Rewards & Challenges
There are definitely rewards and challenges for guidance counselors! The challenges are easy to address. I think that the biggest
challenge is for the guidance counselor having the time to do all the things
that are expected of her/him. I feel
that with the large number of students in a school that there definitely needs
to be more than one per facility in order to do what they do and be totally
successful. I hear from our guidance counselor that she often wishes she had “more
time” to do what she needs to do. I am sure that they would love to have more
help and more time to really give each student 100%+ attention. The rewards for the guidance counselors are
often the same as those for the teacher.
They are rewarded when they see a student that they have counseled
graduate and go on to either a job or postsecondary education. They are
rewarded when the student that has emotional issues or behavioral issues
changes for the better because of the counselor’s intervention. They feel
rewarded knowing that they did their best for a student no matter what the
outcome. They feel rewarded when a parent calls and thanks them. There are many more little rewards that occur
that keeps them coming back to work; just like teachers! Hopefully the rewards
outnumber the challenges!
I agree with you Theresa about the rewards and challenges. I think that you make a good point about their being more counselors available in each school. With the wide scope of their job it seems that keeping up with hundreds of students on so many different levels (career, high school, personal, social) would be nearly impossible. I mentioned many of the same rewards that you did, and liked that you connected it to the satisfaction that teachers get. It seems that the path to school counseling is through teaching so I am sure that they have many of the attributes of teachers as well.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Theresa on the challenges. At Shaw High School there are only 4 counselors 1 per grade level. I think that it would be a good thing to have 2 per grade level and slip up the work load. It would also give kids a option to choose what counselor they feel fits there needs. I also agree with you on the rewards I had almost the same rewards as you did as well.
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