Environmentalism

An interesting concept that the dialogue within education has lead to concerns the changing dimensions of "space". How do counselors working within the education environment define themselves?
 
First it is important to note that education counseling may be a separate and distinguishable field. The term education counseling may be a consideration to replace the old standard referred to as school counseling. Education connotes a broader intangible than the term "school", a more tangible concept. School is a building where, hopefully, education takes place. But what is "education"? And how is counseling part of education? Does education necessarily need the school building? How does it (counseling) fit in? As well, if there are other contexts where counseling happens, can we say that education counseling differs from other kinds of counseling? If so, then how?

As educators continue to dialogue in the 21st century with a particular focus on defining school counseling within the context of an educational setting some are discovering that our profession is most effective if we are conscientious about working within a structured environment.  So the term environment is important to understanding what we do as education counselors. Education counselors must have an educational environment to work within. We cannot, by law, form a separate business where clients come to receive services. That's a clinical setup. Our service is to the environment of the educational setting. Serving the individual is most progressive and special when we are focused on maintaining a quality environment. Education counseling then, works best when we formulate a comprehensive program that addresses the real needs of the educational environment. Because of a high student-counselor ratio, ideally we work towards continually developing what we are doing with individual students so that we can move the growth experience into a small group and---miracles permitting--- into larger groups such as whole classrooms and assemblies.

For the purposes of extending this discussion to you, the reading audience, let us define educational environment as the school and all of its participating primary stakeholders. So it is the educational setting and all of the people that choose to be connected with that place to upkeep and improve their own own lives as well as the education that happens in and around that place. 

To be clear, in the 21st Century an educational setting could be a site within the internet; it does not have to be something as tangible as a building. So educational counselors have to be flexible enough to envision ourselves in a manner that keeps us relevant in our own time and according to whatever space is opened for the purpose of educating people.

The idea that school counselors possibly need to account for how our work makes a difference in the lives of the clients we serve is a welcome change, probably our greatest hope for survival. Having a stronger focus on how our techniques and methodologies effect school, home, and community climate forces us to a level of individual and group introspection that will, in the long run, lead to a higher quality service. Such a reality potentially leads to greater respect among community members as well as among professionals sharing the educational environment. If, from within the ranks of education counselors, there continues to be a sustained effort to radically define and improve standards within our profession, the potential is greater that we will experience more respect from others, our peers working within the educational setting, clients, and community stakeholders. This is a tremendous task to maintain in the face of nation-wide budget cuts and talk about whether counselors are essential to have in schools.  Traditionally, education professionals may have concentrated primarily on political connections to control systemic change/improvement. It is interesting to note how the reaction of today's school counseling professionals is primarily focused on developing dialogue, collaboration.  This makes it more feasible to form progressive alliances with elected legislators being that we have taken the time to formulate our ideas and have successful  models operating in the field. So we come forward with tangible evidence in-hand rather than open handed, insisting on a handout.  

The focus now is on environmentalism. Whether we are performing as education counselors in cyberspace or in and around a school building, the question that must be answered is: How does our service concurrently benefit the institution as well as the clientele?

More to come.

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