If the son of a family of distinguished professionals, with high paying power, announces to his family that he will study social work, most likely, after being surprised, they will try to answer that it is not the right career for his future, let alone for the family you can create. You must certainly convince him that there are better opportunities for advancement in life than by choosing careers that, in addition to being very poorly paid, do not enjoy the prestige that advancement in academic studies confers. Perhaps that is why activists are generally called those who have outstanding work in the social sphere. Few will say that he is a professional. And society admires them like Quixote or rejects them because of it. They are necessary, but are considered the exception. A useful decoration.

There is an increasing demand for social workers, who are often paid on top of the basic salary. How is this difference explained?

Some universities that have this degree in their curriculum are evaluating whether or not to keep it, as it does not provide enough economic return and does not seem to provide enough of the luster that its prestige demands.

And yet… We ask that politicians deal with social problems, that they know them, solve them, help solve them and solve them creatively.

It would be interesting to have a social worker as the president of this country. Maybe things would get better. Because what characterizes this profession is its constant coming and going between the academic and the harsh and provocative reality that calls into question the most consolidated knowledge in a challenging and creative interaction. His work is direct with human beings, unexpected in their behavior, in their feelings, in their achievements and in their decisions. That human being who cannot live alone and in turn invents societies that are often exclusive. This confirms equality and mistrust of diversity. This makes weapons, medicine the first cost in the world and suppresses education and health.

We must be clear that the political and social problems of our country and the world are connected with our inner life, with the meaning of life, with personal and collective behavior, with values.

Where are we going? Social workers do not only think about the future that awaits us, but also work with it in the immediate everyday life of sick human beings, without resources, with conflicts of all kinds, with the elderly, with adolescent mothers, with abandoned children, with those who have labor conflicts, with migrants … for which answers must be found that require political action, not just patches.

Social workers are inquirers by nature, a mixture of patient philosophers and impatient engineers. They are human beings, bridges, with the call of an intermediary.

His actions have short deadlines, often require urgent action, his focus is on people and their problems. A profession that, instead of suppression, should be expanded, in terms of training opportunities, in the challenges it poses to other professions with which it is called to complement itself, in its vital knowledge of the deep needs of the population. A profession that should be recognized academically and economically. (OR)