¶ … Mary Ann Clark and Jennifer Crandall Breman (2009, Jan 1). "School counselor inclusion: a collaborative model to provide academic and social-emotional support in the classroom setting," published in The Journal of Counseling and Development. The article addresses the problems presented by increasing demographic diversity in the United States, which also translates to an increasing diversity in American schools.

Although several models and legislation have been implemented to address these issues, none have addressed the needs of each individual student beyond the academic setting as much as does the model proposed in the article. The model suggests that the school counseling profession should be entirely integrated in the school system itself. This will help students not only with the academic aspects of their school careers, but also to address their adjustment, social, emotional and behavioral issues.

The article has reinforced in me the concept of education as an extremely complicated process. This is hardly surprising. Education addresses human issues and needs, and human beings are complicated, even in the most homogeneous of societies. A multicultural society such as the United States makes the issue even more complicated.

School counselors can address issues that teachers are not equipped to handle in the classroom setting. Indeed, the article suggests that counselors' and teachers' roles should compliment each other to provide students with the optimal learning situation. I believe it is a good thing that the holistic nature of working with human beings is finally being recognized in the teaching profession. It is difficult to make the most of one's academic career when struggling with issues such as poverty or discrimination. Counselors can help students to handle the emotional and social aspects of such problems in an effective way, and ultimately overcome these problems to reach their optimal level of achievement.

Source

Clark, Mary Ann and Breman, Jennifer Crandall (2009, Jan 1). "School counselor inclusion: a collaborative model to provide academic and social-emotional support in the classroom setting," in The Journal of Counseling and Development.