The readings for this week caused me to consider, perhaps in
greater depth than before, the differences between elementary, middle, and high
school counselors. Drummond and Jones (2012) begin by asking us to consider how
flexible we are in thinking about the level we want to work with. When I entered this program, I was fairly
certain that I was not really interested in working with elementary or middle
school students. However, as I’ve
progressed in the program and had experiences shadowing teachers and counselors
at almost every level, I’ve become much more open to the idea of working with
younger students. In fact, one of the
highlights of my year thus far was the day that I shadowed a very enthusiastic
elementary counselor. This counselor
exemplified Rayle’s (2006) findings that elementary counselors experience the
greatest job satisfaction and the highest levels of mattering to
administrators. Also true was the fact
that this counselor was the sole counselor for his entire student body of
nearly 600 students. Additionally, his
school is working toward RAMP status, so most of the things that I saw him do
throughout the day fit into appropriate activities for school counselors,
according to the ASCA National Model.
These factors may have greatly contributed to his level of job
satisfaction and are supported by Rayle’s (2006) findings.
Drummond and Jones (2012, p. 208) ask: “What draws you to
your favorite level, and what bothers you about your least favorite level? Can you see yourself working at all three
levels? Why or why not?” I think that the thing that has typically
drawn me to the high school level is the depth of conversations that a
counselor can have with a high school student and the opportunity the counselor
has to help students make decisions that very well could affect the rest of the
student’s life. I enjoy empowering teens
in their identity-forming process, and I have a lot of experience working with
this age group for the past 4 years.
What I dislike about this level is that it seems high school counselors
are perhaps the most misunderstood counselors in the sense that not many people
seem to know what school counselors really do outside of creating schedules for
students, which isn’t really what school counselors are trained to do in the
first place.
As I’ve mentioned previously, middle school counseling has
recently become interesting to me, as I’ve seen research indicating the
instrumental role that middle school counselors can play in students’
lives. There also appear to be more
opportunities to actually engage in appropriate school counseling activities
with students than there might be at the high school level. The list of middle school counselors’ typical
activities as provided by Drummond and Jones (2012) may be the most appealing
to me out of the activities listed for each level. I believe in things like the power of group
counseling, peer helping and mediation programming, and transitional
services. Things that have pushed me
away from the desire to work with middle school students include their levels
of maturity (or lack thereof), raging hormones, and energy. Elementary counseling also has its fair share
of pros and cons. Pros that I can think
of include being able to identify and work with at-risk students early on in
their school career, engaging students in play and art therapy, and working
closely with teachers to implement classroom guidance lessons/practices. Cons might include having a larger caseload
than counselors at the middle or high school levels as well as the potential
conflict of interest caused by the counselor taking an administrative role in
the absence of the principal.
So, can I see myself working at all three levels? Yes, I think I can. Why? Probably because I love kids, no matter
how old they are, and I tend to be pretty flexible with my plans. All jobs have their ups and downs, but I’m
hoping that no matter what level I end up at as a school counselor I’ll be able
to find more ups than downs.
References
Dollarhide, C.T., & Saginak, K. A. (2012). Comprehensive school counseling programs:
K-12 delivery systems in action. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Rayle, A.D. (2006). Do school counselors matter? Mattering
as a moderator between job stress and job satisfaction. Professional School Counseling, 9 (3).
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