I found the contrast between what the counselors at the public school deal with and what the counselor from the private school dealt with very interesting. There are many issues that overlap between schools but the way that the counselors would deal with them are different because of the vision of the school. I was struck by the importance of the communication with the parents that is necessary for the counselor to be effective, but it seems that this would be even more important in a Catholic school where the teacher (or counselor) is seen primarily as an aid to the parent and lets them do most of the caring for the child.
I was concerned as I heard more about how counselors handle problems because I think it is so important for the parents to be contacted whenever there are problems and I hesitate to think that sometimes the preferences of the child would be put above keeping the parents informed. Many of the issues that counselors are dealing with are issues that will have effects on the life of the child for years to come and it makes be nervous to think that the parents would be left out of helping their child to deal with the issues they are struggling with. Again, I realize that I have never been in a situation where I have had to deal with the struggle with a personal issue like this, but I still think that the parents should be involved along the whole way.
I think it is a great comfort to us as teachers that we will most likely have counselors in our schools. There is so much collaboration that can be done with them in order to touch all of the issues that our students may be dealing with, especially those which we are not as familiar or comfortable with.
ReplyDeleteI am like you in that I have never met with a counselor about a serious problem and I was not really sure what they have to deal with on a day to day basis. I also was shocked by the fact that middle schoolers are dealing with some of the issues that they are. I was also sheltered in middle school from these issues. It does make me uncomfortable to know that at times parents will not be notified if that is the request of the student.
I like what we learned in class about telling the child we may have to tell others if they tell us something in confidence and ask us never to say anything. As a teacher I should never promise that I will not tell anyone because it is for the better of the child and the legal thing to do often times.