Ginger's Post 1

My impressions of the roles and responsibilities of the guidance counselor did not change greatly but I do now have a better understanding of how much detail goes into their job. I knew that they met with each student individually at least twice a year (more if requested) but I did not realize how much information they must cover during those meetings. The guidance counselor must provide counseling programs in three domains: academic, career, and personal/social. I think about how student's moods and decisions change daily. The counselor must be able to decipher through everything and assist the student for their current time in high school but also for their career in the future.

I also did not think about all of their involvement with the special needs students and assisting the student and teachers in making the best decisions. The guidance counselor must attend all IEP meetings, which I know because I am asked to attend many myself, can be overwhelming.

"School administrators sometimes assign counselors such responsibilities as class scheduling, discipline, and administration. These tasks can be integrated with the goals of school counseling but can also dilute the time available for helping individuals." This quote was surprising to me because I thought that it was their job to do scheduling and handle discipline but instead those tasks can sometimes interfere with their true job and purpose of assisting students in making appropriate educational and career choices and to help students overcome personal and social problems which may interfere with learning.

I now feel that the true purpose of a guidance counselor is to have a one on one relationship with the student concerning their academic education, future career goals, and personal issues that may prevent them from being the best they can be. Unfortunately many guidance counselors get dealt so many other tasks that their "purpose" just becomes one of many things to get done. The problem with this is that we end up with students that dream of becoming a nurse, chef, or public defender but never have an opportunity to take these classes in high school because they are not an individual but rather a number.