ARE THEY LISTENING

By: Marqiff Anderson

3/27/19

Every kid at our age goes through something that may change their lives forever. Whether it is positive or negative something will happen, it is life. In Carver we have problems like every human should have and search for help when we feel it is necessary. I was talking to a friend and he was telling me he goes to counseling but does not feel like it works which made me worry. Say if I actually need help with mental problems but the counselor cannot help, how will I feel? Hi my name is Marqiff Anderson and my question is do counselors REALLY listen to students?

I was looking around for articles of school counselors and what are their duties in a school and found that the school counselors’ primary role is supposedly to "improve your child’s academic success, career development, and personal/social health" (ASCA, 2016). As part of this, they should be helping children overcome a variety of issues that affect school achievement and overall wellness. This means school counselors have the innate job of building relationships and rapport with all of the children in the school. Children, therefore, should have a trusted counselor to talk to, thus, placing an adult in a position to stop violent and harmful behaviors and intervene in many areas.

Knowing this verifies that all counselors have expectations they should live up to. Now the real question is do they live up to those expectations.

I have emailed schools like Central, Philadelphia Military High School, Mastbaum and more, I’ve gotten no emails back.

Another question I have is “Are there enough of them in our schools?”

At Carver, we have a student body of 900+ and we have two school counselors. Two. To me that sounds like an uneven ratio and seems impossible to to complete such a job if every or even half the students have a problem.