Children often face a hard time at school. In younger years, school will be their first foray into the social world. They will experience all the joys and sadness of building friendships, making enemies, and withholding personal struggles at home to get through a day of work and social pressure. Kids learn how to survive in this system while attending school, and for several years, interactions with their class and peers will set the standard for their growth as an adult.
School counselors are often integral to helping students feel like they have a place to go when things get overwhelming. School counselors are responsible for assisting students in navigating their mental well-being and for providing support to students who feel that their negative experiences outweigh positive ones.
But what data is there to show that school counselors are doing their job?
Who/What are School Counselors?
According to the American School Counselor Association, school counselors are there to assist students “form healthy goals, mindsets, and behaviors.” They are there to assist students in bearing burdens, navigating their academia, providing emotional and mental support, and developing positive coping mechanisms.
School counselors require rigorous education and training to achieve their position. This usually comes in the form of a Bachelor’s Degree in counseling or psychiatry but can be followed up by further study, such as an on-campus or online master’s in school counseling. These heavy educational requirements ensure that our nation’s students are in the best hands possible when it comes to getting the mental support they need.
Many personality traits help to thrive in this career. In the day-to-day, a school counselor is dealing with kids of varying ages who are in assorted states of distress or discomfort. Some students may merely be feeling overwhelmed by their workload and need some help in sorting out a schedule, or an advocate with a teacher when applying for an extension. Other times, counselors may be dealing with students suffering from extreme depression, anxiety, or volatile home situations. Some may be victims of bullying or have undiagnosed conditions that are making pursuing their studies excessively difficult.
Being a school counselor demands resilience, compassion, empathy, a good ability to compartmentalize, and a genuine sense of fulfillment from helping others.
Does School Counseling Work?
Current research shows that school counseling almost unanimously provides a platform for students to effectively expand their lives, meet their academic requirements, and get more stability and value out of their lives.
It was proven in a 2010 study that mental health services, including but not limited to school counseling, were directly responsible for the improved behavioral mannerisms and characteristics of elementary school-aged students. Another study in 2014 found that these same services resulted in better academic achievement.
Aside from amending behavior and improving academics, school counselors are also instrumental in helping students cope with the demands of their lives, and this is possibly the most important duty of a school counselor. A study published by the National Library of Medicine in 2020 showed that according to an empirical study, school counseling was directly responsible for improved mental health scores in students.
The State of School Counseling
Despite the integral benefits of school counseling that have been proven time and time again, there is a problem in the education sector at the moment. America is facing a significant shortage of teaching and school counseling staff.
According to current research, teachers are not only quitting, but changing careers en masse. There are several root causes behind this trend. Rising rates of school violence are making school a stressful environment to work in. This stress may be tolerable under the proper conditions, but student-to-teacher ratios have increased significantly in recent years, leading to teachers (and students) becoming overwhelmed and burnt out. All of this, and teacher’s wages are stagnating, meaning that not only is the job demanding more of teachers than ever before, but they’re not even being properly remunerated for their efforts.
Sadly, this is also affecting our nation’s school mental health faculties. Since the COVID-19 Pandemic, 77% of counties have reported severe shortages of mental health support for their students. Only 17% of phone calls placed by students to seek mental health services were successful this year, and currently, the US is facing an overall shortage of mental health professionals of 6.8%. This figure is expected to double by 2025.
If you’re exploring the option of being a school counselor, now may be the best time. Counselors are essential to a good and healthy school experience for our nation’s youth, and if the shortage isn’t addressed, it could have dire implications for the future of our country.
What To Do?
Although things are a bit dismal right now, the good news is that we aren’t in the endgame yet. Things can get better, and they will with the right conditions.
As a nation, we need to put pressure on our politicians and policymakers to invest more heavily in this country’s educational resources. If we can lower the number of students-to-teachers/counselors, then the rates of burnout and violence will decrease, leading to more job satisfaction and safety. We also need to raise wages to ensure that these essential workers are being appropriately paid for their invaluable service.
As a society, we need to value and support our educational, and mental health support staff more. Far too often, counselors are disregarded as glorified teachers, which are further disregarded as glorified babysitters.
The reality is that providing mental health support to kids for a living is exceedingly difficult. It involves a peerless ability to separate personal biases from professional requirements, not to mention knowing when students require help from other professionals, such as police, if they are being abused, or medical staff if they display symptoms of conditions like dyslexia or ADHD. If the shortage isn’t addressed it is our kids that will suffer.
However, to reiterate, it’s not too late. With a mix of political intervention and renewed interest in the field, the essential services that school counselors offer can continue to support students in their endeavors, leading to a more stable, academically competent, and emotionally well country we can be truly proud of.
