Guidance and Counseling Rewards and Challenges Post 2

I think that school guidance counselor’s face various rewards and challenges of in their jobs. I also think that there is a comparison with teachers and their rewards and challenges. I think that one reward for counselors is for students to graduate on time with the appropriate number of credits, especially since this is one of their major responsibilities. I think that another reward is for former students to successfully complete college and further studies. The most rewarding aspect of this is for the students to return to campus showing great levels of maturity and other accomplishments. Another reward is when seniors receive full and/or partial scholarships to fund their education. This is especially rewarding for the counselors when they have somehow helped the student(s) with the scholarship application process. The counselors face various challenges as well. One challenge is uncooperative students and parents. I am speaking of truancy in this example. Some students come to school when and if they feel like it and many parents are aware of this. The counselors are responsible for tracking as well as documenting these instances. Another challenge is failing and grade repeaters. As hard as teachers and counselors work to ensure student progress, students many times fail to meet the expectations academically. Drop-out rate is another challenge. For those who work in education for the right reasons, we all dread to see the statistics when it comes to increasing drop-out rates. Counselors are faced with the challenge of keeping the students on track and focused so that they can not only graduate, but graduate on time.