Blog #4 - Chapter 5 & my personal view

As Chapter 5 begins with a case study about what a school counselor's job actually is compared to what other people think it is, I found myself really reflecting on how my own view of school counselors has changed over the years. We have discussed this in class as well but I really spent some time reflecting on this more as I read through the chapter and I realized that when I was in middle school and high school I held a lot of the same misconceptions that we are still battling today. My view of a school counselor in middle school and high school was that only people who were in trouble or who needed help went to see the school counselor. It is interesting now that I am going to be hopefully be changing some of the misconceptions that people hold now that I also once held. As I have been interviewing school counselors for the project for class I have been talking to them afterwards about the way that school counselors are viewed and the majority of the answers are that most people don't know what a school counselors role actually is, including school personnel. As I have been talking to them I am realizing that while the ASCA National Model is a great way to have a set of standards for us as counselors, there are always going to be a lot of other things that we are going to have to do as counselors that we would not think we would ever have to do or should do. One of the school counselors that I interviewed was a little late for the interview because she had to help a middle schooler find his retainer in the trash can at lunch. This is obviously not going to be a part of our job description, but it was what was needed. Also, as I have been doing the interviews and just spending more time with school counselors I am getting a better grasp on the ASCA National Model and what it entails and how schools implement it. It is interesting to talk to some counselors who may not remember the model exactly, or may not think that their school is implementing it but then in the course of the interview as we go through things they realize that they are following the model. It may not be in the same systematic way that the model is set up but the basics are the same. The interview project has been a great way to just sit down and learn more about the model from the perspective of an actual counselor.