{"id":1818,"date":"2018-02-05T08:30:33","date_gmt":"2018-02-05T13:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nacacadmitted.wpengine.com\/wordpress\/?p=1818"},"modified":"2018-02-02T09:53:33","modified_gmt":"2018-02-02T14:53:33","slug":"why-you-should-celebrate-national-school-counseling-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/2018\/02\/05\/why-you-should-celebrate-national-school-counseling-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Why You Should Celebrate National School Counseling Week"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"It just figures that National School Counseling Week<\/a> starts the day after the Super Bowl. The country gorges on guacamole-covered chicken wings on Sunday, and when America\u2019s most misunderstood group of educators asks for three nacho chips and a high-five on Monday, the country is too tired to party.<\/p>\n

In some ways, we don\u2019t mind. The last time we made headlines, most people surveyed felt that school counselors were more of a hindrance than a help in applying to college. Before that, we were the punch line of a car ad \u2014 \u201cYour guidance counselor drives a minivan\u201d \u2014 or we were known as the washed-up teachers who were given offices close to the principal so he could keep an eye on us.<\/p>\n

But Jenny doesn\u2019t see us that way.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Jenny was the quiet, slender girl who didn\u2019t cause anyone trouble, except herself. When two or three students saw Jenny needed help, they went straight to the school counselor, who called Jenny into that office close to the principal to talk about it in a safe, confidential place. Jenny got help, and became an even more beautiful person.<\/p>\n

Steve doesn\u2019t see us that way either. Three weeks into school, he had his fifth unexcused absence, and was on his way to flunking a required course. He told his school counselor he was working late to support the newborn son no one knew he had. His counselor asked the teacher to give Steve one last break, but never mentioned why. Steve got it, graduated, and got a full-time job that paid enough to take care of his young family.<\/p>\n

If you didn\u2019t know that, you\u2019re not supposed to. When someone\u2019s life slips or they don\u2019t know where to turn, school counselors give them the space for grace and dignity to rebuild and strengthen their lives, all without fanfare. Sometimes, if you don\u2019t know we\u2019re doing our job, we\u2019re doing our job pretty well.<\/p>\n

Of course, we aren\u2019t perfect. Most of us work with 450 students at once, and some have twice that number. Since many principals think we should change schedules instead of lives, we don\u2019t have as much time to help students as we\u2019d like, and most of us were never \u2014 never \u2014 trained how to help students apply to college.<\/p>\n

I bet you didn\u2019t know that either.<\/p>\n

Old habits die hard \u2014 school counselors know that for sure \u2014 but if you have a minute this week, stop by and thank your school counselor for everything you don\u2019t know they\u2019re doing, and put in a good word for them with the principal. We might not score winning touchdowns or drive fast cars, but when the goal is to drive 450 students to win their own big game, the minivan really rocks it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/em><\/p>\n


\nNACAC Past President Patrick O\u2019Connor is a School Counselor Ambassador Fellow with the US Department of Education, and associate dean of college counseling at Cranbrook Schools in metropolitan Detroit.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It just figures that National School Counseling Week starts the day after the Super Bowl. The country gorges on guacamole-covered chicken wings on Sunday, and when America\u2019s most misunderstood group of educators asks for three nacho chips and a high-five on Monday, the country is too tired to party. In some ways, we don\u2019t mind. … Continue reading Why You Should Celebrate National School Counseling Week<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[383],"class_list":["post-1818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-importance-of-school-counselors","tag-nscw18"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Patrick O'Connor","author_link":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/author\/patrick-oconnor\/"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peWmJq-tk","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1818\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}