Guidance Counseling
Guidance counseling is much different today compared to twenty years ago. Some changes have to do with the size of the student body and the different problems that the counselors have to deal with. The people interviewed were Lynn Henry, Mrs. Pat Walker, and Mr. Robert Quickel. Mrs. Walker is a guidance counselor at Dallastown Area Middle School. Mr. Quickel was a guidance counselor from 1976 to 1983. Mr. Henry was a guidance counselor nine years ago.
Some dramatic changes that have occurred are "Now there are more severe problems which are much bigger then they used to be," proclaimed Mrs. Walker. "There is much more paperwork and different clinics now. Back in the days counselors used to be involved with the students only, but now there are forms to fill out and much more paperwork," replied Mr. Quickel. Mr. Henry answered, "If anything it's the lack of responsibility of the students. Also the size of the student body. Now it's much harder to memorize the names of all your students."
What is the most interesting things about being a guidance counselor? "Working with the students and a variety of the students," responded Mr. Henry. What was surprising was the answer "Everyday is different," which was an answer from all three of them. "You never know what you're going to do that day, you never really follow a schedule," answered Mrs. Walker.
"When I was younger and in high school I was only called up to the office once," told Mrs. Walker. "They also weren't involved with the students at all really," said Mr. Quickel. He also answered "They were only used to get into college, but now they have to keep track of the grades of students and many other things like that."
What was really interesting was how each of them got into guidance counseling. "I got into guidance counseling because I needed more credits so I took a course on guidance counseling. Well after a while I decided I wanted to be a counselor," said Mrs. Walker. Mr. Quickel proclaimed, "Well I first majored in math. But I wanted to help kids in more then just math so I started taking courses on counseling."
Being a Dallastown Guidance Counselor is a great job if you like to work hard and if you like to get involved with the students. But beware of the paperwork, which looks to grow in the future. It also looks like the guidance counseling field will grow and will be needed more as schools and student population grows. Some problems that face you are the problem of the students. They will become more severe and harder to correct. The advantages and satisfaction of Dallastown Guidance Counseling are with students and how they get involved with them.
