School Counseling & Guidance | History

School counseling : A book on the topic of school counseling that I am currently working on is now available for reading. This school counseling book serves as a guide for prospective school counselors, it’s an excellent resource for school administrators , and compares school counseling from that of past years to the present. The name of the book is Remembering the past shaping the future – a history of. Here is an excerpt:

The Field of School Counseling

The field of school counseling as we know it today is just over 100 years old. During these 100-plus years, school counseling evolved from a focus on vocational guidance being delivered mainly by teachers and administrators to a comprehensive program focusing on the academic, career and personal-social development of all students being delivered by school counselors working closely and collaboratively with teachers, parents and administrators.

These 100-plus years witnessed wide-ranging and sometimes spirited discussions and debates about school counseling purposes; the terminology to describe and label school counseling; the school counselor’s role and functions; and the appropriate structures to organize, implement, manage and evaluate school counseling. Discussion and debates about school counselor selection, training, leadership and supervision also occurred over the decades. It is clear that school counseling did not evolve in a vacuum. It evolved as a result of the interaction of myriad changing and challenging.

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WHO SHOULD READ THIS SCHOOL COUNSELING BOOK?

This book is designed for a variety of readers. First, it is designed for school counselors in training and practicing school counselors to help them gain an appreciation of their rich professional heritage. It guides them through the 100-plus years of school counseling, decade by decade, providing them with the actual discussion and debates about what school counseling should look like and how it should be practiced.

It also helps them understand how school counseling has responded to turbulent economic times and the many changing and challenging social and economic forces that have been at work in our society over the past 100-plus years. Second, this book is designed for school administrators to help them understand the evolution of school counseling with the goal that they will understand how school counseling challenging social, educational and economic forces at work over the past 100-plus years.

The progressive movement of the early 1900s sought to change conditions brought about by the Industrial Revolution by reforming education. The social justice issue for vocational guidance then was child labor. World War I followed and had an impact as did the various social and educational movements of the 1910s and 1920s, including the mental hygiene, progressive education, child study/development and psychometric movements.

The 1930s witnessed turbulent times due to the Great Depression. World War II in the 1940s, the Korean War of the early 1950s, the cold war of the late 1940s to the early 1990s, the Vietnam War of the late 1960s and early 1970s and the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan all have had an impact on our society and our educational and economic systems.

At home, during this time period, the civil rights movement, school reform, the issues of gender equity and sexual orientation as well as increasing concern about multiculturalism and diversity were having an impact too. In the late 1990s and during the first decade of 2000, academic achievement became a national priority, particularly the academic achievement of low-income students and minority students. The term “academic achievement gap” was used to label this issue. As a result of these issues and concerns, school counselors were being asked to take on leadership, evaluation and advocacy roles and to become actively involved in social justice issues. At the same time our economy was changing rapidly.

Occupational and industrial specialization continued to increase dramatically. Increasing size, globalization and complexity were and are the rule rather than the exception, often creating job invisibility and making the transition from school to work and from work to further education and back again more complex and difficult. It is important to acknowledge as well the contributions of many individuals to school counseling’s growth and development. They contributed their knowledge and expertise to this effort. Legislation also played a part at the state and national levels by focusing attention on specific societal concerns and economic issues. Examples include vocational education (career and technical education)education) legislation and educational reform legislation such as the National Defense Education Act and the No Child Left Behind Act.

Finally, projects such as Education Trust’s Transforming School Counseling Initiative and the development of standards for school counselor preparation by the American School Counselor Association, the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision and the Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Programs have had and continue to have an impact on the nature and structure of school counselor education as well as on the practice of school counseling.

Several books have traced the history of the field including ones by Brewer (1922, 1942), Davis (1956), Picchioni and Bonk (1983), Reed (1947) and Stephens (1972). A number of dissertations also added to our understanding of the evolution of our field including ones by Johnson (1972) and Odell (1971). Other books have chapters that traced our history too, but there has not been a recent book that has focused on our history over the full 100-plus years.

Why is a book about the History of School Counseling Important?

Picchioni and Bonk (1983) answered this question as follows: “Every field of knowledge has a history. Ideas and institutions which are now accepted as commonplace all had their origins in the past. Present identity results from innumerable historical antecedents. No one can succeed in being a historical … Modern guidance grew from the discoveries, inventions and mistakes of yesterday. Out of the search for guidance’s past it is possible to apply what is learned to the future – this is ultimate use of historical knowledge. History does not cheat us: indeed, if those in guidance do not think about its past, then surely guidance will have no future” (p. 1).

Purpose and Organization of the Book The purpose of the book is to trace the development of school counseling from its beginnings in the early 1900s to the present time. To accomplish this the book is organized by decades. The sources of information for the book were the early histories, articles in many journals, and many books and book chapters. No preconceived organizer was used to select and group the contents of each of the chapters. Instead, the contents to be included in the chapters flowed from the material available in these sources for the decades in question.

The goal was to let the literature of the decades tell the story of U.S. school counseling’s history. As a result, while I use the term school counseling to label the program, others over the decades and even today use terms such as guidance or guidance and counseling to label the program. It was not possible to use all of the available sources, so they were carefully reviewed and ones were chosen to reflect as accurately as possible the story of school counseling as it unfolded over the past 100-plus years. You also will find numerous direct quotes used in the book. This was done to allow you to read the exact words that authors used in their debates and discussions that occurred over the decades.