I am a Social Work major at Michigan State University. It is not uncommon for people to stereotype this profession and those who work in this field. When one hears “social work,” she may picture a school counselor or a person who takes children out of their homes and places them in foster care. However, the reality of the social work profession is quite complex. As defined by the International Federation of Social Workers, “Social work is a practice-based profession and an academic discipline that promotes social change and development, social cohesion, and the empowerment and liberation of people. Principles of social justice, human rights, collective responsibility and respect for diversities are central to social work (https://www.ifsw.org/what-is-social-work/global-definition-of-social-work/).  As a social work major, the majority of my classes involve the discussion of people, their well being, and development, while taking into account factors such as socioeconomic status, culture, environment, etc. and how these factors are all intertwined. In order for social workers to help humans, it is critical that they understand how and why people act the way they do. As stated in the Alters and Alters article, “Biology explains how organisms work (how we breathe, how fish swim etc.), while evolution explains the WHY behind these mechanisms.” Throughout the past three years at Michigan State, I have taken several science courses, such as History of Life and Global Change. However, the last time I took a human science course was high school biology. Although I study humans, and how to deal with human behavior, I know little about the process of genetic coding, the chemical bases of nuclear DNA, mixing of traits etc. The readings and videos from this week made me take a deeper look into the “how” and the “why.”   Social Work as an academic discipline is not really concerned with or focused on how humans have evolved. Rather, the focus of Social Work is to enhance the well-being of individuals, families and groups in society. During the course of my studies in Social Work, genetics in terms of a family’s history is taken into account when evaluating someone. Social Work often looks at a person’s past and familial situation to help with the evaluation. Social Work does not look to the beginning of evolution in order to conduct an individual’s evaluation. Additionally, social work does not analyze how DNA is made or how genetic codes occur or the process of mixing existing traits into new combinations.  Social Work takes into account an individual’s past and present environment and does not go deep into a person’s biology and evolution.

I do believe that evolution is an important topic and should be taught to all children throughout various levels of schooling.  If kids do not know how we as humans evolved, they will have difficulty ever comprehending how something exists or came to be. I agree with Alters and Alters statement that evolution is a unifying theme among sciences because all sciences must start with the study of evolution to understand what comes next.