Revised Opinion of Guidance Counselors

When I wrote the first paragraph for this assignment I felt like I had a pretty good idea of what a school guidance counselor does. If I had gone by what I have witnessed as a teacher I would have thought that the counselors were just the nice folks in the office who mess up my class rosters every semester! I did, however, have an experience with the guidance counselors at my high school when I was a high school student, so I knew that there was more to it than that. I knew from my experience that the counselors were there for students that they considered to be "at risk". What I didn't realize is how much time these counselors have to put into their education. I knew that a counseling degree is usually at a Master's level and takes about 2 years to complete the course work. I did NOT realize that these professionals have to put in 700 hours of practicum hours. Wow! I also had not thought about how all of the problems facing students today (teen pregancy, gangs, etc.) would put so much more on the guidance staff. I had not thought about the fact that the guidance counselors have to be available to the parents and school staff as well as being there for all of the students. I already believed that the counselors were under appreciated and these articles have just confirmed it for me. I don't believe I will be making the change from teacher to guidance counselor any time in my future! What I will do is smile when my roster is messed up at the beginning of each semester and see if there is anything that I can do to help the situation.