and given a second chance. This article acknowledges hard work and the positive side of social work.

About This Blog

This blog is about my potential career on a being a Social Worker. My main focus into going to this carer is to help children. SocialWorker's have bad reputations on being mean and heartless. I wouldn't want that kind of reputation on me especially if my work is not reflecting me on what the career is "supposed" to do, which is to help children. I don;t just want to take kids away from homes that in the first place were not hurting them in anyway but also ruin a big part of their lives. I know this isn't an easy career but if my reward could be that an abused child is taken away from a home or place where they don't feel safe I'm more than satisfied. This is my path in investigating this career and if the main focus is helping kids or just being the rude people who don't have a heart and don't care.