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(K.K. Shrivastava) Principles of Guidance and Coun PDF
(K.K. Shrivastava) Principles of Guidance and Coun PDF
K.K. Shrivastava
iv
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Preface
Guidance, in the Western intellectual world, not only as a subject of professional and academic study but as a concept
itself is not even hundred-year old, but due to its utmost importance in the changing pattern of society it has received
much attention in the Western world—USA and UK in particular. In India guidance as a subject of academic study is in
an infantile stage, therefore, in India literature on guidance is very scanty and, thus, there is a great need of good book in
our land. The work at hand is an attempt to fulfil this need of our people for the good of our nation in the face of changing
pattern of socio-economic, socio-political, socio-educational and socio-cultural systems, which are taking complex shape
due to advancement in science and technology and shifting nature of human behaviour and his adjustment with his family,
community and society.
The book captioned as "Principles of Guidance and Counselling" is not a case study of the working of guidance services
in India but a study of wide range of principles of guidance which deserve proper application in our national guidance
programmes which are in an infantile stage at present.
Among the several books, mostly Western publications, on guidance this book claims to be most comprehensive
description and analysis of the basic and fundamental principles of guidance. It covers the syllabi of all the Indian
universities on the subject in simple and lucid language.
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The part one of this book lays down the fundamentals of guidance required to be understood by every specialist, scholar,
teacher, guidance worker and student of the subject. The aspects and concepts included in this book, in toto, are not
available in any other single book, hence, this book rightly claims to be most comprehensive in its nature and analyses.
The part one of this book includes various aspects of guidance such as—the historical perspective, conceptual aspects,
approaches and fundamentals, strategies and techniques, nature of man in democracy, socio-psychological factors of
human behaviour, individual's evaluation for guidance, changing attitudes towards children, roles and functions of teachers
and counsellors, understanding individual's personality, self-understanding, duties and responsibilities of guidance
personnel, family and community, educational curriculum, counselling in individual situations, group approach, guidance
in elementary and secondary schools, vocational choice and occupational adjustment, guidance towards family life, life
goals and leisure time, guidance of budding children and adults and guidance for discovery and utilization of human
resources.
Part two of this book 'Guiding Creative Talent' is the most outstanding feature of the work at your hand. To the best of
my knowledge—this concept does not find place in any Indian or Western publication on the subject, but since this aspect
is of vital importance, therefore, we have devoted four chapters to discuss this vital aspect in this book. Aspects
concerning guidance and creative talent included in this book are, 1. The Causes for Concern, 2. Identifying the Creative
Personality, 3. Problems of Maintaining Creativity, and 4. Creative Talent and Goals of Guidance.
Planned as a text book for the students and reference book for the specialists, scholars, teachers and guidance workers this
book is a critical and constructive appraisal of the subject, which I have tried my best to make this book the best for the
intellectuals, the readers are the best judge of its merits, therefore, suggestions for improvement are cordially invited.
K.K. SHRIVASTAVA
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Contents
Preface v
1. Guidance: A Historical Perspective 1
• Introduction
• Introduction
* Definition of Guidance
* Education is the Process of Changes that Take Place within the Individual
* Education is Instruction
* Education is a Function of Society
* Guidance as Punishment
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* Preventive Guidance
• Advice as Guidance
* Vocational Guidance
* Educational Guidance
* Personal Guidance
* Child-Guidance Clinics
* Common Objectives
• Guidance Approaches
* Controversial Issues
* The Continuity of Guidance
* Guidance as a Profession
• Kinds of Guidance
• Fundamental Propositions
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• Counselling
* What is Counselling?
• Types of Counselling
Client-Centered Techniques
• Group Guidance and Group Counselling
* Guidance in Groups
* Group Counselling
* Multiple Counselling
• A Point of View
• Guidance
* Patterns of Needs
• Problems of Adjustment
x
8. Individual's Evaluation Essential for Effective 102
Guidance
* Function of Evaluation
* Evaluating Approaches
* Observation
* Anecdotal Records
* Autobiographical Sketches
* Sociograms
* Teacher-Pupil Interviews
* Intelligence Tests
* Significance of Traits
* Individual Testing
* Group Testing
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• Role of Teachers
• Teachers are Concerned with Teaching; Counsellors are Concerned with Learning
• Importance of Understanding
* Individuals Change
• Aids in Understanding
* Mutual Experiences
* Cumulative Records
* Community Information
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• Measurement of Self-Understanding
* Autobiography
* Interview
* John's Family
* Father's Family
* Mother's Family
* John Himself
* Administrative Responsibilities
* Responsibilities
* Personal Qualities
* Assignment of Responsibilities
* General—Each Counsellor
• Functional Competencies
* The Psychiatrist
* The Teacher
* The Librarian
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Co-operation
Group Consultation Family Group Consultation Procedure Family Group Consultation Goal Social Class and Life Styles
in Families Issues and Dilemmas for Family Social Class Change School-Home Relationship and Guidance
Community
* Curriculum Considerations
* Curriculum Improvement
• Curriculum Articulation
• Curriculum Evaluation
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— Method of Approach
— Appraisal Techniques
— Effecting Changes
• Functions
1. Groups to be Served
2. Group Leadership
3. The Group Situation as a Supplement to Individual Counselling
* Purposes to be Served
— 3. Guidance Courses
Management
Personnel
* Guidance Associations
— 2. Organizational Decisions
— 4. Getting Started
— 7. Evaluating Outcomes
* Parent-Teacher Associations
xv
* Grade-Parent Groups
* Child-Study Groups
* Difficulties Encountered
* Reading Materials
* Audio-visual Aids
* Learning Problems
xvi
20. Guidance: Emphasis on Vocational Choice and Occupational Adjustment 284
• Introduction
* Specific Techniques
* Job Placement
* Worker Orientation
* Supervisor Attitudes
* Employment Problems
* Job Counselling
* Play Activities
* Mental Development
* Parental Guidance
* Value to Parents
* Habit Development
xvii
* Influence of Guidance
* Factors of Adjustment
* Marital Counselling
* Value of Education
• Underachievers
* General Methods of Assistance
xviii
* Immediacy of Need
* Types of Guidance
* The Interview
* Creative Activities
* Recreation
* Escape
* Service Activities
* Competitive Activities
* Mental Health
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* Educational Achievement
* Vocational Success
* Social Importance
• Guidance Roles
* Provide a 'Refuge'
* Be a Sponsor or Patron
* Help Him Understand His Divergence
• Specific Goals
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* Avoiding Exploitation
* Accepting Limitations
* Utilising Opportunities
* Holding to Purposes
* Reducing Isolation
There always have been and will continue to be people with an occasional need for the help of older or more experienced
associates in meeting problem situations; nor is it difficult to find someone who is more than willing to respond to
requests for such assistance. In fact, every family or community group probably includes at least one person who delights
in offering gratuitous advice to his fellows.
The 'adviser' considers himself well qualified to direct the behaviour of others, to serve as mentor or guide in the conduct
of their daily affairs.
The guidance movement is gathering strength from the efforts of individuals in many states and nations. Originally these
efforts were from persons interested in the problems of youth as they entered the world of work. Today it is realized that
those, in the academic disciplines of sociology, anthropology,
economics, and political science, as well as those in education and psychology, have contributions to make to the waxing
strength of the guidance movement.
The guidance movement is a young one, perhaps but a freshet in the longer view, having a history of only a little over
eighty years. But this is enough to create many pools and eddies in the current of what does, or should, constitute the
main stream.
The role of the guidance worker is changing and it will continue to do so. Change is the guidance way of life. Much
depends on the person's orientation, his self-concept, and his response to the challenges and opportunities of kaleidoscopic
change. Whether he will drift along like a twig on the Columbia or swim, sail, or harness the power and check the flow
depends on his choice and his abilities. Such are the choices and considerations dealt with in this chapter.
Parsons believed that vocational counselling would lead to greater individual fulfilment as well as to a more efficient and
humane industrial system. Within a year his Vocational Bureau began to work in cooperation with the Boston schools to
guide children and adolescents into suitable schools and curricula No longer were the young people following faithfully in
the footsteps of their parents; and Parsons' insight into the resultant perplexities and his subsequent action led to his being
called the "father of the guidance movement."
He did not have the technical resources to accomplish the task of studying the individual. Patterson asserts that at that
time and for Parsons the psychological cupboard was bare. Instead he studied the occupations and the demands made by
various jobs on the individual.
The enduring outcome of Parsons' work is the development of occupational information. Today counsellors are moving
away from the concept of studying jobs to one which emphasizes the willingness and ability of the individual to change
and meet new demands as the culture develops. There is even the further rather frightening prospect, postulated by some,
that automation and cybernation may render it unnecessary for many persons to work at all—in the traditional sense of the
term.
And thus arises the need for concern about the individual's total life and future. Perhaps for different reasons, this sort of
thinking was what led Davis, working in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1908, to add to vocational guidance such aspects as
moral guidance, course selection, counselling regarding cocurricular activities, and respect for the social side of complete
living by using group guidance. Other school systems in New York, Chicago, Cincinnati, and Philadelphia began
comparable programmes at about the same time.
The psychological cupboard did not remain bare for long. Walter Dill Scott and Robert M. Yerkes helped develop tests for
the armed services. The inclination to use tests gained much impetus during World War I. The Q (qualification) card was
developed at that time and was used extensively during World War II. Parallel developments in the school were the
cumulative folder or cumulative record, and the introduction of intelligence tests.
A steady stream of occupational information has continued since the days of Parsons and the counsellor today receives
almost daily some pamphlet, brochure, booklet, or advertisement of a book about some phase of occupations and
occupational orientation.
Similarly, there is experimentation, improvisation, and reexamination of tests so that one of the largest volumes in the
counsellor's stock of resources in the Mental Measurements Yearbook which is published at intervals of five to ten years
— and the contents are not repeated. The Yearbook describes newly developed tests of intelligence, personality, and
subject areas and evaluates them in terms of utility and scholarly construction.
The growth of information and tests, inventories, and questionnaires has been accomplished by a stocking of the
cupboards of psychological information regarding the nature
of the individual. His small but significant differences from his fellow men have been noted and 'measured' with much
more statistical accuracy than the instruments themselves have been capable of supporting.
No exact date for the emergence of the importance of the individual in the guidance process can be selected but by 1930
the emphasis was clearly discernible. Test data about the individual were part of the clinical study of him—the other
major part was the information which could be obtained by the skilled counsellor about interests, values, prejudices,
hopes, and aspirations.
Whether test data or interview data are more significant is one of the disturbing eddies in the course of personnel work. It
is to be hoped that counsellors will see the value of both tests and interviews and set a course rather than to dissipate their
energy in the discussion of which should receive priority.
The mental hygiene movement and the introduction of child guidance clinics—reflecting concern for the individual—were
other influences in shaping the nature of guidance in the school. The mental hygiene movement began in 1909 with the
establishment of the National Committee for Mental Hygiene.
The Committee's definition of mental health might well state the concern which counsellors have for their pupils in the
school. "Mental health may be defined as the adjustment of individuals to themselves and the world at large with a
maximum of effectiveness, satisfactions, cheerfulness, and socially considerate behaviour, and the ability to face and
accept the realities of life."
The first child guidance clinic was an outgrowth of the 1909 experiences of a husband and wife medical team, Drs. Healy,
when working with children in Chicago slums. Today the school counsellor finds frequent occasions when he can work, to
the mutual benefit of the clinic, the school, and the child, with local child guidance clinics now existing in both small and
large communities throughout the nation.
The National Vocational Guidance Association (NVGA) was founded in USA in 1913, at which times three guidance
needs were identified: economic—more efficient use and distribution of workers in industry, educational—appropriate
courses for pupils, and social—the preservation of societal values.
The Association was reorganised in 1920, at which time the importance of grass-roots emphases was recognised. Seven
branches were used as the elements of a federation. By 1952 the number of branches had grown to eighty-six. Members
were guidance workers in elementary and secondary schools, college counsellors, and personnel from government,
industry, and business.
The federal government has played an increasingly important role in the development of guidance since 1936. At that time
the President's Advisory Committee on Education made recommendations for guidance on the national level. The George-
Dean Act of 1936 reemphasized the purpose of the Smith-Hughes Act of 1917 in supporting vocational education in
schools.
The George-Harden Act of 1946 expanded federal activity by lending support to the guidance services. The National
Defense Education Act of 1958 provided, under Title V-A, support for local school districts in providing better facilities,
testing programmes, and for secondary school guidance activities. Title V-B provided for the establishment of Counselling
and Guidance Institutes, with stipends for enrollees, for those who wished to prepare, or upgrade their qualifications, for
secondary school counselling.
In 1964 the act was revised to make similar provisions for elementary schools and personnel. The federal government has
published or encouraged publication of materials on the gifted child, the dropout and the potential dropout, and on the
culturally disadvantaged with particular emphasis on the role of counsellors.
In 1966 there was a strong surge of interest in establishing a position and policy for the role and preparation of elementary
school counsellors.
In 1952 the NVGA, because of varied interests and insights into the ramifications of vocational guidance, merged with
several associations having similar concern. The new organisation. The American Personnel and Guidance Association,
consists of the following divisions, with the title of the corresponding publication being indicated:
The gradual emergence of the focus on the individual, rather than on a problem such as vocational orientation or facile
adjustment to school, has been at least implied. More and more people are realizing that a vocational choice is a personal
problem involving family, friends, future, economics, and ethics— hence a cultural matter.
A second reason for the significance of the historical presentation is to show that guidance workers are not alone. The
frustrations and disappointments inherent in the helping relationship are shared by others. On the other hand, the
accomplishments and the gratifications one experiences are enhanced as they are seen to be helpful to others.
The third reason for studying the history may be but an extension of the second—the study of the many threads of history
and the emergence of new ideas may serve to warn the individual against encapsulation. In a field developing as rapidly as
guidance and counselling it can only be assumed that the next few years will yield many insights, suggest new emphases,
and present more opportunities for innovation.
History warns against the danger of becoming arrested at the stage of vocational guidance—as some have been. It warns
against overemphasizing tests—as some do. It warns against the temptation to accept all thek 'folklore' presented in a
counselling interview—as some so accept.
Paul Mort is credited with asserting that it takes forty years for a proven idea to be accepted in the schools. Today with 50
per cent of elementary students having no footsteps, parental or any others, to follow it is well that over forty years have
passed and the idea of guidance has been accepted. Today the problem is one of getting enough qualified counsellors to
do the job, and enough inspired counsellors to envision the paths that have not as yet been clearly blazed.
Thus we see that officially in USA, guidance gained national recognition in 1936 but due to World War II much effort
were not made by the government to develop it, which was done in 1946 and re-emphasised in 1958. Following USA's
example other nations also recognised national, social and educational importance of guidance and accordingly introduced
some programmes. We in India accepted this concept in theory after 1962 and thereafter too the guidance programmes are
just a official formality. We need to do a lot to have the benefits of this programme for the good of the nation.
Guidance is the assistance given to individuals in making intelligent choices and adjustments. It is based on the
democratic principle that it is the duty and the right of every individual to choose his own way in life in so far as his
choice does not interfere with the rights of others. The ability to make such choices is not innate but, like other abilities,
must be developed. One of the functions of education is to provide opportunities for the development of such abilities.
Guidance is an integral part of education and is centered directly upon this function. Guidance does not make choices for
individuals; it helps them make their own choices in such a way as to promote to stimulate the gradual development of the
ability to make decisions independently without assistance from others.
The basic function of guidance is, of course, to help individuals who need or seek assistance in the meeting of problem
situations. The kind and amount of help provided by individuals or groups depend upon their understanding of the
guidance concept.
Guidance alike education too aims at all round harmonious development of individuals, which may be understood as
follows:
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Guidance is a process. As such, it defies exact definition. A former student of the authors, now a full-time school
guidance counsellor, was asked to define guidance. Her reply was, "What is guidance? To me it's a twenty-four-hour job!"
Indeed, for anyone who sincerely desires to meet his guidance responsibilities, the challenge of offering effective
guidance services is broad and deep.
Life problems are becoming more and more complex. Traditional mores and personal convictions concerning rightness
and wrongness of attitude and behaviour are breaking down. The black-and-white analyses of our Puritan ancestors in
matters dealing with human relations are fast giving way to neutral grays. No longer are we able to affirm, unchallenged,
that one mode of conduct is completely right and another wrong. Nor are thinking people willing to assert didactically that
any person must necessarily behave in the future in a manner similar to his past or present behaviour.
Many diverse factors inherent within our home, school, and social and occupational activities and relationships pull us in
different directions. We often find ourselves in such a state of confusion or bewilderment that it is difficult to steer
unaided the course of our conduct toward ends which will be satisfying to ourselves and to those about us. Too often the
recognized need for advice or guidance leads us to become the victims of those who set themselves up as authorities in
areas of guidance for which they have little or no capacity beyond the power to speak convincingly in a 'patter' of
glittering generalities. These generalities may satisfy the listener for the moment, but they do little toward building within
him the power to face reality courageously or to gain strength to meet the problems which arise in his life.
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According to a statement prepared recently by a representative group of Virginia educators, guidance is necessary in
meeting the NEED:
For each person to feel that he is making a contribution to any group of which he is a part.
For the opportunity to develop and use his abilities and experiences.
These statements are based on the belief that "each person is an individual in his own right and has within him the power
for change and development. He has capabilities for making desirable choices that will lead to continuing adjustment."
An individual's experiencing of an actual guidance need may or may not be accompanied by a desire to seek help in a
problem situation. People vary in the extent to which they are able to exercise independent judgment in the management
of their affairs. Some persons who consider themselves self-sufficient could profit from assistance which is available but
about which they do not know or which they will not accept.
There is another type of person, who appears to be unable or unwilling to think for himself, to plan his own activities, or
to discover for himself the information he needs. A person of this kind tends to transfer his 'burdens' to the shoulders of
other members of his family or of acquaintances. Unfortunately, coupled with this person's attitude of indecisiveness and
dependence there may be a tendency to criticize adversely the assistance offered him by the one from whom he has sought
help.
In a recent annual report to the Superintendent of Schools, the Director of the Department on Guidance and Placement in
Medford, Massachusetts, said:
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The objectives of the guidance and counselling programme are to provide services which will meet certain needs in the
growth and development of young people, namely:
Recognition and development of favourable attitudes and habits, and the elimination of undesirable traits. Self-direction.
Selection of appropriate courses in line with individual needs, interests, abilities, and circumstances.
Knowledge of occupational fields toward which individual aptitudes and interests may best be directed. Help in finding
suitable employment.
Research with respect to needs of pupils and the effectiveness of the secondary school curriculum.
The fulfilment of the basic needs as given above for which guidance has assumed the major responsibility will help
greatly to meet our present-day situation without damaging freedom of choice.
As you read this list of the basic needs of young people with some insight into the possible guidance implications of even
one area of needs, such as personal development and adjustment, you may be overwhelmed by the magnitude of the task
that awaits the man or woman who is in the process of preparing to assume guidance responsibilities.
Some individuals need guidance throughout their entire lives; others need help only during their youth or in unusually
critical situations. The chief guidance responsibility of society is toward children and youth and those who, because of
congenital defects, disease, accident, or political-social handicaps, do not have equal opportunities for activities that will
satisfy their individual and social needs. Situations that call for guidance are varied and numerous.
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Guidance functions whenever choices are to be made and where help is needed in making intelligent decisions. Even when
there is no choice possible guidance may help the individual understand and accept the situation; that is, it may enable
him to "co-operate with the inevitable."
Guidance may also operate when the individual is not conscious that a choice is possible by pointing out the avenues that
are open to him. In still other circumstances the time may not be favourable for making a choice because of fatigue,
emotional strain, or influences that will make an intelligent decision unlikely. In such situations the best help may well be
to suggest that only those decisions be made which are mandatory, leaving open as many as possible until a later, more
favourable, time.
Even in its beginning, however, the purpose of guidance was more than just for finding jobs for youth. Much attention
was given to a 'wise' choice, that is, one that was suited to the abilities and needs of the individual. Although the
vocational aspect has always been stressed, guidance has gone far beyond this; it is now concerned with the entire
individual, in all aspects of his life, and with the interrelation between the individual and society. It helps youth to attain a
life that is individually satisfying and socially effective.
When we stress the fact that everyone, at one time or another, may be in need of guidance, we must be sure that we
understand thoroughly just what it is that he needs and should have made available for his use. Guidance is not giving
directions.
It is not the imposition of one person's point of view upon another person. It is not making decisions for an individual
which he should make for himself. It is not carrying the burdens of another's life.
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Rather, guidance is assistance made available by personally qualified and adequately trained men or women to an
individual of any age to help him manage his own life activities, develop his own points of view, make his own decisions,
and carry his own burdens.
Shirley Hamrin's definition of guidance as "helping John to see through himself in order that he may see himself through"
is a simple and practical but challenging concept of guidance. This statement represents much more than a facile
arrangement of words. Once the guidance worker has led an individual to see the extent of his guidance needs, any further
help given him in solving his difficulties or problems requires patience, understanding, and experience combined with
training, if the individual is to receive the kind and amount of assistance that will bring about desirable adjustment.
Whenever a person is aided directly or indirectly by another person in gaining in knowledge, emotional fitness, mental
acuity or stability, social and civic adjustment, or occupational efficiency and job satisfaction, guidance of one kind or
another is functioning. It will be noted that guidance, thus conceived, increases the individual's power to think and
perform. It should not be considered an activity having for its purpose the lessening of an individual's ability to act
independently or to follow his own initiative.
Guidance is operating whenever a child, adolescent, or adult is helped in any way by another person or persons to come to
a decision, improve his behaviour, or change his attitude concerning people or things.
Adults are constantly guiding the life of a young person, either by precept or by example. This is accomplished many
times without specific purpose or even awareness on the part of the person who is responsible for the guidance. The
young person who has benefited from his association with a fine adult, who has imitated his behaviour, or who has been
influenced by his words may be equally unaware of the eventual effect upon him of what he has observed or heard.
Definition of Guidance
Guidance is the help given by one person to another in making choices and adjustments and in solving problems.
Guidance
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aims at aiding the recipient to grow in his independence and ability to be responsible for himself. It is a service that is
universal—not confined to the school or the family. It is found in all phases of life—in the home, in business and
industry, in government, in social life, in hospitals, and in prisons; indeed it is present wherever there are people who need
help and wherever there are people who can help.
"Guidance is an attempt to individualize education. Each pupil should be helped to develop himself in the maximum
possible degree in all respects." —Kitson
"Guidance is a service designed to help one individual or group of individuals in making necessary adjustment to
environment whether that be within the school or outside it." —Proctor
"Fundamental of all the guidance is the help or assistance given by one competent person to another individual so that the
latter may direct his life by developing his point of view, make his own decisions and carry out those decisions." —Crow
and Crow
"Guidance is inherent in education and as such should be done largely by classroom teacher. He should try to help pupils
set up dynamic, reasonable and worthwhile objectives for themselves." —Cox
"Guidance involves personal help to promote the growth of an individual in self-direction. The help may be given to the
individual alone or in a group; it is the individual who is the focus of attention and not the group. Also this attention is to
be paid to the individual and not to the problem." —Jones
"Guidance involves the difficult art of helping boys and girls to plan their own future wisely in the full light of all the
factors that can be mastered about themselves and about the world in which they are to live and work." Quoted by Indu
Dave in a paper 'The Initial Interview' published in 'Siksa', October, 1958.
"Guidance is the process of assisting the individual to choose, to prepare, to enter upon and progress in course of action
pertaining to the educational, vocational, recreational
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and community services."—Manual of Educational and Vocational Guidance: Ministry of Education, Government of
India.
"Guidance is a process of helping individuals through their own efforts to discover and develop their potentialities both for
personal happiness and social usefulness." —Labh Singh
"All guidance is education, but some aspects of education are not guidance, the objectives of both education and guidance
may be the same viz., the development of individual, but the methods used are different." —B.B. Taneja
"Assistance given to an individual in solving problems related to occupational choice and progress with due regard for the
individual's characteristics and their relation to occupational opportunity."—The General Conference, ILO, 1949.
Current public interest in guidance is not something entirely new. The first half of the present century was noteworthy for
its extensive and intensive research into human development and effective learning. As educators attempted to apply
research findings to school situations, certain basic concepts came to be expressed in catchwords or phrases: "education of
the whole child," "homogeneity of grouping," "community school," "learning by doing," "project method," "core
curriculum," "social promotion," "areas of living," "broad fields," and so on. Present emphasis seems to be given
especially to "education for world co-operation," and "guidance and personnel service."
Each of these slogans, in turn, has been accepted enthusiastically by the lay public, and even by some superficial thinkers
among professional leaders, as representating the one 'best' educational approach to the achievement of good individual
and group adjustment. Unfortunately, these catch
17
phrases may be recited glibly by persons who have little understanding of their full meaning. Neither do the less well
informed recognise that the complexity of human nature and existing chaotic conditions in world affairs make it necessary
for education itself to be a complex, many-sided process. Basic to all successful learning is the application, in perhaps
modified form, of all or most of the concepts that may appear to have been discovered suddenly and singly.
'Education' may be used to mean (1) the process of changes that take place within the individual, (2) instruction, or (3) the
conscious effort of society to guide and direct the physical, mental, emotional, and moral growth of the individual so that
he will be able to live a life that will be socially effective and individually satisfying. To make clear the relationship
between guidance and education each of these meanings needs to be examined more closely.
"In actual life, however neither occupations are designed to suit individuals nor are individuals made in order to fit into
specifies vocations. It is an educational process in which learning experiences provided in the school, home, and near
neighbourhood help to bring about adjustment between the individual and an occupation." —Kocher
Education is the Process of Changes that Take Place within the Individual
From this point of view education is essentially a process; it is something that takes place in individuals; it is the process
by which changes are made in the individual or, better, by which the individual makes changes in himself. At birth human
beings are the most helpless of all animals. They are absolutely dependent upon others for their very existence. For long
years they must be fed, cared for, and protected in order to preserve
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Man is much less adjusted by nature to his physical environment than any other animal. He must learn to walk, to eat, to
make those adjustments that are necessary to cope with physical nature. Habits must be formed, skills developed, and
facts learned before it is safe for him to go out into the world alone. Since he is not naturally suited to his physical
environment, changes must be made in him before he can be adjusted.
If this is true of his physical environment, it is much more so of his social environment. Very few adjustments to the
social environment are because of nature. Man's physical nature and equipment have remained practically unchanged for
centuries. His stature, his features, his brain are essentially the same now as they were when the great pyramids were built.
Although man essentially has not changed, the structure of society has become tremendously complex. Social demands
have so far outstripped man's physical nature that the gap between the social plane of the infant and that of the adult is
very wide—impossible to cross, in fact, without assistance. As civilization advances, the gap is ever widening.
The method by which the infant is enabled to bridge this gap, to raise himself from the social plane of childhood to that of
manhood, is education. This is accomplished by certain changes that are made by the individual so that he acts in
appropriate and desirable ways to situations that confront him. The number of changes and their quality are such as to
require long years and special techniques for their development. Education is, then, the process by which the individual
makes these necessary changes.
From this point of view education is essentially and wholly an individual process. It is some change that takes place in the
individual as a result of something that he does. It is "the upbuilding of a world in feeling or consciousness."
Each individual builds for himself the world in which he lives. His images, his memories, his thoughts and feelings, his
ideals are formed from his own experience—what he himself does. They are his own, and no one can share them; nor can
anyone take them away against his will.
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be no guidance, for guidance implies assistance given by someone to the one who is educating himself. In so far as the
individual is really self-educated, there is no guidance; however, if we think of education as resulting only from what the
individual himself does—if he is the active agent—what is the relation of instruction to this process?
New interpretations of our way of life have resulted in changes. The concept of society as an organised group of
individuals bound together by similarity of interests and activities is enlarging not only geographically but also
ideologically. Traditional mores and customs are breaking down.
Yet newer concepts of human interrelationships are still in a state of flux. Today more than ever before, every man,
woman, and child is expected to utilize his abilities and experiences for the benefit of others, as well as for his own
advancement.
Any philosophy of life that sets an individual against the group or that permits him to disregard the welfare of his fellows
is becoming increasingly untenable. The newer concept of society is that of a group wherein no one should have rights or
privileges that he has not earned or that are denied to any other worthy member of a world fellowship.
The realization of so broad a goal of world democracy cannot be achieved entirely through the efforts of world leaders.
More and more, people—no matter how narrow and limited their sphere of experience—are beginning to recognize their
personal responsibility for effecting desirable social changes. Unfortunately, however, some individuals still seem unable
or unwilling to accept this responsibility.
The climatic conditions growing-out of world unrest affect practically every phase of human experience. Adjustment to or
improvement of the many current challenging situations is in part an individual responsibility which can be met by some
people with a minimum of outside assistance. For others, effective counselling services should be available to prevent
their becoming the victims of social, economic, and political changes.
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Education is Instruction
The teacher knows the ends to be accomplished; in this he is merely the agent of society. He also knows the best ways by
which these ends may be attained, that is, by which effective learning may be achieved by the pupil. His role in the older
conception of teaching was comparatively clear and simple.
1. He had to have definitely in mind what was to be learned, but it was relatively unimportant for the pupil to know this.
2. He had to have, in the form of textbooks, materials, outlines, problems, etc., stimuli that were calculated to result in the
desired responses by the pupil.
3. He had to see that the pupil made the responses desired. If he made responses other than the desirable ones, he was
compelled by punishment or other means to make the 'correct' ones.
4. He had to test for product, skill, habit, attitude, etc., and see that the end had actually been attained.
All this made the teacher the active and to a large extent the determining factor in learning. Much teaching is still of this
kind; it is directed mainly at forcing the child to learn. Still too frequently the learner is considered inert or even stubborn
and not actively interested in or concerned with learning.
But even this more or less mechanical teacher-controlled process is not so simple as it may seem. The child is, even here,
a very important and an extremely variable factor. Situations in the classroom are not simple. They are composed of many
different stimuli; some of these are the selected stimuli provided by the teacher, but others are supplied by many factors in
the immediate environment of the pupil, including the pupil himself.
The child can and often does choose from among the stimuli that make up the situation the one to which he responds. He
may single out the teacher's prominent nose, her gaudy dress, the wasp in the window, or any one of a dozen things to
which he gives attention and to which he responds, rather than the words of the teacher or the material in his textbook.
Efficient education requires not only that a person respond to a stimulus but that he select the desirable groups of stimuli
to which he responds—desirable, that is, from the standpoint
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of education. Again, even though he singles out the desired stimulus, he may respond to it in many different ways.
Suppose the topic he is studying is the products of South America. He reads the words in his book describing them; these
words are the stimuli.
Happily, this method is rapidly giving way to one that is not only fundamentally more sound but more effective as well.
In the new method, teaching is thought of as helping the child to learn. The child is the active agent in the process. As
before, the teacher still determines for the most part the ends to be achieved, although even here there may be pupil
cooperation; but he also assists the pupil to understand the ends and to accept them as his own. Assistance, so directed, is
guidance. If the pupil is able to select his aims, if, after understanding and accepting the ends, the pupil is able to see by
himself what he must do to accomplish the ends, the teacher steps aside; no teaching and no guidance are necessary.
Whenever, in the learning process, the teacher assists the learner to choose, guidance is present.
There is also another way in which guidance enters into the process of education. The teacher, as an agent of society, sets
up ends to be accomplished by the pupil, but the method by which different pupils reach the ends may vary. Reaching the
ends is important; the method by which the ends are reached is relatively unimportant, except that it should be the method
best suited to the individual pupil. Choices in method are often, if not always, possible. The efficient teacher is continually
trying to help the pupil find the one that is best suited to him. When the teacher selects the method, there is teaching but
no guidance; when he assists the learner to choose a method, guidance is present.
Whenever, in the process of accomplishing the ends (that is, in learning), the pupil needs help, it is the teacher's function
to give it. This help is usually stimuli in the form of outlines, references, suggestions, leading questions, expressions of
approval and disapproval, incentives, and anything else that may help the pupil to learn. This is teaching or instruction; it
may or may not be guidance. Teaching conceived of as assisting the learner to choose ends or methods is guidance.
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It is a conscious effort on the part of society to guide and direct the physical, mental, emotional, and moral growth of the
individual so that he will be able to live a life that will be socially effective and individually satisfying. In this broader
concept of education, guidance and education are closely related.
This statement does not satisfy the ultraprogressive educator who reacts strongly against any form of control of individual
development by society and who contends that the only object of education is the development of the individual. This
development is to be determined not by what society wants but by some inward force or law or principle which, if
followed, will result in the maximum or optimum development of each individual. Nor will it satisfy the ultraconservative
who emphasizes the need for social efficiency as opposed to mere individual development. Each of these elements must,
of course, be present, but they should be complementary, not antagonistic.
This concept of education might seem to make guidance and education synonymous both when we stress the development
of the individual for himself as an end and when we emphasize the needs of society, for education is thought of as the
conscious effort of society to assist the individual.
It should be noted, however, that the important words in this sentence are not "the conscious effort of society," but "assist
the individual," and the role of society in the education of individuals may not be 'assistance' in the real sense.
When society merely determines what shall be taught and does nothing to assist the individual—when the individual is
thought of as passive—guidance is not present except in a very indirect and remote way. In a sense the entire conscious
effort of society to see that the individual reaches certain goals set up by society is assistance.
The physical and social environment which is selected and organised by society for the purpose of making sure that the
child will develop properly, the curriculum, the textbooks, library, and laboratories, the organized life of the school, all are
instrumental in making sure that the pupil develops in certain ways.
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formed, all are powerful factors. This is, at best, a very mechanical and deterministic kind of assistance. In one sense it is
not really assistance at all, for assistance implies more or less independent action on the part of the individual, that is, the
enlistment of the individual in the enterprise.
In the same sense we could say that we assist the plant to grow by watering it; we assist the post to stand upright by
digging a hole and placing the post in it; we assist the boy to be clean by washing his face. This is a misinterpretation of
the term 'assistance'. This mechanical assistance, even though it helps to determine the development of the individual and
may materially affect his choices, can hardly be guidance, for it leaves out the all-important part that the individual
himself plays in the process.
This broader concept of education includes guidance only when the modern, progressive viewpoint of the place and
function of the individual is accepted. When only the goals of society are considered, we may have education but not
guidance, for guidance implies assistance in making choices.
These choices are individual ones and imply a compromise between, or a synthesis of, the needs of society and the needs
of the individual. There are certain situations in education where the element of choice by the individual is prominent, and
there are others in which it is not.
If one views the life of the individual as a whole, guidance may be said to have as its purpose helping the individual to
discover his needs, to assess his potentialities, gradually to develop life goals that are individually satisfying and socially
desirable, to formulate plans of action in the service of these goals, and to proceed to their realization.
This statement clearly identifies the purpose of guidance with that of education. It places major emphasis upon the
development of the whole individual who is now functioning and who will function in the future in a social environment.
It is a useful concept because it stresses the unity of one's life and shows the impossibility of separating one aspect of life
from another. It is based upon the belief that each of us builds up, step by step, a life purpose or goal which serves or
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should serve as a center of integration for our desires and ambitions and as a guide for our plans.
One of the most vital elements in our efforts to educate individuals is the assistance we give in connection with choosing
and developing these life purposes or goals. From this point of view guidance and education are seen to share the same
purpose and sometimes the same methods.
There are still a few people who regard education and guidance as separate and distinct, but their number is rapidly
diminishing. Such a complete separation is impossible; it violates the essential nature of both elements. The differences of
opinion now are chiefly between those who would make guidance and education synonymous terms and those who regard
guidance as an aspect and an essential element in education.
The reason for this controversy is found partly in the different meanings attached to the term 'education' and partly in the
failure to distinguish between the parts played by the teacher and by the learner in the process of education.
The position taken by the author is that guidance is found in that area of educational endeavour which involves assistance
given by agencies or persons to the individual in making choices and in helping him choose a line of action, a method of
procedure, a goal. It is not choosing for him or directing his choice; it is helping him to make the choice.
Education deals with the entire scope of human development. From one standpoint it is the conscious effort of society to
change and develop the individual so that he may conform to society, take his place in it, improve it, and in doing this
secure his own optimum development. From another standpoint it is the conscious effort of the individual to adjust
himself to his physical and social environment, to improve it, and so to secure his own highest development.
Here are two forces, the individual and society, working for the same ends. When society merely determines what will be
learned and how it will be learned and does nothing to secure the cooperation of the individual in the choice of things to
be learned or methods to be used, guidance is not present, for there is no choice by the individual.
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Society in general and the teacher in particular may need to influence or direct the growth of the individual since wise
choices in later life are dependent to a large extent upon habits and attitudes formed in early years. This might be
considered good education, but it is not guidance. On the other hand the individual may consciously attempt to establish a
goal without help. When he does this, guidance is not present.
Although education may, and often does, take place through the effort and initiation of the individual alone, the same
thing is true as above: this is education but not guidance. It is only when the cooperation of the individual is secured and
assistance given him in choosing his goals or his methods that guidance is present.
All guidance is education, but some aspects of education are not guidance; their objectives are the same—the
development of the individual—but the methods used in education are by no means the same as those used in guidance.
Additionally, we now see the subject-matter supervisor, the curriculum coordinator, and the remedial expert coming into
"our schools and performing useful functions needed in a complex educational setting. Each speciality has a distinct title
and often requires a definite course of training leading to a certificate issued by the state or by some professional
organization of high standing; each one also has a fairly definite core of work and responsibility. Each employs some
techniques that are especially characteristic of the speciality.
These characteristics and requirements have given a clear and definite professional status to the many educational
specialities. Such specialisation has some disadvantages and
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dangers, but there can be no doubt that it has greatly increased the effectiveness of the entire educational system.
Although each of these areas has a definite responsibility for certain services and uses characteristic techniques and thus
makes its own contribution to the overall programme of education, the lines separating one area of service from another
are not entirely clear and distinct. There is considerable overlapping in objectives, in content, and in the techniques used.
The interrelation and overlapping in objectives and techniques may be seen by a brief discussion of the four large areas of
service previously mentioned. Teaching is concerned with helping students to learn.
Counselling deals with helping students 'to develop the ability to solve their own problems. Supervision is responsible for
providing leadership in improving instruction. Administration is concerned with the control, direction, and management of
the school, that is, the provision of conditions favourable for learning.
It is help given or received by all personnel in the school system—superintendent, supervisor, specialist, teacher, custodial
worker, student. It is found wherever there are problems to be solved in teaching, in supervision, in discipline. Fn fact
discipline offers one of the most useful and rewarding areas for guidance.
The confusion of these leaders is best resolved by examining the meanings which may be attached to the term 'discipline/
Discipline has two different but related meanings. First, discipline is a planned series of activities or exercises considered
necessary for the attainment of a certain goal. An example is the training of an athlete for a race or for some other athletic
contest. This meaning would include the development of regular exercise, eating, and sleeping habits as well as certain
restrictions. Another
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example of this meaning is the college curriculum leading to degree. In this first sense discipline also means a set of rules
or laws affecting conduct such as the discipline of the church, the law, or medicine. This meaning may be called 'positive'
discipline.
Second, discipline means punishment for conduct that is considered undesirable. Failure to achieve a required standard in
school, for example, may result in punishment or 'discipline.' The punishment may also be the natural result of undesirable
conduct such as the "morning after" a 'binge' or failure in a contest because of breaking training.
This meaning may be called 'negative' discipline. Its purpose is to prevent conduct that is undesirable. It is intended to
help the individual understand what is necessary to attain the goal and to motivate him to keep to the exercises and the
rules that have been set up.
It will be seen that the two meanings of discipline are closely related and that guidance has a unique function in both of
them. Guidance helps set the goal and develop a programme of activities leading to it. It also encourages and motivates
the individual to keep at the activities and exercises that are essential in attaining the desired end.
Guidance as Punishment
When discipline means punishment by some authority for unacceptable behaviour, guidance may help the student to
understand why the behaviour is unacceptable. High school is not too early to help students to understand the function of
punishment as seen in the history of human society and to comprehend what their community would be without laws
leading to the punishment of offenders.
The responsibility for assistance to students in cases of discipline, in both its positive and its negative meanings, may rest
upon any school personnel. Teachers have responsibility in this area because they deal directly with that part of the
curriculum which is allotted to them. They are responsible for helping the pupils in their classes or subject areas to
understand the educational content, to do the exercises required, to attain the desired goals.
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attainment of the objectives and administer such punishments as may be necessary for failure to study or to achieve
academically. In addition each teacher is responsible for the behaviour of the children in his class and to a large extent for
their attendance and health. Without a doubt the chief responsibility for all these guidance services rests upon the teacher.
Preventive Guidance
By far the most effective discipline is that which operates before the crisis occurs and help the student to understand and
accept the type of behaviour that is demanded by the school. In most cases discipline of this kind helps the student to
realise what is required and therefore makes punishment unnecessary. Here the teacher is the most important factor, but
the counsellor may also be of real assistance.
This type of discipline is not always possible, however, because one cannot always foresee the approaching crisis.
Furthermore, not every crisis can be prevented. When a crisis does come, the student is in dire need of help, and the
counsellor has a clear responsibility to give him help.
Role of the Counsellor in Discipline
Authorities in the field of guidance agree that counsellors should not be charged with the responsibility for the
administration of punishment. The reason for this is that, by so doing, it is difficult or sometimes impossible for the
counsellor to establish and maintain the rapport that is so essential for counselling and guidance.
Experience amply confirms this opinion, but this does not mean that the counsellor never has any responsibility in the
field of discipline. In fact, discipline offers one of the richest and most rewarding areas for guidance.
Just as the counsellor should not be involved in the actual punishment of the student, neither should he be the "lawyer for
the defense" and seek to free him from punishment. If he has established rapport with the student, however, he may be
able to find out why the misdemeanor was committed. He may discover what the student wished to accomplish by the act
and help him to understand why his purpose was
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undesirable and what the effect of such behaviour would be on other students and on the school.
The counsellor can often help the guilty student to realise and frankly confess that his act was undesirable and to accept
his punishment as well deserved. Thus it can be seen that the counsellor may have a definite responsibility in cases of
discipline and may be able to make a real contribution to the student and to the school by helping the student to
understand and modify his antisocial behaviour. In summary, guidance and discipline are closely related, and the
counsellor's role, even though it does not involve the administering of punishment, is both clear and unique.
The two situations, although similar in some respects, may be very different in others. The choice may have been a good
one once, but with the passage of time and with changed conditions, it may be quite unsatisfactory now.
Guidance may help here by assisting the individual to examine the two situations carefully to see in what ways they are
alike and in what ways they are different and by helping him to get a broader view of the possible choices.
It is often possible, even while still in high school, to get some preliminary experience in an occupation that is being
considered. Jobs held after school, on Saturdays, holidays, and especially in the long summer vacations, provide helpful
experience. Such jobs may be available in stores, in offices, on the farm, or elsewhere. The guidance value of such
experience varies greatly and is dependent upon the attitude of the youth, the supervision given, and the physical and
social environment of the job.
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for choice, they are handicaped by the fact that their experiences are neither extensive nor of great scope or variety.
Choices made on such a basis are not likely to be good ones, but very often they do not see this danger.
With youthful enthusiasm and undue confidence in their ability, they often make hasty and unwise decisions. Other
avenues of life work may begin to make a strong appeal to them in later years. They may realise too late that these
avenues might well have offered success and satisfaction. The necessary training cannot now be secured without great
financial sacrifice that would jeopardize the comfort and welfare of the family.
Although they may realise that their early choices were unfortunate, they can do nothing about it now. Wise guidance
could have been of great value by making them realise that their experience was too limited to give them proper
perspective. It could have helped them review carefully the entire range of occupations within their interest and
capabilities.
ADVICE AS GUIDANCE
Another very valuable source of help which is frequently used is the experience of others expressed through advice. The
value of this source of guidance is clearly seen in the history of mankind. Man's superiority over the lower animals is due,
in large measure, to his ability to profit not only from his own experience but from that of others; without this ability there
would have been little progress. Such experience may be utilized either directly, through advice given by others, or
indirectly, through a knowledge and understanding of history.
Although advice is an old and widely used method of guidance, some guidance authorities condemn it in any form,
maintaining that it is harmful. They even go so far as to say that the only time it is safe to give advice to others is when
you know they will not use it. This statement grossly exaggerates the dangers of advice and is plainly untrue.
Industrial firms spend millions every year on advice, and it pays. Older men who have had years of experience either in
the industry that employs them or in similar industries are used as consultants or advisers. The value of their services is
evident in the large salaries given to such men. Throughout history sages have been singled out for great honor and
31
reverence. The advice given by a person who has travelled the same way before may be very valuable; however, it can
neither be rejected merely because it is old nor accepted just because it is old.
The old Chinese dynasties stagnated because of the national credo "Walk in the trodden way," but some of the most
valuable sources of help are found in the recorded thoughts and experiences of men and women of the past.
All aspects of the past—social, industrial, economic, scientific, artistic, and religious—have much to teach us. Such
sources of understanding are too little used in our present programmes of guidance. To be of any use the lessons of history
must be read and interpreted not only in terms of the past but also in terms of the present. Teachers of English, history,
science, art, and music can open up these sources of help and interpret them as well.
The lessons of the past that are of the greatest value are those that state fundamental values of life and general principles
of conduct. These lessons will help in many different situations because they usually do not indicate exactly what one
should do but leave it to the individual to determine what definite action will be best.
This is in accord with the principle that the purpose of guidance is the development in the individual of the ability to
solve problems without the help of others. Conditions may have changed so much that the present problem is quite unlike
the old one, and what was once a desirable solution may no longer be satisfactory.
Such changed conditions are especially likely to appear in affairs involving youth. The changed attitude of parents and
teachers toward youth, the greater freedom given to youth, the new emphasis on self-determination, and the relaxing of
discipline have profoundly altered the nature of the problems of young people. Today youth are far better informed on
scientific, economic, and social conditions and developments than their parents were when they were of the same age.
This development greatly increases the complexity and difficulty of the problems of youth and those of their parents who
are trying to help them. In boy-girl relations the restrictions that were once thought desirable have in large part been
32
removed, and some conduct which was once frowned upon is now considered acceptable.
When the problem relates to the use by teen-agers of our modern high-powered and complex cars, advice based on the
days of the horse and buggy or the Model T is entirely inappropriate. These changed conditions make skillful and well-
organised guidance imperative. Guidance now calls for wide experience, deep wisdom, and infinite patience on the part of
the one who counsels.
Advice is usually received best and carries more weight when the one who seeks it comes voluntarily to the counsellor
because he feels the need for help. Gratuitous advice is usually of little value because most people regard such proffered
help as an intrusion on what they consider to be their own affair. Such advice is also often given without knowledge or
consideration of the needs of the person advised.
In summary, one's own experience as well as that of others may be very valuable in guidance, but it may not be a safe
guide in itself. To be of real value, experience must be interpreted in relation to the particular problem that is at hand. Is
this problem the same as the one previously faced? Is the solution that was made in the past as satisfactory now as it was
then?
There may be differences, even though slight ones, in the present situation that may be very significant, thus making the
solution that was once satisfactory quite unsatisfactory now. For example, action taken fifty years ago based on a certain
religious belief may have been useful then, but it may be quite useless or even undesirable now. Even now two persons
may have the same beliefs regarding the worth of the individual and his relation to God and yet be on opposite sides of
such a social problem as segregation.
One may honestly believe that the best interests of the Negro can be secured by segregation; the other may believe just as
sincerely that they can be attained only by desegregation. The previous family and social experience and the background
of each person have a powerful influence on the belief which is held.
Guidance must help young people to develop techniques of utilizing their own past experience and that of others for the
solution of the problems facing them in making their adjustments in life.
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Vocational Guidance
At the beginning of the twentieth century, many young people, especially boys, found themselves faced with the problem
of deciding on the type of job in which they might be interested and for which they wanted to qualify. The first recorded
attempt at providing vocational assistance to young people was the guidance movement started in Boston by Frank
Parsons, director of the Bread Winners Institute, a branch of the Civic Service House, of which Meyer Bloomfield was
director.
As a result of Parsons' work, the Boston Vocational Bureau was organised in 1908. During the same period, group and
individual vocational guidance was offered, under the leadership of Jesse Davis, to high-school students in Grand Rapids,
Michigan. Some vocational counselling, with job placement, also was carried on by the New York City school system.
The vocational guidance movement spread rapidly throughout the country, but many of the 'programmes' were relatively
informal, consisting mainly of the dissemination of information about available jobs. To Connecticut goes the credit for
the first attempt to organise this information.
The Vocational Guidance Bulletin (now known as the Personnel and Guidance Journal) was started in 1915 as a four-page
leaflet. In 1923, Jesse Davis, then state supervisor in the State Department, prepared and issued a bulletin on guidance
called Suggestions for a Programme in Educational Guidance for Secondary Schools.
National conferences on vocational guidance were held in Boston (1910), in New York (1912), and in Grand Rapids
(1913). At the last-named conference, emphasis was placed on three areas of guidance: vocational (economic),
educational, and social. From these beginnings has developed the American Personnel and Guidance Association (APGA).
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This national association has six subsidiary organisations: American College Personnel Association; National Association
of Guidance Supervisors and Counsellor Trainers; National Vocational Guidance Association; Student Personnel
Association for Teacher Education; American School Counsellor Association; Division of Rehabilitation Counselling.
The APGA includes in its membership many of the guidance personnel of elementary and secondary schools, colleges and
universities, community agencies, industry, and government.
Various projects of vocational or occupational significance have been initiated during critical periods. During the
depression years of the 1930's the National Youth Administration (NYA) was established for the distribution of materials
dealing with job opportunities, vocational training, and the financing of employment agencies. At the same time, the
civilian conservation corps (CCC) provided jobs for unemployed adolescents and young adults in such country-wide
projects as forest-clearance, road-building, and dam-construction.
Educational Guidance
From its beginning as an attempt to find jobs for out-of-school youth, vocational guidance gradually came to include such
activities as helping young people in job-selection and job-preparation. Because of its early vocational emphasis, some
people still look on all guidance as vocational guidance.
Increasing recognition among parents of the value to their children of continued education resulted in not only a growing
secondary-school population but also diversified curriculum offerings. The broader curriculum meant that entering high-
school students needed help in selecting a curriculum in consonance with their interests and/or the wishes of their parents.
Hence educational guidance in the form of programme-advising was instituted in some of the larger secondary schools.
For the most part, the advisers were, and in some schools continue to be, teachers without any special aptitude or training
in guidance. Furthermore, since there was little if any budgetary provision of this guidance activity, so-called grade
advisers carried heavy pupil loads, with a minimum of released time from teaching. As a result of these conditions,
advising often became a routine, relatively impersonal, extra-teaching job assignment.
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Until recently, school programmes of guidance or advisement were organised loosely, if at all, and were associated with
education on the secondary-school level. In most colleges, a member of the faculty held the title of dean. The duties of the
dean (who usually had no special training) dealt mainly with disciplining and administrative details. On the lower-school
level, the administrative officers and teachers shared the responsibility for meeting any of the needs of pupils, which
supposedly were limited to mastering educational fundamentals and behaving. Failure to achieve adequately in learning or
a display of misbehaviour was interpreted as pupil non-cooperation. Children who required disciplining were 'handled' by
the principal, who was likely to employ punitive measures. The preventive aspect of guidance was not yet recognised by
many elementary-school staffs or by school-system administrators.
Personal Guidance
Various conditions inherent in twentieth-century life represent maladjustive factors, causing community leaders to become
concerned about the personal welfare of children and adults. The mental hygiene movement and a few child guidance
clinics resulted.
The emotionally disturbing experiences of soldiers during World War I and Clifford Beers' experiences in a hospital for
the mentally ill gave impetus to the mental hygiene movement. A new emphasis on the prevention of serious emotional
disturbances and the preservation of emotional stability, and a greater understanding of mental illness had a significant
effect upon guidance.
Although the plight of the maladjusted individual receives considerable attention from specialists, guidance programmes
are aimed at providing counselling services to help in the achievement and maintenance of emotional balance and
behaviour adjustment.
Child-Guidance Clinics
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studying and applying therapies to young people who gave evidence of serious maladjustment, the Illinois Institute of
Juvenile Research was developed. At present, child-guidance, psychological, and educational clinics serve children,
adolescents, and adults in practically every large city in the country and in some smaller communities.
Unfortunately, the incidence of emotional disturbance and mental illness is so great in our modern complex society that
available clinic facilities are woefully inadequate to meet the demand for their services.
During the early development of the guidance movement, writers in the field presented long and detailed methods of
dividing guidance activities into three separate categories: educational, vocational, and personal. Such a division is not
practical: it is almost impossible to separate these three areas.
Moreover, each of the categories is complex. Many inherited potentialities and experiential influences require careful
analysis and synthesis if the individual is to benefit from the guidance he seeks.
QUESTIONS FOR ANSWER
1. Write a note on the meaning and need of guidance as well as its relation to education.
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Common Objectives
It is clear that the basic services of the school are found in teaching and counselling since both deal directly with the
individual student, his problems, and his needs. The function of administration and supervision is to promote the
effectiveness of teaching and counselling. All four areas are bound together by the same objectives. Each should
supplement, assist, and increase the effectiveness of the other areas in helping students to develop those habits, skills,
attitudes, and ideals that will enable them to adjust to modern democratic society and attain a life that will be worthwhile.
GUIDANCE APPROACHES
Following are the guidance approaches based on more recent guidance practices as per results of researches in natural and
social sciences:
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Nonscientific 'prediction' took many different forms: numerology, astrology, graphology, palmistry, phenology,
physiognomy, occultism, spiritualism, dream-interpretation, 'fortunetelling' by means of tea leaves, coffee grounds, and
playing cards, and the application of one or another superstition peculiar to the traditions of a people.
Some of these techniques still exert considerable influence on the behaviour of many young people and adults. The lure of
the unknown or of the nonunderstood tempts thousands to spend time and money with little or no return in improved self-
understanding or problem-solving.
Dream analysis has received considerable attention from people in all walks of life. The more credulous still consult
"dream books," which assign specific meanings to the content of dreams. For others the works of Brill and his associates
in dream analysis offer a fruitful field for probing into the lowest depths of the subconscious and uncovering hidden urges
and desires.
The fact that many people are still adherents of these pseudoscientific practices indicates their great need for help. Such
individuals seem to be groping blindly for a means of building personal morale or developing self-realisation.
Guidance is an outgrowth of various movements dealing with patterns of human life. Early psychologists, imbued with the
philosophic point of view, were prone to accept one or another philosophy of life which they then attempted to apply to
what seemed to be life experiences. They discovered that human behaviour does not always follow philosophically
determined patterns. Hence psychologists embarked on a series of research studies, investigations, and experiments to
discover what causes human beings to think and act as they do.
Among the psychological principles evolved, the following are basic to an understanding of the functions of guidance:
1. Physically, mentally, emotionally, and socially an individual may develop at different rates, achieving mature status in
these several phases of his development
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2. Members of the human family share elements of likeness in their general pattern of development; but factors of
biological inheritance and social heritage combine to bring about individual differences which must be taken into
consideration when we are dealing with any group of persons.
3. The principles of learning that have evolved from much study and experimentation in the field have been of service in
helping us appreciate the value of practice in learning, the place of motivation in arousing interest, and the extent to which
satisfaction or annoyance with the learning process affects learning success.
4. Through the combined efforts of psychologists and educators, significant advances have been made during the
twentieth century in the construction of techniques for personality evaluation. Consequently, an important aspect of
guidance has become the utilization of standardized tests of physical status, mental ability, and specific aptitude; interest
inventories; achievement scales; prognostic and diagnostic techniques; behaviour scales; and other means of evaluating
emotional and social status.
The invention of machinery and the rapid increase of industrialism have led to a degree of occupational specialisation
unheard of in earlier times. Increased production, distribution, and consumption of goods have increased the number of
special jobs to be performed; they also have led to the development of many other forms of service occupations to meet
the complexities of urban life and to provide for the leisure-time activities of workers.
The rapid strides made by researchers in various fields of science have almost completely revolutionized modern living.
The discovery of atomic energy, its uses in warfare, and its application to peacetime activity, require carefully selected
and thoroughly trained workers.
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to limit his interests and activities to the community in which he was born and reared since many opportunities are
becoming available to him in other lands. These can so stimulate his spirit of adventure that he needs intelligent guidance
toward the attainment of effective life goals.
Twentieth-century educational emphasis on the learner rather than the materials to be learned has done much to further
interest in guidance. Schools on every level evidence an interest in all phases of the individual's development. Formulated
objectives of education exemplify this trend.
In 1918, the Commission on Secondary Education of the National Education Association of the United States (NEA)
recommended that the goal of educational theory and practice be to provide adequate means for helping young people
meet life needs in the following areas:
1. Health
4. Vocations
5. Civic education
7. Ethical character
These seven cardinal principles of education have influenced teaching and learning at all levels. What should be included
in the curriculum, how teaching methods should be adapted, and the kind and amount of guidance required to achieve
these aims have varied with changing interpretations of what constitues standards of attitude and behaviour in each of
these seven areas.
The cardinal principles are basic to later formulations of educational objectives. For example, in 1938, the Educational
Policies Commission of the NEA offered the following four general objectives:
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objectives similar to those cited emphasize the practical function of education as experience in adjustment. As our
civilization becomes increasingly complex and as new personal and social adjustment needs arise, additions to or
modifications of existing educational objectives evolve.
Improved methods of communication and travel, as well as increased interdependence among the peoples of the world,
necessitate the formulation and implementation of still another educational goal. Educators have begun to study intensively
and at firsthand the living conditions, economy, beliefs, customs, and attitudes of the peoples of Europe, the Middle East,
Asia, and Africa.
As a result of their findings, these men are convinced that American education, without neglecting study in mathematics,
science, and other fundamental curriculum areas, must
(2) develop the ability to communicate with other peoples in their own language,
Publicly supported schooling through the secondary level is accepted generally as a state responsibility. In some states
public support is provided through at least four years of higher education. Moreover, to ensure for every young person his
educational rights, each state has enacted compulsory attendance laws which set minimal dropout ages. These age
requirements range from a low of 14 to a high of 18.
The increase in the number of children and adolescents who are expected to be receiving formal school training has
caused serious consideration of the problems of administration, organisation, and guidance. There are budgetary difficulties
involved in the matter of providing buildings and school personnel sufficient to meet the needs of such large numbers of
pupils.
As a result of the continuing high birth rate since the beginning of Second World War, our future school population may
tax educational efforts and the budget almost beyond comprehension. An almost unavoidable situation of mass
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education has given rise to and, for many years to come, will continue to intensify many problems concerned with
optimum class size, homogeneity of grouping to meet individual needs, desirable curriculum and teaching adjustments,
and guidance facilities. Herein lies an imperative reason for the extension of guidance service.
A satisfactory adjustment of the study programme, however, necessitates consideration of other factors which may include
all or many of the following: the pupil's health, his intellectual capacity, his attitude toward study in general or toward one
area of learning, his industry, the amount of time that he can or will devote to studying, his post-graduate plans, and the
kind and extent of parental co-operation.
Some of the earlier writers in the field tended to view guidance broadly as synonymous with education. Others attempted
to divorce the concept of guidance almost completely from that of education. In the early 1950's, a compromise position
was taken by the Guidance Committee of Salt Lake city (Utah) schools. This point of view was expressed in "A Guidance
Program for Salt Lake City Schools" as follows:
In a real sense, guidance pervades all of education. It expresses the concern of the school for individualizing the
educational program. This means that it is every teacher's responsibility to understand the interests, abilities, and feelings
of every child and to adapt the educational program to meet those needs.
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In another sense, guidance is a series of special services. These include activities which make the school programme
effective in meeting the needs of each child. Among these are plans for
2. using information collected about students to adjust instruction to meet individual needs,
4. providing such specialized services as orientation, individual inventory, counselling, occupational information, group
guidance, placement, follow-up of graduates and drop-outs,
Although the guidance point of view touches every aspect of school activity, the fact should be stressed that education
and guidance differ in purpose and process. Education, interpreted either as process or product, is an individual matter.
The child, adolescent, or adult himself must make the changes within himself which he recognizes to be desirable.
The function of the teacher can be no more than to make available to the learner opportunities of value to him in his self-
education. He needs to be stimulated to want to learn, to be helped to discover what things he should learn, and to be
encouraged to progress satisfactorily in his learning. The educational process takes place within the individual, and
educational products are evidenced in his behaviour.
What then is the relation of guidance to education? Guidance constitutes those factors outside the individual that are made
available to him in his search for self-development. In its broadest connotation, guidance can be regarded as a form of
education. In its more specific interpretation, it includes all those techniques of counselling and all those bodies of
information that can help the individual help himself.
It should be remembered, also, that young people receive much informal guidance from their elders. Because of their
close relationship with the growing child, parents and teachers exert a significant influence on his attitudes and behaviour.
How often one hears a girl say that her mother did so and so
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and that is why she does it. A man may remark that his father used to say this or that, and what his father said is good
enough for him.
The reader can check this attitude by recalling some of his teachers. What is remembered? Is it primarily the material
taught or is it rather certain attitudes or modes of behaviour that impressed and perhaps unconsciously affected their pupils
attitudes or behaviour either temporarily or permanently?
This kind of guidance is constantly in action. Hence whatever kind of persons we want our young people to become, we
ourselves must be. The parents who tells lies in the presence of the child cannot admonish the child to be truthful.
The teacher in charge of a study hall who engages in conversation with a fellow teacher does not dare ask pupils to refrain
from talking so as not to annoy others who are studying. It is imperative that all of us recognise that general concept of
guidance and that we be ever on the alert to have our actions serve as worthy guides.
In an attempt to achieve a tenable point of view concerning the various aspects of the guidance concept, one difficulty
encountered is that of clear terminology. The expansion or modification of guidance functions has been accompanied by
semantic changes that can be extremely confusing.
For example, certain pairs of terms, such as guidance and counselling, guidance worker and guidance counsellor, guidance
services and personnel services, or guidance and personnel services, too often are used indiscriminately as identifying the
same functional aspects of the guidance concept.
The terms pupil personnel, personnel work, pupil personnel worker and personnel services are finding their way into the
literature of guidance. Apparently the term personnel work originated in industry to describe administrative activities
aimed at better management-worker relations and improved utilization of industrial manpower.
The term student personnel work came to be used on the college level to identify administrative management of student
life. Later, lower-school administrators employed the term pupil personnel in much the same way as it is used in industry
and on the college level.
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The present trend is to broaden the concept of personnel work or personnel services to include everything done to help
young people in school and workers on the job gain maximum development of their potentialities.
There is difference of opinion, however, concerning the relationship that should exist between guidance and pupil
personnel services. According to some authorities guidance represents an important phase or category of an over-all
programme of pupil personnel services. From the point of view of others, the relationship is reversed.
According to a report, prepared by Wiley S. Garrett and Walter G. Sites and published by the Department of Pupil
Personnel Services of the Warren (Ohio) City Schools, pupil personnel services had developed there because of the need
for their basic contribution to the well-being of each pupil. The Department offers the following services: school health,
psychological, guidance, counselling, attendance, speech and hearning, school social work, and help to the handicapped.
The report states:
Guidance is the outgrowth of a philosophy of education that every child in a school system should have an opportunity for
full growth the development in order to achieve his greatest potential...
We consider the guidance function, therefore, as consisting of two integral phases, (1) the guidance concept of teaching,
(2) pupil personnel services available to give assistance to the teacher, the school, and the pupils and parents to aid in the
implementation of the educational programme. An effective child-centred programme of education cannot be
accomplished without both phases of guidance, each supplementing the other; neither can function effectively without the
other.
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guidance differ from community to community. In some schools and school systems, one can find highly organised and
more or less smoothly functioning guidance programmes. In others, guidance services as such are not available, except as
informal advice or guidance carried on in the classroom.
However, few school and community leaders today fail to recognise the value of some form of guidance service for both
young people and adults. The present movement, having its roots in sociological, psychological, and economic changes,
has come to stay. Guidance programmes are being organised in an increasing number of schools and school systems,
though their number is pitiably small compared with pupil need for guidance.
Well-organized guidance costs money which is not yet available and there is still a lack of trained guidance personnel.
Too many school administrators have not yet recognised their responsibilities in this matter. Many are beginning to
evaluate existing guidance approaches, however. Modifications and expansions of existing programs are taking place. The
attitude seems to be growing that it is only as we move slowly and carefully that we can hope to guide rather than
misguide.
Should the offering of guidance services be limited to young people who have serious adjustment problems?
Does a person need guidance only during critical periods of his life?
These and similar questions deserve more than answers based on snap judgments: they require thoughtful consideration.
They cannot be answered in broad generalizations. Guidance workers are attempting to help persons whose personality
patterns differ greatly from one another. The life experiences of no two persons are the same, especially in our present
rapidly changing society. Hence guidance approaches that appear to
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Controversial Issues
Several trends in guidance are giving rise to controversy among the leaders of different schools of thought. One such issue
deals with the question of whether, for most young people, guidance should take a direct or an indirect approach.
Although this issue will be discussed more fully in later chapters, we shall attempt to clarify its import by way of
illustration.
A certain junior-high school pupil was a bright, well-adjusted lad who was popular among his teachers and fellow
schoolmates. One day during a recitation period, he was called to the office of his grade counsellor, who queried him
about his problems.
Although the boy claimed that he had no problems she insisted that everyone has problems and that she wanted to help
him solve his. When the boy returned to his classroom after this unsatisfactory interview, he commented to his teacher
that his "problem" probably was that he did not have any problems!
In contrast to this boy's experience is that of an equally fine girl who as a college student was asked about the guidance
programme of the high school from which she had been graduated. Her answer: "We didn't have a guidance program, but
everyone, including the Dean, always was very friendly and helpful." As a matter of fact, the guidance programme in this
school was so well organised and functioned so smoothly that most of the students were unaware that they were receiving
a great deal of carefully planned guidance.
Another somewhat controversial matter is the effect on an individual of having guidance services constantly available for
him. One group claims that continued guidance weakens one's Power to manage his own affairs. The ultimate goal of
guidance should be to help a young person develop sufficient selfdirection so that, as an adult, he will need little or no
assistance from the outside in the solution of any problems. A somewhat different point of view is reflected in the belief
that throughout their life-span many if not all individuals are likely no need some kind of guidance.
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These two apparently opposing points of view probably are not so far apart as they seem to be. Recently, B.L. Shepherd,
Assistant Superintendent for Pupil Personnel and Special Services in Tulsa, Oklahama, stated that
(1) the immediate objective in guidance is to help each pupil meet and solve his problems as they arise, and
There can be no quarrel with the statement that guidance can have both an immediate and a long-range goal. Reference
was made earlier to the value of preventive guidance during early childhood years. Later in the book, considerable
attention is given to guidance as a continuous process, one which functions for the benefit of individuals from their very
early childhood through old age.
Attitudes of dependence or independence usually result from experiences that begin in early childhood and continue
throughout life. The extent to which an individual is able to maintain a balance between overindependence and too great
dependence is closely related to the kind of guidance he receives, especially during the formative years.
Too great overprotection during childhood and early adolescence or overemphasis during those years upon individual
responsibility for one's behaviour is likely to result in the development of attitudes and forms of behaviour which will
interfere with one's later assuming adult responsibilities or with good mental and emotional adjustment.
Not only do growing boys and girls need to be helped to meet their growing-up experiences satisfactorily, but they also
should be led to realise that no matter how well a person is adjusted to the challenges of childhood and adolescence, he is
likely to be confronted as an adult of any age with problems which may be beyond his power to meet successfully.
In such situations, he should know where he can go for help, be willing to utilize the resources available, and learn to
solve his problems in the light of his own best judgment after he has had the suggestions of those who, through training
and experience, are qualified to interpret the situation.
In an increasing number of communities, attempts are being made to provide some guidance assistance for both young and
49
older persons. Actually, however, little has been done to establish and implement programmes which would make for
continuity of guidance.
In U.S.A. and other western nations the present situation is much better but in India we are not as yet, where U.S.A., was
in I960 in the field of guidance services to its youths. Hence we need to do a lot to develop and expand guidance services
at a faster rate. The private guidance experts are only exploiting the situation because most of them are not well qualified
in the job.
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The guidance concept, rooted as it is in psychology, sociology, and education, tends to influence the attitudes and
behaviour of leaders in all fields of endeavour aimed at human betterment. Physicians, dentists, and nurses, for example,
are trained to employ a guidance-oriented or psychological approach in dealing with their patients, in order to help them
adjust to their difficulty and want to improve their physical condition.
Community planners attempt to provide the kind of housing facilities and educational, recreational and health services that
will help community members achieve and preserve good physical, mental, emotional, and social adjustment.
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guidance-pointed. An individual's educational progress depends on the motivation he receives from parents and school
personnel toward optimum development of his innate potentialities. Hence, regardless of school level, guidance services
include specific aids provided by qualified members of the school staff to help learners understand themselves and their
responsibilities, and to assist them in the solution of learning problems.
Guidance as a Profession
Some notions about guidance and its functions are the outgrowth of a realisation and the general public that self-direction
in the management of one's own affairs is becoming increasingly difficult. Interest in giving assistance or in guidance-
pointed activity is the prerogative of any sincere, well-intentioned, capable individual.
(3) offers needed services which are organised in the form of an appropriate, flexible guidance programme.
We subscribe to Mathewson's succinctly stated definition of guidance as "the systematic, professional process of aiding
individuals in making their choices, plans, and adjustments, in undertaking effective self-direction, and in meeting
problems of personal living related to education."
Although the concept of guidance as a professional service has not yet been accepted by all educational leaders, some
school people are beginning to recognize the fundamental aspects of guidance.
Guidance activities are based upon the recognition of individual differences, the basic concepts of human growth and
development, the diversity of present-day educational opportunities, the complexity of modern occupational life, the
importance of human relations, the right of the individual to make his own choices, and the realisation that the adjustment
of an individual to his life situations is an ever changing process.
take into account the factors listed in the foregoing excerpt, whatever services are made available must reflect the
application of certain fundamental guidance principles.
KINDS OF GUIDANCE
Before discussing the principles of guidance let us understand the kinds/types of guidance as advocated by eminent
educators. According to Proctor:
1. Educational Guidance
2. Vocational Guidance
According to Johns guidance was initially of six types but later he opted for the first four only.
2. Vocational guidance
4. Leadership guidance
6. Social guidance
1. Educational guidance
2. Vocational guidance
3. Recreational guidance
4. Health guidance
Patterson and Williamson too has given five types of guidance as follows:
1. Educational guidance
2. Vocational guidance
3. Personal guidance
4. Health guidance
5. Economic guidance
Bureau of Psychology, Allahabad and Central Bureau of Educational and Vocational Guidance, Delhi has classified
guidance into three parts as follows:
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1. Educational guidance
2. Vocational guidance
3. Personal guidance
When disturbing or unhealthful conditions interfere with satisfactory patterns of behaviour, it becomes the responsibility
of teachers and members of the guidance personnel to supply whatever service is needed. Whatever the function of the
guidance supplied—prevention, preservation, or attempted cure—certain assumptions are basic to its achievement.
1. Every aspect of a person's complex personality pattern constitutes a significant factor of his total displayed attitudes and
forms of behaviour. Guidance services which are aimed at bringing about desirable adjustment in any particular area of
experience must take into account the all-round development of the individual.
2. Although all human beings are similar in many respects, individual differences must be recognized and considered in
any efforts aimed at providing help or guidance to a particular child, adolescent, or adult.
3. The function of guidance is to help a person (1) formulate and accept stimulating, worthwhile, and attainable goals of
behaviour, and (2) apply these objectives in the conduct of his affairs.
4. Existing social, economic, and political unrest is giving rise to many maladjustive factors that require the cooperation
of experienced and thoroughly trained guidance counsellors and the individual with a problem.
5. Guidance should be regarded as a continuing process of service to an individual from young childhood through
adulthood.
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6. Guidance service should not be limited to the few who give observable evidence of its need, but should be extended to
all persons of all agents who can benefit there from either directly or indirectly.
7. Curriculum materials and teaching procedures should evidence a guidance point of view.
8. Although guidance touches every phase of an individual's life pattern, the generally accepted areas of guidance include
concern with the extent to which an individual's physical and mental health interfere with his adjustment to home, school,
and vocational and social demands and relationships, or the extent to which his physical and mental health are affected by
the conditions to which he is subjected in these areas of experience.
10. Specific guidance problems on any age level should be referred to persons who are trained to deal with particular areas
of adjustment.
11. To administer guidance intelligently and with as thorough knowledge of the individual as is possible, programmes of
individual evaluation and research should be conducted, and accurate cumulative records of progress and achievement
should be made accessible to guidance workers. Through the administration of well-selected standardized tests and other
instruments of evaluation, specific data concerning degree of mental capacity, success of achievement, demonstrated
interests, and other personality characteristics should be accumulated, recorded, and utilized for guidance purposes.
12. An organised guidance programme should be flexible according to individual and community needs.
13. The responsibility for the administration of a guidance programme should be centered in a personally qualified and
adequately trained chairman or head of guidance, working co-operatively with his assistants and other community welfare
and guidance agencies.
14. Periodic appraisals should be made of the existing school
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guidance programme. The success of its functioning should rest on outcomes that are reflected in the attitudes toward the
programme of all who are associated with it—guiders and guidees—and in the displayed behaviour of those who have
been served through its functioning.
Wise and experienced leadership in guidance is extremely important. It is often said that "As the principal is, so is the
school." This statement holds equally for organised guidance programmes. Completeness of organisation; elaborateness of
equipment; multiplicity of records, guidance forms, and reports; and specialization among guidance personnel—these do
not constitute the whole of a programme of effective guidance. Necessary as these adjuncts may be, the core of guidance
lies in the spirit in which the services are rendered—the co-operativeness of effort and the earnestness of purpose that
motivate the attitudes and behaviour of all who are participants in the guidance activity. These include administrators,
teachers, and specialists, as well as the recipients of personal help and counsel.
Members of the guidance personnel fail to achieve desired guidance outcomes unless they take into consideration the
whole individual as he is affected by all the influences in the environment to which he responds. To the present,
counsellors have been relatively active and successful in helping young people educationally and, to a somewhat lesser
degree, vocationally. Little has been done, however, to guide them toward better home and social adjustment.
Intelligent application of the basic principles to the operation of a school programme of guidance services has value not
only for the young or older pupils for whose benefit the programme has been organised but also for their parents, the
members of the school staff, and the community at large, This fact is not always recognised by the government leaders
who provide money for educational purposes or the school administrators who allocate budgetary allowances. Yet,
because so many other aspects of education demand financial support, available guidance services often are inadequate.
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FUNDAMENTAL PROPOSITIONS
The general organisation and implementation of guidance services and the special procedures employed on the various
school levels are discussed in succeeding chapters. At this point attention is directed to certain fundamental assumptions.
A school guidance programme consists of the co-ordinated services of the school faculty, including administrators,
teachers, professional guidance workers, and other school personnel in cooperation with appropriate community agencies.
All of the services are aimed at encouraging individual and group welfare. The relative effectiveness of a school guidance
programme depends, in part, on
An adequately functioning programmme of guidance services can be established in any school if the staff members are
sufficiently interested to develop it. A program that is superimposed by the administration how ever is rarely successful.
Guidance programmes vary from school system to school system and from school level to school level. School and
community leaders differ in their interpretation of the term guidance.
There are teachers in large school systems who display an attitude of indifference toward or disapproval of organised
guidance, yet who, in their relations with their pupils, exhibit a commendable attitude toward guidance. These teachers
have observed some of the dangers inherent in the misguidance that may result when school people or others attempt to
organise an elaborate programme of guidance services without understanding the underlying principles of construction and
implementation that need to be recognised and applied in establishing a formal programme of activities.
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public feeling has been aroused by what appears to be an increase in deviate behaviour among children, youthful
delinquent acts, and attitudes of materialistic self-aggrandizement among adult. Many persons have come to believe that
such displays of antisocial attitudes are primarily a result of the emphasis on permissiveness as an educational ideal by
parents and educators during the recent past. Opinions differ about the best remedial approach. One point of view stresses
the need of a return to one-time strict punitive discipline. Another point of view is that the answer is guidance and more
guidance. Mathewson says:
In any transition period, guidance will remain a distinct process, paralleling, yet intimately related to, instruction. Later, if
education comes to pay more attention than it now does to socially oriented individual development, instruction will
include activities bearing directly upon this objective, But as a specialized, individualized, consultative activity, the
guidance process and programme will remain in approximately the same functional position relative to instruction that it
now occupies.
If one is convinced of the value to individuals on any age level of help received through an intelligently conceived and
appropriately conducted guidance programme, the formulation of basic principles of guidance procedures is relatively
easy. A more difficult task is that of organising and implementing the programme in such way that everyone concerned
will receive maximum benefit.
A school guidance programme is concerned in a broad sense with the mental and physical health and personality
development of each child with whom the school comes in contact. Guidance is inherent in the total process of education.
One of the ultimate goals of guidance is a well-integrated personality. The guidance programme should concern itself with
the problems of all youth, not just those who are disciplinary problems, failing in classwork, or acute maladjustment cases.
It is the purpose of the guidance programme to help each
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individual make the best possible adjustment between his own emotional needs and the demands of the society in which
he lives. Therefore, the immediate objective in guidance is to help each pupil meet and solve his problems as they arise.
One of the ultimate objectives of all guidance is self-guidance. To achieve such a guidance programme demands that we
have a belief in and a respect for the dignity and worth of each individual child.
Every teacher on the school staff has a responsibility for aiding in the guidance of boys and girls. Every person who
accepts responsibility for a share in the guidance programme must aid in discovering the needs and problems of each child
and help the child in resolving his problems. The guidance programme includes both the helping of each child [to] adjust
to an established or required pattern, and the adjusting of the pattern to better meet the needs of the individual child.
The acceptance of the responsibility for a guidance programme as defined above suggests the following implications for
the school:
1. To provide conditions that will give every child a maximum opportunity to feel socially secure, free from abnormal
fears and anxieties, happy in the belief that his best achievements are worthy and acceptable.
3. To develop those understandings and attitudes that foster sound physical and mental health.
5. To develop fundamental attitudes toward good social behaviour—behaviour appropriate for various places and times.
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9. To aid in the selection of a worthy, satisfying vocation which is compatible with the individual's interests and aptitudes.
10. To develop self-control in terms of the best interests of the group and the attitudes and abilities of cooperating
successfully with others—a sense of personal responsibility for group welfare.
11. To develop an understanding and a wholesome respect for the acceptance of one's own capabilities and limitations, as
well as those of other people.
1. To place the needs of individual personalities above most other considerations of school procedure.
2. To provide a curriculum and working conditions where each child may work successfully to fully capacity.
3. To provide information concerning pupils which is necessary for determining appropriate instructional materials and
experiences.
4. To provide conditions where children actively participate in planning and successfully carry through group activities.
5. To provide teachers whose classrooms have an atmosphere of good will and kindly understanding.
6. To provide professional service to aid teachers in developing the attitudes, skills, and techniques necessary for
successful counselling in the classrooms.
7. To provide health services that will aid in detecting physical conditions that may be causing maladjustment.
8. To provide materials for testing and recording data necessary to understand the individual child's needs, aptitudes, and
interests.
9. To provide counselling with parents where it is needed in order to help in the adjustment of the pupil.
10. To provide specialized services for those individuals who cannot be adjusted through group procedure or through the
individual efforts of the classroom teacher.
11. To provide an opportunity for an organised cooperative approach to the solution of staff problems.
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12. To provide an opportunity for staff planning so that a common point of view and goals may be developed.
There can be no valid objection to the implications suggested in the foregoing. Again, in the words of Mathewson, a
guidance programme should possess the following characteristics:
1. The guidance activity (incorporating process of appraisal, adjustment, orientation, and development) will be continuous
from nursery school and kindergarten to, and through, adult education, including the college and university level and
including, also, community services for out-of-school youth and adults.
2. The guidance process will be pervaise; it will be infused in every school activity and will be conducted by teachers as
well as specialists.
3. The guidance programme will be definitive and will be identifiable as a set of procedures and activities toward definite
objectives, practiced in most intensive form by professional specialists. 4. All phases of the guidance programme will be
coordinated, including community activities, in a systematically organised personnel service, all component functions
being directed at the same objectives.
5. In its primary focus, the programme will center upon the needs and problems of the individual student; it will seek to
foster self-understanding, development, and direction, socially oriented.
Each of the five charateristics listed contains many implications that are both broad in scope and detailed in application.
In the light of the materials presented, it is probable that the reader now realizes that
(2) counselling does not begin and end with a single face-to-face interview,
(3) guidance is a continuous process that touches every aspect of an individual's life pattern, and
(4) effective programmes include numerous activities and involve the servies of many persons.
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in the number of services offered and the effectiveness of offerings. Because of the misinterpretation by uninformed
enthusiasts of the guidance concept, some educators and lay leaders hesitate to become involved in a movement that
appears to them to be superficial in its approach and hence fundamentally worthless.
We know that more and more thinking people are becoming aware of the value of well-planned guidance in the life of an
individual. Consequently, existing lack of uniformity among school-provided guidance services can be attributed to the
influence of one or more of the following factors:
4. Extent of teachers' interest in individual learners as compared with mastery of subject matter
When the school began to provide milk and hot lunches as well as clothing for needy pupils, an educational wag made a
comment to the effect that first we "learned" them, then we fed them, next we clothed them, and eventually the parents'
only responsibility will be to breed them. But whatever wags may say, the evolving concept of education as the medium
through which constructive changes in every phase of an individual's life can or should be induced has continued to
broaden and intensify the school's function.
As a community agency designed to promote the personal and social well-being of all of the citizenry, an institution of
formal or school education constantly is extending its areas of service activities. Its primary function, of course, continues
to be that of providing opportunities for every individual, from
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early childhood onward, to acquire knowledge, skill, mastery, and the power to fulfill, in a socially acceptable fashion, his
needs, wants, urges, and desires.
Much of an individual's learning takes place in the classroom. If the teaching-learning process is to meet the specific
learning needs of every pupil, the services of other trained personnel are required—personnel who function outside the
classroom but in close co-operation with the classroom teacher. Implicit in the modern concept of schooling are many
concomitant activities that constitute school guidance services.
The kind and amount of direct or indirect help needed by learners vary somewhat with developmental stages and school
level. Yet, certain aspects of guidance function continuously. Specific approaches may differ from level to level; the need
for assistance in some adjustment areas may be greater at one level that at others. In brief, every individual may need
direct or indirect aid in developing desirable attitudes and modes of behaviour in his home and in his relationships with
his associates outside the home.
Cleanliness and health-preservative habits should be instilled from early childhood onward. Activity for the sake of
activity and without regard to the achievement of deferred goals constitutes a major human need. Hence the 'play' of the
child becomes the leisure-time or recreational pursuits of the adolescent and adult. The development of a wholesome and
satisfying 'play' life is dependent on the efficacy of guidance during the formative years. From the beginning of his formal
education to its termination, the learner should receive help in his school learning activities.
In addition, as a child, an adolescent, or an adult, he should be assisted to demonstrate that he recognizes and understands
his responsibility as a citizen. He needs to learn what his responsibilities mean in his relations with other people at home
and abroad.
With the achievement of adolescent status, other guidance needs arise in the life of the individual who wants to make a
desirable adjustment to later adolescent and adult responsibilities. Preparation for marriage and family life and
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he selection of and preparation for a vocation become matters of extreme importance to the high-school pupil and the
student in an institution of higher learning. Finally, as the adult gradually assumes personal responsibility for the welfare
of himself and others, he may encounter problems of adjustment for the solution of which he may need the aid of
experienced or specially trained counsellors.
2. Indicate specifically the relation that exists between vocational guidance and other phases of guidance services.
3. Indicate ways in which misguidance might interfere with an individual development of self-understanding, self-
determination and self-direction.
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The concept of counselling has radically changed in the past twenty-five years and even now is undergoing considerable
modification. It is still centered upon the individual, but the ways in which the help is given are being reconsidered and
new methods explored. The guidance service of the school will be effective only if we keep constantly in mind the
individual student and his need. We must keep an open mind regarding the particular techniques to be used and not use
one just because some authority has praised it.
Guidance, like all other services of the school, uses and should use many different techniques suited to the special need,
the special situation, and the abilities of the counsellor or the teacher. In this respect it is like teaching. Effective teaching
is not dependent on any one technique since the one that is most effective for the dull student may not be suited to the
bright student.
The effective counsellor will study each student, each problem, each situation, and then select from the many techniques
available to him the one that, in his judgment, will be the most effective in helping the particular student to solve his
particular problem.
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The value of any technique is determined in large measure by the special skill of the counsellor in using it.
COUNSELLING
One of the standard techniques of guidance is counselling. There does not seem to be any specific definition of
counselling which is acceptable to all authorities. A well-organised attempt by a group of clinical psychologists to develop
such a definition is described in Roles and Relationships in Counselling. A careful analysis of counselling and developed
principles and techniques are important for effective counselling.
What is Counselling?
On the basis of these considerations the following definition was constructed by Gustad:
Counselling is a learning-orientated process carried on in a simple one-to-one social environment in which the counsellor,
professionally competent in relevant psychological skills and knowledge, seeks to assist the client by methods appropriate
to the latter's needs, and within the context of the total personnel programme, to learn more about himself and to accept
himself, to learn how to put such understanding into effect in relation to more clearly perceived, realistically defined goals,
to the end that the client may become a happier and more productive member of society.
It would be much more useful to formulate a simple definition that would apply to all counselling, good and bad, and then
to list the conditions and principles that are essential for effective and desirable results. The following definition by
Bordin is an excellent example, although not entirely complete: "Counselling is the process of aiding an individual to
solve his problems through the medium of the interview."
"The changed conditions and the increasing mechanization of life are having their effects on nerves felt even in India. It
would appear that nervous stability is more desirable today then ever before. To develop harmonious personalities should
be the purpose of our treatment of children at home and at school." A.R. Pachauri—Side lights on the problem and
nervous instability in school children and its causes; Published in "Siksha',
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October 1958.
"Therapy is a process in which an individual is helped to free himself from trying conditions and hardships in the
environments and from his own inner conflicts, anxieties, or a sense of inadequacy and gains courage to live again to face
life positively instead of negatively." —J.C. Agrawal
"Psychotherapy or treatment aims at restoring of mental health and at making a person more mature, flexible, and
adaptable; so that he is submissive or agressive, co-operative or resistant according to the requirements of the situation."
—Udai Shankar
It is generally accepted that rapport is a necessary precondition for counselling. Rapport between counsellor and counselee
is thought to be present when the counselee feels the need for help, when he comes to the counsellor willingly because he
feels that the counsellor can help him, and when the counsellor is deeply understanding and sympathetic and has only one
purpose—to be of assistance to the counselee.
There seems to be a difference of opinion regarding the place of rapport in counselling. Some authorities feel the rapport
is essential for counselling, that is, that it is necessary to establish rapport before counselling can function. If this is true,
then the great majority of high-school students, being sent by teacher or principal, cannot have any counselling until
rapport is established. Establishing rapport is a function of counselling therefore the counsellor's effort to attain rapport is
itself counselling.
Counselling should not be limited to students who have difficulties and who are conscious of problems; it should be
extended to include all pupils as an aid to their optimum development. It should be directed toward the prevention of
maladjustments, not merely toward their removal. This brings in another point of view—that in many cases the feeling of
need for help is not always necessary.
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Berdie expresses this as, "The important part is the establishment, even in the absence of a pressing problem, of a warm,
sound relationship of the pupil with a mature adult, to feel that such a person is genuinely and personally interested in
him." Many times the mere feeling that such a person as the counsellor is there to help, or even the memory of what a
teacher, a father, or a mother stands for, is real counselling help.
This question leads inevitably to the rapidly growing belief that counselling should not be confined to the counsellor but
should be used, as far as possible, by the entire school staff, especially the teacher. In fact, counselling is basically a
teaching technique. Guidance is more and more considered as a learning activity by an increasing number of authorities.
It is important to recognize the fact that this close personal relationship between counsellor and counselee and between
teacher and pupil is not achieved quickly; it may be long in developing and may be present long before the pupil is
conscious of the problem. Because he often is not aware of the developing problem, the pupil's feeling that he needs help
may often be slow in emerging. If the counsellor or teacher sees in advance what the problem of the student will be, he
can be of maximum assistance by preparing the student to meet it as it appears.
It should also be kept in mind that all people are not equally able to develop the necessary rapport. The ideal relationship
is that of father-son and mother-daughter. This is not to say that the father-son or mother-daughter relationship is always
ideal, but it has all the elements that make possible such rapport. Parents are with their children day after day and year
after year as they grow up and are in the best position to see and understand problems due to growth and developing
maturity.
Counselling is a combination of science and art. It involves an intimate relationship between counsellor and client. This
relationship depends in large measure on the counsellor. He must like people as people and must have the ability to show
that he likes them and to act really interested in them. He must also be a person whom people like and in whom they can
trust. He must at the same time be objective in his attitude
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toward the client and not allow his liking for him to warp his understanding; he must be able to see the client as he is. In
deciding who should do counselling, one must keep in mind the above considerations.
It is apparent that good counselling does not necessarily provide solutions to the problems of the client. The provision of
such solutions is not only difficult but often undesirable. The value of counselling cannot be measured by the ability of
the counsellor to discover what is the best choice of occupations or college for the client or by his ability to influence him
to accept this choice.
Even if he could do this, there is no statistical procedure that would enable us to find whether the choice made was the
best one. Even if the student were successful in the college he chose or in the occupation he entered, there is no way of
determining whether he could not have been equally successful if he had made another choice.
We cannot relive our lives with all conditions the same. The fundamental purpose of guidance is not merely to bring
success to the client but to help him develop the ability to choose wisely. Initial success may lead to satisfaction with
lesser goals, and initial failure may stir one to greater effort in attaining more adequate goals.
TYPES OF COUNSELLING
Some authorities have attempted to distinguish between such types of counselling as counsellor-versus client-centered,
directive versus nondirective, controlled versus permissive. The distinction client-centered versus counsellor-centered
reveals an entire misconception of counselling. All service activities are, by their nature, centered on the person to be
helped. All teaching is pupil-centered even when the teacher has fifty pupils in his class.
The services of the physician and the nurse are patient-centered. What is really meant by client-centered versus
counsellor-centered is the relative activity of the counsellor and the counselee in the guidance process or in the interview.
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Directive versus nondirective indicates also the degree to which the counsellor attempts to direct the discussion along the
lines that he thinks profitable as compared with encouraging the counselee to determine the direction of the discussion.
The nondirective technique is based on the belief that the client has the resources within himself to solve his own
problems without direction from others.
The nondirective, permissive, client-centered approach is more effective when 'emotional' problems are present. It is clear,
however, that many problems of students who come to the counsellor have few if any such emotional conditions. Many
cases merely call for information or some other routine help.
Without any intention to detract from the real value of the client-centered technique, it should be pointed out that the
"slight suggestion or interpretation" made by a counsellor when he is in the 'semitrance' of feeling as the counselee feels
may be as purely directive as a similar suggestion made by a directive counsellor.
The value of the suggestion or interpretation in such a case comes from the counsellor's wide experience which enables
him not only to understand the present feeling of the student but to see more clearly than the student the steps that must
be taken to arrive at a suitable solution of the problem.
In contrast to the client-centered technique it is often said that the directive counsellor is more interested in the problem
than he is in the counselee, but this belief is an exaggeration. He is concerned with the student and his problem—the two
cannot be separated. The directive counsellor, however, is apt to be more active, to make use of tests and other records,
and to be freer in giving advice and information. It is likely that most school counselling could be classified as directive.
Although the differences between the client-centered and the directive point of view may be more theoretical than
practical,
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Most counsellors are eclectic in their choice of techniques and attempt to use whatever approach seems best suited to the
situation. Real help is most often given by teachers and counsellors by methods that seem to be more directive than client-
centered.
The nondirective technique has, without doubt, made a real contribution to guidance. Viewing the situation in our schools
as it is today and as it will in all probability be for many years to come, however, we must realise that, even though this
approach may be more effective in certain cases, there is little chance that enough counsellors who have the extended
training essential to its use will be available.
If an important element in counselling is the intimate relationship between pupil and counsellor, it is by no means always
essential to have the face-to-face interview. A cheery 'hello' and a wave of the hand may do much to continue the needed
relationship. A hiking party, a game of tennis may do the same.
Time is a very important factor; counselling can take place by telephone or even by correspondence if the necessary
rapport has been established. In fact, correspondence may, in some cases, be more effective than face-to-face consultation.
It removes inferences drawn from facial expression or inflections of the voice.
We can, in the same way, speak of group guidance. By this we may mean either one of two things:
(1) that group procedures may be used when they are thought to be more effective and economical for helping individual
pupils or
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Guidance in Groups
This is the term used by Bennett to indicate the value of group procedures in helping individuals in the solution of their
problems. The therapeutic value of group procedures has long been generally accepted. The knowledge that others in the
group have the same problems helps the individual to realise that he is not the only person who is faced with this
difficulty.
The opinion of the group regarding the best method of solving this problem is a powerful influence on the acceptance of
the solution by the individual. The results of experiments in the use of group methods indicate that in many cases they are
more effective than individual counselling.
Group Counselling
The values of group guidance are generally accepted, but the term "group counselling" is still rejected by many guidance
authorities. Some believe that group counselling is an 'anomaly' and say that "it is as silly to speak of 'group counselling'
as "group courtship."" Many other clinical psychologists take the same position because they accept the definition of
counselling as a "face-to-face," "one-to-one" relationship, as in the interview. Such definitions automatically exclude any
notion of the group; but this is merely circular argument and leads nowhere.
Psychologists and sociologists recognise that there is a group 'entity'; the group is different from the sum of all the
individuals in it. There is a group purpose or objective that is not the same as the objective of any individual in the group.
There is a definite group psychology. Mob psychology is not only real but terribly effective for good or evil. Its power is
seen not only in men but also in animals. The stampede of horses and cattle and the "death march" of a herd of cattle
around the body of a recently killed member are striking examples of mob psychology. Many times the individual in the
mob is not even conscious of his existence as an individual—he is just a part of the mob.
In everyday life, in community, in the home, in the school, problems appear which can be solved more effectively by the
group. In the school especially problems of a group often arise, that is, a problem common to the whole group and not
merely to any one individual.
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The group presents its problem to the principal who listens and stimulates discussion. Different members suggest methods
that might be helpful in solving it, and a decision is reached. A group interview is held because the problem is a group
problem and the solution a group solution.
A technique that combines the techniques of "counselling in groups" and "group counselling" was used by Allen and
practiced in the public schools. The method has much to commend it.
The purpose of this method was to provide the counsellor with an approach to the discussion of personal and social
relationships by means of group thinking in order to obviate the need for 'preaching.' Common problems of young people
in the group were presented for study and discussion. After the problem had been stated concretely by way of a case, each
pupil reviewed his own experience in a similar situation. Then the leader guided the group away from the more immediate
and temporary advantages to be gained and toward more remote and permanent values.
Consideration was given to the effect of the proposed line of action upon others and to possible exceptions or other
conditions that should be considered in deciding upon a plan of action. Finally, conclusions were summarized in order to
see what generalisations could be formulated which would be helpful in other situations. The entire process was really an
experience in social thinking.
Allen makes several suggestions to ensure the success of his method. The attitude of the conference leader must be
different from the typical attitude of the teacher in that the teacher knows the answers to the questions which he asks, and
the pupils know that he knows. A good leader never, under any circumstances, enters into the discussion by expressing
approval or disapproval of any opinion or attitude or by voicing his own opinions.
On the contrary, the leader, without losing control, must be an impartial, open-minded, tactful, tolerant, and courteous
presiding officer who must see that all points of view have a hearing, especially the 'wrong' attitudes. While care must
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be taken not to waste school time by aimless discussion, it must always be kept in mind that the conference cannot be
hurried without loss of effectiveness since any conference is a leisurely procedure. The counsellor need not always follow
any particular order of questioning, for in some of the most successful conferences most of the questions have been asked
by the pupils.
A good conference leader occasionally restates and summarizes the group thinking at various stages. Sometimes
conclusions may be noted on the blackboard, sometimes written by a secretary, and sometimes not recorded at all. It is
clearly the leader's function to keep the case discussion moving toward a solution and to keep the members informed of
the progress of the thinking. Lastly, a conference group should be large enough to represent a diversified range of
opinions but not so large as to prevent each member from taking an active part in the discussion.
Allen believes that many important results can be expected from this procedure. One result is that students get the view of
the majority on personal and social problems. A pupil is taught to think for himself and to defend his opinions. Everyone
is so interested that even shy pupils get excited and talk.
The problems are real live topics of today and therefore have meaning for the participants in the case conference. Because
the facts sink in deeper when the same things are said by pupils, the conference helps determine the policy of a pupil who
is debating the subject within himself. Boys and girls discuss these things privately; why not bring them out into the open
for frank debate in a situation where the teacher can learn much about the pupils? When the teacher keeps his views out
of the discussion, the pupils give more honest opinions and learn what is best for the group, not merely for the individual.
The method keeps pupils to the point by using specific examples of modern problems.
It makes them more tolerant of the opinion of others, brings them "out of themselves," and helps them analyze subjects
that they might not otherwise think out. It is a good test of one's beliefs to stand up for them in the face of opposition.
These and other values convinced Allen that the case conference method was a useful group guidance technique.
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Multiple Counselling
Froelich has suggested the term "multiple counselling" to indicate the utilization of group methods in the counselling of
individuals. The purpose of such counselling is to assist the individual in the solution of his problems by utilising the
group setting. This is not essentially different from the "case conference problems" of Allen or the "guidance in groups" of
Bennett.
There seems to be no logical reason for calling this group method "multiple counselling" just because many (multiple)
problems are considered by many (multiple) persons in one group. The chief reason given by Froelich for the term
'multiple' is to avoid the criticism centering on the terms "group guidance" and "guidance in groups." It also serves to
emphasize the function of the group itself in the guidance of individuals through the utilization of group therapy.
A modification of Bennett's "guidance in groups" to "counselling in groups" might well be accepted. This modification
recognizes that counselling of individuals may take place in a group setting and that the group can be used effectively both
for problems of the individuals in the group and for problems of the group itself. This term, however, can never be
accepted by those who still insist that counselling is a one-to-one, counsellor-client relationship.
2. Write a brief note on the merits and demerits of various types of counselling.
3. Briefly explain the differences between directive and client-centered techniques of counselling.
4. What do you understand by Group Guidance and Group Counselling? Explain case conference procedures in particular.
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The present age belongs to democracy as a political way of life therefore, this chapter is devoted to study the nature of
man in a democracy and the importance, nature and kind of guidance for the man in the democratic set-up.
Democracy aims at greatest good of the greatest number. This is possible if the greatest number of the people of the
nation make best use of their capabilities and abilities for the discovery and utilization of natural and human resources and
for this proper development of human capabilities and abilities is a must, which is possible when greatest number of
people of the nation are motivated to discover and develop self-understanding, self-concept or self-image, whatever you
may call it. This concept has already been discussed in chapter six of this book. Hereunder, we will discuss the concepts
concerning interaction and relationship between the nature of man in a democracy and place of guidance in the service of
mankind in a democratic set-up.
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A POINT OF VIEW
is always very much a part of the situation to which he reacts and which acts on him. As a psychological principle this
may be stated as, "Growth is a product of the interaction of the organism with its environment." It should be noted that
this is a three-way, not just a two-way proposition of heredity and environment. This word interaction implies that
heredity and environment have their impact through an organism. The principle may be symbolized as:
S=O=R
meaning that a source of stimulation, action on and through an organism, produces a response (interaction) which, in turn
changes the organism so that it perceives, or receives, the stimulation in its own unique manner. This is a devious way for
us to state that we choose to view normal man as a person capable of making choices. And the choice we make here is to
regard man from a hopeful and optimistic point of view.
2. Another of man's distinctive characteristics, as compared to other animals is his utter helplessness at birth and a long
period of helplessness and dependency which extends through childhood and adolescence. If man were not a social
creature this characteristic would lead to biological extinction. As it is, neonatal and postnatal helplessness is a tremendous
advantage.
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It means that man is not burdened with a stock of ready-made responses. Not being burdened by ready-made responses,
man must learn the responses which are most suitable to the era, the conditions, the expectations into which he is born.
As civilization becomes more complex, the period of dependency becomes longer.
3. Human beings need companionship as much as they need food, without companionship he may suffer from physical
maldevelopment, anxiety and apathy. Thus social interaction is a must for the development of human being.
4. Another of man's outstanding and distinguishing characteristics is his intelligence—his brain power. It is his
intelligence that allows him to capitalize on his thumb-finger opposition and to develop and use ever more complex and
capable tools. While the evolution of other animals has resulted in some unique physical development to insure their
survival, such as a long neck, long legs, thick hide, extended proboscis, shaggy hair, and strong claws, man's survival has
been largely dependent on his capacity for conceptual thought.
It is man's ability to recall the past, to assemble in advantageous combinations various aspects of the present, and to
project these and himself into the future that constitutes man's uniqueness for survival and for creative self-fulfilment.
Huxley, believes that man's psychological adaptability, combined with his being a social animal, holds forth the promise
of a psychological evolution.
5. Kubie's words indicate clearly that man is an emotional creature. Some unknown sage has said, "Man's intellect is a
mere speck upon a sea of feeling." If this be true, or some approximation of the truth, then saying that man's intellect is
his outstanding characteristic may require some reexamination.
It is the combination of feeling and intelligence that is the really important thing. High intellect without the desire and
drive to use it contructively (again an emotional factor) is a disappointing thing to observe. On the other hand, emotion
without the directing force of intelligence is a discouraging phenonmenon.
6. Man is a valuing creature—he can make choices. Man is a product of his culture. These are paradoxical statements and,
according to Rogers, it is a scientific fact and dilemma
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with which man must live. An attempt will not be made here resolve the issue of determinism versus freedom of choice.
Let it suffice to say that there are many who believe one can choose and that the possibility and probability of choice is
enhanced by study, learning, education, and the deliberate attempt to make choices.
Bagley, in discussing the relationship of determinism and education, and Theobald, more recently, have emphasized the
conviction that the key things to teach children are values.
7. The final characteristic which distinguishes man so clearly from other animals is his capacity to develop and use
language. Ayres does not equivocate about the importance of language in the distinctiveness of man. Man's uniqueness, he
asserts, is the faculty of speech. Man must learn this faculty and, incidentally, here again is seen the pervasive significance
of the concept of potential.
The particular language one learns depends on the culture into which he is born. It is largely through language that
intellectual potential is made manifest; most tests purporting to appraise intelligence have a large verbal content.
Interestingly, it has been demonstrated that even mathematical skills have a surprisingly large verbal component. It is
through language that man has been able to develop the culture that shapes the vehicle of language.
Thus it may be perceived that although man is a tool-using creature, a social creature, and an intelligent creature these
characteristics are brought together in culmination with man as a talking and a feeling creature. Ayres indicates that it is
important for students of human behaviour to perceive that man is a creature who values and feels. Some scientists would
appear to ignore this fact and make man into a thinking, objective, dispassionate organism. In fact, education has all too
often ignored this sentient aspect of a man.
Actually it is the intellectually honest thing to acknowledge our emotional commitments, our feelings, and our values.
Ayres suggests that we cannot forecast what man's next cultural developments and scientific discoveries will be. While we
probe the sky, land instruments on the moon, and make further discoveries about the use of nuclear fission it would be a
joke if some social scientist would announce a revolutionary
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conception of government, another concept of economy, or even a new scheme of living for human society as a whole.
This period of education can be most advantageous when the essential social nature of man is recognized. One learns to
be human through association with humans. One also learns to be intelligent but, unfortunately there are gigantic obstacles
in the way of actualizing one's intellectual potential. The counsellor has the task, in cooperation with many others, of
chipping away at those obstacles. Major tools in this chipping process are language, communication, semantics, meaning.
The guidance counsellor should seek to implement communication with the pupil and with those others—teachers,
parents, peers-who constitute the child's social milieu.
We would go so far as to say that the unique opportunity for guidance counsellors to make a truly professional
contribution to human welfare resides in the area of emotion. Through individual counselling he can learn the interests,
aspirations dilemmas, fears, anxieties, and attitudes of the pupil. He can help clarify the role of both the positive
(upbuilding and integrative) and negative (disintegrative) emotions to the individual and also to the key persons in that
individual's life. It is exactly at this point that the counsellor's role as consultant to parents and teachers becomes clear and
specific.
The aim of the counsellor is to magnify the power of the positive, integrative emotions and minimize the role of the
negative, disintegrative ones. This is by no means as easy to put into practice as it is to verbalize. Anger, for instance, is a
disintegrative emotion; it, like many other emotions, tends to spread or generalise to situations other than the one which
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initially generated the response, and is therefore usually regarded as being unproductive.
Yet there are occasions when anger is helpful and, in the form of righteous indignation, merits approval. Love is frequent
exercise. But an excess of love, either as giver or recipient, may be such as to lead to emotional imbalance. These
excessive states are called over indulgence or infatuation.
(1) There are different avenues by which individuals achieve satisfaction so that the making of helpful generalizations is
difficult.
(2) It follows that, even for individuals, it is difficult to predict the means by which satisfaction will be achieved.
(3) Satisfaction is seldom terminal; for example, having gained prestige in a given area the individual may change goals so
that more prestige may be sought in another realm.
(4) Satisfaction is rarely pure; having gained power one may be dissatisfied with techniques which won it.
(5) Satisfactions are related to the self-concept and identity of the individual, hence, the repertoire of human goals and
behaviours leading to satisfaction must be varied and flexible.
All of this emphasizes the importance of continuous appraisal of the individual and his growth patterns. It emphasizes the
need for society as a whole, the individual, and those engaged in the helping professions to place a high value on freedom
to grow. Humans need to learn how to enjoy life and the lessons can best be taught in an atmosphere of freedom. It is in
such an atmosphere that responsibility can best be learned and it is in the atmosphere of freedom that one takes strides
toward the pervasive emotional satisfaction of self-realisation.
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Some light has been thrown on this problem by psychologists, sociologists, and cultural anthropologists.
Thomas has consolidated basic needs in terms of four wishes: security, new experiences (and note that these two might
possibly conflict or be 'polar'), response, and recognition.
Symonds is dealing with basic needs and simultaneously indicating their importance in speaking of them as 'drives': to be
with others, to gain attention, to be approved, to be a cause, to maintain self, to be a master, to gain affection and security,
and to satisfy curiosity.
Carroll summarizes human needs under four headings: the need for emotional security, the need for physical satisfaction,
the need for status, and the need for mastery.
Leuba uses two major headings and several minor ones. These are physical needs for food, water, elimination of waste,
protection, muscular activity, and for stimulation; and acquired needs for gregariousness, attention, approval, and to please
others.
Maslow uses a somewhat different approach, and one which is particularly appealing because it accounts for the human's
urge to grow, expand, and explore. His theory of needs has an additional appeal in that it accounts for the predominance
of a particular class of needs at a particular juncture of development. This predominance is explained by arranging the
needs in a hierarchical order.
Low-level needs are predominant until they are satisfied or well on the way to being satisfied. When lower-level needs are
satisfied they wane as sources of motivation and the next higher level of needs become functional. This hierarchical
arrangement allows the study of human behaviour to get away from the concept of deprivation, lack, or insufficiency and
begins to examine man's heterostatic drives, his need for growth, expansion, and finally to arrive at the concept of self-
fulfilment as the highest and most satisfying of man's needs. But needs at this level are not ones of deprivation; rather
they are ones of the fullest possible realisation of potential.
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water, oxygen, rest, activity, sex, and sensory satisfaction have been satisfied, as they are for most well-fed, satisfactorily
housed Americans, one can then devote his energies to the satisfaction of the next higher order of needs.
(2) Safety needs tend to be satisfied by care during illness, routines, dependable relatives and companions, and by
orderliness in the world. Need satisfaction is enhanced at the safety level by discipline, law, and order. At this point we
begin to see a few individuals who suffer lack.
(3) The next order of needs are for belongingness and love. The need to give and receive love begins to dominate one's
activities. Hunger for this level of needs, the counsellor recognises, is a frequently encountered and basic factor in
psychopathology.
(4) Esteem needs entail self-respect and respect from others that stem from achievement that is somewhat in proportion to
capacity. At this level one needs to earn esteem because of what he can do rather than being loved simply because he is.
Esteem needs tend to be satisfied by confidence and independence and by recognition, attention, and appreciation from
others.
(5) The need for self-actualization means that a person must be what he can be—his potentialities must be actualized.
When this level is reached, and few reach it, the individual is able to accept himself and others (together with their
shortcoming). He takes joy and pride in his work and in his world; and this he does not because he needs love or esteem,
or safety but because he is healthy, eager, and creative.
(6) As if this were not enough, even as a goal for the direction of one's energies, Maslow has added a still higher level—
the aesthetic needs. It appears in a few mature individuals and in a few healthy children who have not been buffeted about
in their too often futile search for satisfaction of lower level needs. Aesthetic needs take the form of craving of beauty,
order, symmetry, and completion.
It can be seen from much of the foregoing that man is a social being—shaped by his culture, his potential, and his
response. Hence it would seem that in describing man's needs and nature, the fact of relationships to other must be
considered—and it is. In the basic needs listed above, it is
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A careful reading of Maslow's concept of self-actualization shows deep underlying social needs. For example, Riesman
speaks of the culture-oriented individual who derives his values from tradition. At another stage science and industry
makes the tradition-directed person somewhat confused and he draws values from his immediate family (authority) and
becomes an inner-directed person.
At another level, where science, wealth, and health expand the world, the person becomes other-directed. People all over
the world become a part of his problem.
Man is not a victim of his heredity or of his environment— unless he chooses to be. "Unless he chooses to be" means that
man makes choices. Man is constantly faced by dilemmas—to be a force or to yield to pressures; to accept answers or ask
questions; to be a pawn of fortune or to shape his life. A persistent question for civilized man is the dilemma of freedom
versus responsibility.
Counsellors do not have the answers to the dilemmas which the nature of man pose for him. But the counsellor worthy of
the name will be well enough informed that he can take a position—have a view—which will provide guidance as those
with whom he works makes choices. The day of the exclusively nondirective, reflective counsellor is gone.
The counsellor today must regard himself as an agent of change, a factor in the process of education, an active
interventionist in the lives of those with whom he comes in contact.
Becoming is an active process. Fulfilment of man's potential for becoming human is a lifelong task and challenge. Some
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persons run the course competently and eagerly. Others live out their lives in quiet despair and apathy. Others express
their desperation in violent aggression. Still others confidently expect that things will get better; and another orientation
expects that one's own efforts, combined with those of his neighbour, can keep man productively and joyfully engaged in
the process of becoming.
The process involves work and sometimes pain because no person is born an adult, ready to go, to meet all challenges.
One psychiatrist refers to the fact of positive disintegration which means the normality of anxiety, neuroticism, pathology,
distress, and labour as one engages in becoming.
Counsellors can expect that neither they nor their counselees will progress without difficulty, but one can chose to regard
the difficulty as an obstacle rather than a barrier.
One's orientation and experience determines how one views the incessant dilemmas of life and makes choices in situations
which are not black or white but consist of shades of gray. Man has chosen formal education as the means by which
orientations may be influenced, preparations for choices be established, and plans for action be initiated.
History does not provide answers in these or other areas. Rapid change, technological development, expanding population,
instant communication, and ease of travel all present new problems that education cannot answer in terms of the past. And
education has lagged in many respects. It has been observed, for instance, that a decade ago there was no mathematics in
high school that was less than 100 year old.
Very little of the content of educational psychology derives from sources other than animal and laboratory
experimentation— which, per se, makes it foreign to the dynamics of the classroom group.
The study of man reveals that he is a plastic, modifiable, responsive, bundle of potential. He has gained and held his
power through the extension of his mind and body by mechanical tools and conceptual processes. We are told that modern
man is biologically no different from man as he was 500,000 years ago. If this is so, all that a person learns and does take
place in one generation. The veneer of civilization is indeed thin. The difference between contemporary, democratic
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man, and Cro-Magnon is the richness of the environment of the twentieth century.
Those who mold the individual—and the genetic and congenital factors that predispose the response of individual cannot
be disregarded—may be classified into three categories. The primary group, the family, is of greatest importance because
its influence is asserted in the early years when contact is most intimate and continuous. The institutional forces,
especially the school, are of great concern because they are man-made and greatly susceptible to change.
The larger culture—and for us this is democratic society— shapes both of the former and is therefore most pervasive. Its
inclusiveness however, renders it most resistive to planned change because there are so many elements to be recognised.
Many people, it is seen, contribute to the environment which shapes human nature—parents, siblings, peer groups,
teachers, employers—but most of them are exposing the growing person to a learning situation that consists of "this is
how it is done." Recent attention has been directed to the process (as contrasted with the content) of education. It is felt
that more attention should be devoted to how to learn, whereas attention in the past has been on what to learn. Many
people may be responsible for this emphasis. It is proposed that one person who could logically be given or could assume
leadership in emphasizing the process of education be the counsellor. He is historically the one who helps the pupil make
up Iris own mind regarding the wisdom of choices in the face of successive dilemmas.
In order to assume this responsibility and to grasp the opportunity the counsellor must be a scholar. His habits must be
kept vigorously alive by their continuous exercise. The need for constant study derives from
(1) the obligation to keep abreast" of rapidly developing discoveries and innovations,
Because being a human is a response-learned from other humans the counsellor, being the expert in human relations, has a
unique opportunity for making a professional contribution. In the specific intent to make the pupil active in the process of
learning (not the passive recipient of information), in helping teachers keep in mind the affective aspect of their job, in
enlisting
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the aid of parents, and in responding to the current needs of the culture, the counsellor has a focal position which has not
previously been adequately recognised.
But it is coming to be appreciated. Sprinthall and Tiedeman have noted from 1959 to 1964 the number of full-time
counsellors in USA had more than doubled—from 11,000 to 24,000 full-time equivalents. This is a small number but it is
large enough to explore experiment, innovate, and create a new professional role for counsellors. As more people become
prepared to fulfil the expanding counsellor role they will have increasing impact on shaping of mankind's future
psychosocial evolution. Recognition of the challenge was, in fact, suggested by the theme of the American Personnel and
Guidance Association 1966 Convention: "Man in the World Society: Heritage, Status, Promise."
2. Explain various view points about basic human needs which effect the human nature.
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Fundamental human needs can be grouped according to four general categories: physical, mental, emotional, and social. A
still broader classification is by personal or individual needs and social needs. Regardless of whether human needs are
classified as broad, general areas or broken down into specific listings, there can be no definte lines of demarcation
between them.
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(1) one need may be closely associated with another (the need for attention and the desire for approval);
(2) the fulfillment of one tends to arouse another (satisfying completion of a work project followed by participation in
relaxing play activity); or
(3) failure to satisfy one need may intensify another (a child's tendency to overeat as compensation for a lack of parental
affection).
Patterns of Needs
Although the general areas of human wants tend to operate throughout an individual's life span, specific needs change in
form and intensity during the growing years. At this point we shall review briefly the developing pattern of needs as these
are related to learning and guidance.
Infancy and early childhood. The infant's needs are simple. From one point of view he is simply a "vegetative" organism.
His needs include appropriate food, warmth, sleep, and some over-all body activity. Later, his physical needs include
walking, taking solid food, talking, controlling the elimination of body wastes, and gaining general body control. Socially
he begins to differentiate among people and things about him, interacting with other children or with his elders and
understanding and practicing simple concepts of right and wrong. The young child's emotional needs may be extremely
intense.
Older children. During this period of development, the child needs to participate in relatively strenuous activity; he
becomes curious and adventuresome. He is interested in himself as a person among playmates of the same age. He wants
to be independent, yet he needs adult care and protection. He tends to set up his own values and to develop a code of
behaviour satisfactory to himself; but he wants his behaviour to be acceptable to his young and older associates. He is
eager to earn the attention and approval of others. The child's basic personality pattern is taking form as he gradually
acquires habits of behaviour that can be expected to operate toward the fulfillment of his changing needs, wants, and
interests.
The adolescent years. The energy-filled young adolescent wants to be "up and doing." He is restless and usually unable to
sit
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still for more than a short period of time. His increasing need to be regarded as an adult, coupled with his own recognised
inability to meet adult responsibilities, often causes conflict within himself. Interests fluctuate, especially during early
adolescent years.
Physical changes, developing social awareness, gradually maturing attitudes toward members of the opposite sex, and an
increasing need for freedom from adult control exert a significant influence on the adolescent. They may result in
adjustment difficulties that require sympathetic, understanding guidance by parents, teachers, and school counsellors.
Adulthood. Basic physical, mental, emotional, and social needs and wants persist through the adult years. A mature man or
woman (young or older) can be expected to fulfill personal needs in accordance with group standards. Experiences
associated with marriage and family life, occupational activty, and social relationships may give rise to behaviour
problems that are very different from those encountered during preadult years.
The ways in which and the extent to which an adult achieves personally and socially satisfying fulfillment of his needs
depend on only on his power of self-direction but also on the nature of the stimuli-situations which confront him. In any
event, not everyone can "go it alone." Many people at times need the assistance of a well-trained counsellor of adults.
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A motive is anything that activates. Viewed psychologically, motivations are inner controls of an individual's overt
behaviour and are rooted both in his physiological development and in his background of experience. Urges and desires
are basic to the arousal of motives. An inner-behaviour regulator or urge can take the form of a compulsion to act, a drive,
an aim, a goal, a craving, an incentive, a choice, an attitude, or an interest.
The strength of an inner state determines the response that will be made to an activity-arousing stimulus. His behaviour is
determined by not one but several motivations.
Since human behaviour is conditioned by experience-modified inner controls, an individual sometimes engages in an
activity without recognising completely the complexity of the motivations that impelled him. At various times and in
specific situations, a person may depart almost completely from his accustomed behaviour tendencies. It is the
responsibility of teachers and guidance workers to evaluate intelligently a particular act or attitude of a young person in
relation to the latter's usual behaviour and then to seek the motivating cause of the changed behaviour.
Organic conditions leading to the arousal of behaviour by change in equilibrium are basic to biological drives.
Homeostasis (organic balance) is restored when an organism's inner imbalance stimulates appropriate activity. Physical
fatigue motivates the desire to rest. Although a person may be impelled by strong interest to continue a fatiguing activity
and may even convince himself that he is not tired, the need for rest persists.
Physiological drives, such as hunger, thirst, need for oxygen, and the sex drive, are accompanied by socially or culturally
derived attitudes toward their fulfillment. Whether it is actually true or not, most of us feel that any growing child needs
morning or afternoon "snacks" in addition to the regular "three meals a day" that satisfy most adults. Pure water is the
best thirst-quencher, but custom usually dictates that children prefer flavored liquids.
The developing sex urge influences a young person's thoughts, feelings and emotions; indeed, it may dominate his entire
being. As the inner changes are affected by environmental
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conditions, individual attitudes are developed toward the self in relation to other members of either sex. In no other aspect
of personality patterning do adolescents need more constructive guidance by understanding adults than in this phase of the
growing process.
Even though many of our urges or drives originate in physiological needs, the resulting behaviour is conditioned by social
motivation. In our relationships with other people, as well as in our experiences with things, conditions, and situations, our
behaviour is motivated by various urges, desires, or goals that are social in nature. Every "normal" individual desires
recognition and approval from his associates; he seeks adventure and strives for success in his activities; he feels the need
for sympathy, finaical security, and security in the respect of his associates; he wants to be superior to others in at least
one area of activity; and he is impelled to bolster his own ego by mastery of people, things, or conditions. These are
normal urges, desires, and interests. Whether an individual is motivated to satisfy them through socially acceptable activity
depends in great part on the amount and kind of guidance he has experienced from early childhood.
Fundamentally, an individual's level of aspiration depends on motivating factors within and outside himself. Consciously
or unconsciously, even a child sets goals for himself. Too often, however, adults encourage a young person to aim for
unattainable goals. Gain or loss of self-esteem results insofar as he succeeds or fails to reach goals that he recognises as
contributing to his physical survival and social prestige.
When or if goal-striving meets interference of one sort or another, problems of adjustment arise. Then help is needed to
achieve personally and socially satisfying behaviour patterns, an accomplishment usually referred to as good adjustment. If
the problem situation becomes so serious that the individual cannot help himself and no outside assistance is available, he
is liable to set lower goals that may be self-satisfying but socially unacceptable. Such abnormal behaviour is regarded as
symptomatic of personality maladjustment.
PROBLEMS OF ADJUSTMENT
The term problem has become increasingly popular. Mothers
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wax eloquent concerning their problem children. Husbands and wives wallow in seas of self-pity because of their problem
mates. We hear much of the problem worker and the problem supervisor or employer. Teachers complain that problem
children in their classes interfere with successful teaching. Political, social, and economic problems are the themes of
lectures, debates, magazine articles, and books. Radio and television programmes overemphasize problem people and
problem situations.
Other persons tend to become upset by any slight deviation from customary conditions or procedures. They are
oversensitive and easily discouraged. They are prone to blame another for even a slight personal failure. For such people
life is no more than a succession of unsolved problems.
When a problem situation arises, it usually is discovered that a person's problem results from a number of things each of
which needs consideration. Any therapy undertaken requires
Problems of adjustment usually are related to one or more aspects of a person's life pattern. The displayed attitude or
behaviour of an individual tends to be influenced especially by his:
4. Recreational interests
Moreover, we do not live in a vacuum; we are constantly interacting with other human beings in one or another area of
activity. Incipient or serious problems of adjustment tend to be centered in one or more of the following areas of
experience that constitute an individual's life pattern:
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1. Home conditions
2. School progress
3. Occupational activities
We now shall discuss briefly the personality characteristics and the areas of influence that are involved in problems of
adjustment.
Physical constitution and healthy status. Many people are fortunate enough to possess normal physical structure and
constitution and relatively good health. It is difficult for such persons to understand fully the adjustment difficulties likely
to accompany temporary or permanent deviation from the generally accepted norm. The abnormal condition itself may not
be so much the cause of emotional disturbance as the actual or imagined effect of the individual's defects on other people.
Pain or suffering that accompanies an organic condition or a physical defect often is hard to endure and may result in
irritability, apathy, or discouragement. Yet there are many persons who, in spite of constant pain, are able to participate in
useful activities which earn for them the respect and admiration of their associates.
There are many instances, however, in which a physical defect or ill health constitutes a definite factor of maladjustment.
Physical unattractiveness, blindness, deafness, lameness, speech inadequacy, undersize or oversize, malnutrition, lack of
physical vigour or muscular co-ordination, frailty, or any other defect cause adjustment difficulties.
A person suffering from a physical defect may display one or more abnormal forms of behaviour. He may become shy or
withdrawn; he may assume an attitude of indifference to others or of actual antagonism; his attitude may be one of self-
pity or of refusal to recognize his defect. In any case, unless the individual receives help in adjusting to an irremediable
defect, his health status is likely to interfere with his successful participation in normal work and recreational activities.
Personal attitudes and behaviour traits. It is almost axiomatic to say that we are not born with our attitudes or other
personal traits except to the extent that by the accident of birth into a particular family we inherit a particular constitution
and certain potentialities. Whatever attitudes or traits we develop are the
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result of our environmental influences and our reactions to them- In the environments of the home, school, place of work,
and the community at large can be found the bases of the attitudes and traits of behaviour exhibited by any one individual.
From early childhood onward, most individuals are constant imitators of observed behaviour that seems attractive to them.
In addition, the extent to which a person is encouraged or thwarted in the satisfaction of natural urges or developed
interests may exert considerable influence on his behaviour pattern. Habits of thought and action directly inculcated by
parents and teachers, as these affect individual success and adjustment, are potent builders of attitudes. Newspapers,
books, radio and television programmes, and motion pictures motivate young people as well as adults toward the
development of general and specific attitudes and ideals. As an individual is stirred emotionally by the factors of influence
which surround him.
Among the conditions that may require help toward adjustment are feelings of inferiority or superiority, extreme shyness,
overaggressiveness and egotism, antisocial attitudes and inhability to get along with people, lack of initiative and self-
confidence, obsessive likes and dislikes, poor sportsmanship, and extreme lack of emotional stability. The source of the
problem may lie in the individual's inherited constitution; the form of his difficulty is an outgrowth of his experiences with
other people.
Ethical standards and religious values. The young child's ethical standards are derived from those of his elders. Sometimes
he is puzzled by the fact that adult example and adult precept do not always agree. For instance, a parent may admonish a
child not to tell lies, yet the child hears that same parent tell untruths over the telephone. Many children develop and
adhere to a code of ethics for themselves which may not always meet the approval of adults. Among the rules of conduct
which must be followed by the members of a children's group, if they are to remain in good standing with their comrades.
The child rarely experiences religious difficulties. If he receives early religious training, his religious concepts usually are
quite satisfying to him. God is thought of as a benign Father who rewards you when you are good and punishes you when
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you are naughty. A child's ethical standards usually are closely related to the religious instruction he receives.
The later years of adolescence and the early years of adulthood may be fraught with doubts, confusion, and conflict. These
arise out of situations involving differences in ethical standards as applied to relationships with others, and out of
differences in religious beliefs or observances. Attitudes that prevail in the home may run counter to attitudes and practices
the individual encounters outside the home. His own urges, desires, or interests may seem to be in contradiction with
traditional patterns of morals or religious teachings. Moreover, it may be difficult for him to divorce ethical values and
religious experiences from emotionalization of attitudes. His resulting behaviour may give evidence of lack of adjustment.
Recreational interests. Much has been said and written about the value to an individual of a balanced programme of work
and play. At one time or another, an individual is likely to describe the same activity as work, play, or drudgery. Too often
the first and last of these terms are used interchangeably. Actually, however, these various activities can be differentiated
as follows:
(1) work is goal-pointed activity, undertaken as a means toward a desired end, regardless of the degree of pleasure
experienced in the pocess;
(2) play is an activity engaged in for present satisfaction, with no regard for future gain;
(3) drudgery is any activity in which one engages solely because he is compelled by outside forces or conditions to do so.
An individual of any age tends to be motivated to participate in those forms of activity in which he achieves the greatest
amount of personal satisfaction. Naturally, what gives pleasure or satisfaction to one person may be annoying to another.
Most adults would be bored by many of the play activities of children. Youngsters often are stimulated to want to play at
work. Either a younger or an older person may become so intrigued by a work project that he persists in the activity until
he achieves the desired goal or until fatigue compels him to quit.
Physical and mental well-being require that, no matter how interested one is in the completion of a task, some time be
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given to relaxing or recreational forms of activity. Children usually enjoy running, jumping, and active games. The
recreational activities of adolescents and young adults include participation in sports, hiking, dancing, social group
meetings, and more quiet activities, such as reading, watching motion pictures or television programmes, and listening to
radio broadcasts, either alone or with others.
Problems of adjustment are experienced by both younger and older persons who are denied the satisfaction of participating
in the recreational activities of their physically normal peerage associates. A physical handicap, such as crippling or
delicate health, may exclude them from taking part in more or less strenuous physical activity. Often such people need
help in finding healthful and relaxing activities which they can enjoy.
Another recreational problem is the difficulty often experienced by older adults who, during their earlier years, were so
pressured by money or prestige ambitions that they became involved in their work to the exclusion of sufficient
recreational activity. When these people finally decide to "retire" from their life work, they are likely to find themselves at
loose ends. They may have lost track of their earlier friends; they have not developed any interesting hobbies; they are
unable to adapt themselves to what they therefore consider a useless mode of life.
Somewhat similar to the feelings of these people are the attitudes of some middle-aged men who in their youth were
athletic heroes. As increasing age and concern with occupational pursuits prevent their continuing participation in a
strenuous sport, they experience severe frustration. They have not developed recreational interests suited to their age level
nor are they the public idols they were in their youth. Hence they tend to devote all of their energy to work activities,
denying themselves needed relaxation in social situations. Fortunately, there is an educational trend toward encouraging
young people to develop an interest in recreational activities which they can enjoy in their older years, as well as during
their youth.
Home conditions. Fortunate indeed is the boy or girl who grows up in a home characterized by emotional control, self-
discipline, and co-operation among its members. These estimable qualities seem to be lacking in so many homes that
many
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teachers and counsellors believe most maladjustments have their roots in unwholesome home conditions and ineffectual
training during early childhood. Regular family routine is upset by differences in hours of work among the members of the
family and often by the fact that the mother is employed outside the home. In many homes, moreover, the various
members of the family engage in social activities separately rather than as a family unit. The modern family is becoming
less tightly knit, the members exhibiting an increasing degree of individualism. Many persons gain greater individual self-
direction and self-discipline from experiencing personal independence in family relations, but others suffer from the loss
of security resulting from lack of co-operation in the home. Some parents attempt to maintain a traditional attitude of
authority over their children. In such instances, conflict between the strict discipline of the home and observed out-of-
home freedom may result in problems of adjustment which almost defy solution.
Home conditions and parental attitudes which may lead to problem situations requiring the service of guidance counsellors
include too-strict parents, overindulgent or indifferent parents, family jealousies and dissension, homes broken by divorce
or by the death of a parent, frequent moving of the home from one section of city or country to another, too many or too
few home duties, differences in ethical standards or religious affiliations among family members, low moral status, and
lack of home co-operation with the school or the community. In few homes are all of these maladjustive factors present.
Any one of them, however, can become the cause of resentment, development of a strong feeling of insecurity, or serious
emotional disturbance.
Psychologists are in general agreement about the importance to an individual of his childhood experiences. The attitudes
and habits developed during the first five or six years of life exercise a potent influence on future behaviour.
School progress. A satisfactory adjustment in learning activities in relation to mental ability and aptitudinal interests may
be difficult for the individual who attends a school in which curricular offerings and teaching procedures are not adjusted
to his needs. Other factors also may adversely affect a pupil's
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Satisfactory school adjustment can be inhibited or retarded by the presence of one or more of the following conditions:
curricular offerings not adjusted to a pupil's mental status, too little or too much help given by teachers, poor study habits,
inadequate home study conditions, fear of failure, lack of interest in school work or in specific school subjects, too long or
not sufficiently understood home assignments, too much or too little participation in school sports or in out-of-school
social activities, teacher-pupil antagonism, indifferent or oversolicitous attitude of parents toward their child's school
activities, uncertainty concerning future plans, and vocational-choice conflict with parents.
These represent but a few of the many situations that may arise to interfere with successful learning progress in the school
life of a child, adolescent, or young adult. The differing needs and interests of the members of our large and heterogeneous
school population challenge the tact, understanding, and ingenuity of teachers and guidance counsellors. Too often the
adjustment problem of the school pupil appears to represent a complex of maladjustive factors that go beyond the abilities
or facilities of school people to solve. Unless co-operation can be obtained from parents and appropriate community
agencies, there is little that teachers and counsellors can do for the individual except apply remedial measures, which are
relatively superficial.
Occupational activities. Since the various areas of vocational guidance are considered later in detail, the discussion at this
point is limited to a listing of some of the major problems associated with the selection of and preparation for a vocation.
Most young people on the high-school and college levels normally are concerned about their future occupational activities.
Problems that deal with vocational choice and preparation, and consequent worker adjustment, include uncertainty about
vocational interests, too high or too low vocational ambitions, parental interference, interest in more than one vocational
field, lack of or unwise teacher counselling, inadequate opportunities for vocational training, worker oversupply,
difficulties of job application, inability to adjust to job requirements.
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Social and civic adjustment. The schools are now recognising as never before their responsibility for the development in
young people of intelligent and wholesome attitudes toward social and civic relationships and recreational activities.
Attention to these areas of experience constitutes a very important aspect of the functions of guidance on all school levels.
At this point, some of the problems which young people and adults encounter in their associations with other individuals
in social and civic relationships are merely suggested. Some of these problem-arousing conditions are excessive or
insufficient participation in social activities, intolerant or antisocial attitudes, unwholesome relations between the sexes,
lack of association with the opposite sex, apathy toward or undesirable practices in citizenship activities, unwise choice of
recreational activities, overparticipation or lack of participation in sports or other forms of recreation, high cost or poor
quality of commercially organised recreational facilities, and insufficiency of community-sponsored leisure-time activities.
Parents and teachers sometimes fail to realise that a young person has an adjustment problem. Either they do not recognize
the behavioural symptoms of the difficulty, or they misinterpret the child's actions as arising from superficial causes. To
the extent that a teacher is psychologically oriented and possesses keen insight he will be alert to a pupil's display of
unaccustomed or abnormal behaviour.
In some schools, members of the guidance department acquaint teachers with possible symptoms of maladjustment. The
teachers are encouraged to report to the guidance personnel any child who seems to display evidence of difficulty. Most
counsellors would prefer that teachers and parents question behaviour that is only slightly or not at all abnormal than fail
to observe it or ignore it as not significant. Some of the problems are as follows:
Age-Grade placement
Noticeable nervousness
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Emotional difficulties
Irregular attendance
Discouragement
Physical handicap
Wants to go to work
Delinquency
Immaturity (extreme)
Speech handicaps
Reading difficulties
Typical Problems:
Why does Radha cry every morning before she leaves for school?
What can be done to help Rakesh learn to use his time better?
What should be done about 6 year old Kamesh who stutters? Why does Shashi make A in Science and F in English? Why
does Gopal want to quit school?
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(2) judging the desirability and the adequacy of the change. By means of data obtained through the application of one
or another technique of measurement, the individual's gain in knowledge, development of attitudes, growth in interests,
and achievement of emotional controls are interpreted.
Function of Evaluation
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extent to which changes are taking place within an individual as a result of his experiences in school and elsewhere. Since
subjective personality factors tend to affect an individual's behaviour in any situation, it often is difficult to evaluate
adequately all phases of the individual's development. Some aspects of progress are measured easily and can be interpreted
objectively.
Other more subjective aspects may require that the interpretation of objected data represent the mature and trained
judgment of two or more experts. Since teachers differ in their standards and in their attitude toward individuals or toward
the process of evaluation, the judgment of only one teacher concerning an individual's developmental status in any area of
his personality may be insufficient or inaccurate.
What constitutes desirable achievement at any step in the developmental process? For example, at what age should a
young person be able to read and understand what he has read in relatively simple newspaper reports or similar material?
When in his developmental process can he be expected to recognise the rights of other people and his own
responsibilities?
If an individual does not perform as he should in reading, in displayed attitudes, or in any other area developed through
learning, what is the- cause? The discovery of the answers to these questions is the responsibility of guidance workers—
teachers or specialists.
Evaluating Approaches
(1) a more or less informal study by teachers and counsellors of an individual's displayed attitudes, behaviour patterns, and
learning performance in the classroom, and
Our educational objectives are aimed at providing for every learner, within the limits of his innate capacity, whatever
plans, materials, and procedures that are needed to help him develop adult status in all area of life.
Hence one of the primary responsibilities of teachers and counsellors is to discover a person's innate capacities, his
learning needs, and his own attitudes toward adequate achievement of constructive life goals.
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In his continued contacts through a school term or year with individual learners the guidance-minded teacher can discover
much about their respective interests, abilities, and habit patterns. Knowledge obtained by the teacher through his informal
study of pupil characteristics can be supplemented by recorded data derived from the administration by counsellors and
other specialists of various types of measuring instruments. Some of the more common programmes of pupil evaluation
are discussed briefly in this chapter.
(3) sociograms,
Although all of these approaches have value as giving indices of pupil characteristics, we shall discuss some and refer
only briefly to the others.
Observation
Observation is a continuous process. Some persons are careful observers and report more reliably than others. Parents
observe in the home, the counsellor observes during an interview, the test administrator observes during the giving of a
test, and the teacher observes during his daily teaching. The supervisor makes planned observations so as to help the
teaching and the learning process.
In the past, teachers came to know pupil leaders through casual observations; today we are more concerned with
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developing attitudes of careful observation of the behaviour of all individuals and recording facts at the time of their
occurrence or shortly thereafter. No matter how strongly anyone believes that he will remember what has happened, he
can be sure of its recall only if he makes an immediate record of it.
During their observation and study of individual learners, teachers and counsellors can look for the exhibition of the
following characteristics:
5. Habits of study
8. Social adaptability
9. Leadership qualities
If the observer is trust-worthy, is known for his ability to assess facts and to report them correctly, and is experienced in a
given situation, his observations can be accepted as valid.
1. The observer may have a strong bias and not be able to overcome it.
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Anecdotal Records
If a plan is inaugurated whereby each teacher uses cards or sheets of paper to report incidents that occur in the classroom,
eventually data will be collected that can be of service to the counsellor.
Many forms of behaviour can be reported, both those that are commendatory and those that need adjustment. For example,
the teacher may report acts of helpfulness as well as acts of discourtesy.
If teachers are encouraged to write such anecdotal records, they tend to observe behaviour more carefully and to evaluate
it in the light of its background. The cumulative effect of these records can be startling. If they are taken seriously by the
teacher, they can be helpful to him as well as to the counsellor and the learner.
Autobiographical Sketches
An interesting device for obtaining data concerning an individual's routine behaviour and his attitudes, interests, and ideals
is to have him write a comprehensive autobiography. This may provide an insight into his personality not only through
what it includes but also by what it fails to include. If this is planned as an assignment in an English class rather than
given to a group in a special room and at a definite time, the results may be more satisfactory.
Often it is difficult for an individual to write freely and fully of his experiences. He may be tempted to include items
which he thinks are desirable, or he may not be able to separate fact from fancy. If the autobiography is filed with other
data in the student's folder, the information gained from it may throw light on problems already suspected or may reveal
new problems for further study.
Writing an autobiographical sketch motivates the individual to evaluate himself and his behaviour in a more objective
fashion than he might otherwise employ. A number of variations of this activity may be used, such as including areas of
experience in an account of "My Most Interesting Experience" or writing a detailed diary of one's activities over a definite
period of time.
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Sociograms
Some teachers find the use of sociograms helpful in discovering those pupils who have not yet established satisfying peer
relationships and who need assistance in developing habits of good social living. The construction of a sociogram is not
difficult but care must be exercised in its utilisation.
In a sociometric study, the teacher asks each pupil to write the names, in order of choice, of his three best friends in the
class, for example, or perhaps the names of three classmates he would like to have as co-workers in a class project. The
teacher then constructs a sociogram based on these pupil choices.
The sociogram can serve, at the time of its construction, as a means of helping the teacher discover any apparent isolate in
the class. Since children especially are likely to change their loyalties quickly and often, the supposed status quo of any
one pupil may vary from month to month or sooner. Moreover, a sensitive child may become alarmed concerning the
purpose of the project. An alert teacher may not need the sociogram to discover peer relationships. Wisely used, however,
sociometric techniques have value.
Teacher-Pupil Interviews
A face-to-face talk between a teacher and a pupil is not an interview according to the correct definition of the term. A
pupil may seek out a teacher in whom he has confidence before or after the regular school session, during the lunch
period, or at any other time to speak to him or her informally concerning an immediate interest or problem.
Similarly, a teacher may want to obtain information from or give information to a particular young person. Such informal,
on-the-spot, talks can be very enlightening to the teacher and can give the young person a feeling of security in pupil-
teacher relationships. Keeping a pupil after school, incidentally, for the purpose of scolding him or otherwise talking at
him rather than giving him an opportunity to express his thoughts and feelings has little value for either the teacher or the
pupil.
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The ways in which a teacher can utilise oral recitations, short quizzes, projects, and pupils' notebooks and reports are self-
evident. Study habits, attitudes toward neatness and care in the execution of assigned tasks, and ability and willingness to
co-operate in a project are pupil characteristics that usually do not go unnoticed by an alert, understanding teacher. Often
a teacher can use his insight constructively.
A young person may possess some creative ability, for instance, yet fail to give evidence of it except through teacher
encouragement. One English teacher had the rare gift of motivating his students to express their thoughts in poetic form.
Writing the poems was not a homework assignment, and the students showed him their work whenever they wished.
Not only did the teacher and the school counsellors learn a great deal about the students' feelings and attitudes, but the
teacher also encouraged those who showed some talent for writing to develop it further. This man's approach characterizes
that of many teachers who are interested in the various fields of creative expression. Children tend to reveal their needs
and cravings in their drawings, dancing, singing, and similar forms of expression. The differences among individuals
displayed in their responses can stimulate teachers to gain some understanding of the causes for them and to guide
learning accordingly.
Anyone interested in guiding a young person must have a means of discovering the kind of person with whom he is
dealing, his quality of thinking, his likes and dislikes in vocational and avocational areas, and the extent of his
achievement, as well as his capacity for achievement.
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Each activity in which the school staff engages to help the individual learner adjust to the school and its curriculum, to
adjust to other people, or to make a vocational choice is a guidance function.
In each activity, guidance personnel need to know a great deal about the individual who is to be helped. Does he have the
background and aptitudes for the vocation in which he is interested? Does the school have the facilities to give him what
he needs in the way of academic and vocational training? Do the parents have the means to send him to the college he
wants to attend or should attend? Let us explore the value and use of tests in supplying the data that will help answer such
questions.
The information needed for counselling comes from all kinds of sources. The teachers and others in the school help to
build cumulative records which include anecdotal records of classroom or out-of-class behaviour. In fairness to learners,
all available sources of information should be used, since seen separately they may be inaccurate or some may be
misinterpreted. If more precise information about an individual or a group is needed than can be obtained through
somewhat subjective methods, tests may be given.
The success of a programme of pupil evaluation depends on the kinds of tests used, the efficiency of administration, the
accuracy in scoring, the skill in interpreting the results, and the facility in utilizing the results for the benefit of the
individual concerned. A testing programme that is administered for guidance purposes should
Tests are considered to be useful to counsellors when they accomplish these purposes:
1. Furnish valid and reliable information with which to help a pupil, along with his parents and the school staff, to make
wise curricular choices and to assist the administrators of the school to place him with a group of pupils or teachers with
whom he can grow at optimum rate and to the maximum level of his ability.
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2. Assist in arranging continuous, sequential, and integrated learning experiences for an individual pupil, as well as for
groups of pupils.
3. Establish a basis for comparative estimates of status in a given characteristic from pupil to pupil.
5. Supply scientific, objective data about each pupil, which the counsellor can use in helping the individual to understand
his strengths and weaknesses.
6. Provide comparable data concerning all pupils with whom a counsellor works
7. Facilitate counsellors' follow-up studies of the relationships of school experiences and counselling services to the after-
school adjustment of graduates and drop-outs.
Standardized measuring instruments and other tools of evaluation function as a means to an end. The background of
knowledge concerning an individual that is obtained from the administration of teacher-made tests and of formal
instruments of evaluation, in addition to classroom study approaches, constitutes the basis of understanding on which are
built effective teaching and counselling procedures.
Hence the application of as many appropriate evaluating techniques as are available is needed for
Included among the commonly used and more or less adequately standardized evaluating techniques are the following:
2. Projective techniques
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3. Situational tests
4. The interview
In most school systems, all or many of the various kinds of standardised group and individual testing material listed above
are utilized according to a planned programme of testing or as the need arises. Usually they are administered by the
classroom teacher or the teacher counsellor under the supervision of a trained counsellor. With some training a teacher can
become proficient in the selection, administration, and scoring of tests.
Intensive preparation and long experience are required for the development of skill in interpreting test results and in
stimulating a pupil to make the most of his assets, no matter how meager these may be.
The construction and standardization of evaluating instruments, such as projective techniques and situational tests are still
in their infancy. Those that are available can be administered correctly and their results interpreted appropriately only by a
thoroughly trained psychologist.
Mainly they are used with individuals whose learning or personal difficulties are so serious or deep-seated that they
cannot be discovered by means of other, less probing, instruments of measurement.
As we have intimated earlier, much can be learned about an individual in the face-to-face interview. The purposes served
by using this technique are discussed in chapter 10. A case history is not strictly speaking an instrument of evaluation.
Rather it does represent an attempt to bring together as much of the data concerning an individual as can be obtained from
various reliable sources. Its construction and the application of its findings usually are utilized in the diagnosis and
treatment of seriously maladjusted individuals.
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Contrariwise, the norms of many recently-constructed tests are tentative; their standardization is not yet complete.
Consequently, test users need to be careful in their selection of testing materials.
The school counsellor is interested in measuring instruments appropriate for the evaluation of health status, intelligence,
special aptitudes, learning progress, and personality. From the administration of such tests can be secured data that aid
materially in the study of an individual pupil's physical constitution, scholastic abilities, immediate or relatively long-
range interests and ambitions, and personal qualities. Since most programmes of academic preparation for school guidance
and counselling include extensive and intensive study in the field of pupil evaluation, we are limiting the present
discussion to a brief survey of the various areas of measurement.
In any study of an individual made for purposes of adjustment, first consideration should be given to his physical
condition. Lack of interest or success in work or emotional or social maladjustment often has a physical basis. Most
vocations demand physical strength and health. For these reasons, complete periodic physical examinations are a necessity
for adjusted living.
Value of periodic health examinations. All young people need periodic and complete physical examinations. Paper and
pencil tests also have been devised to determine individual knowledge of and attitude toward health and safety.
Many tests of physical fitness require the expert techniques of the trained physician. For school use there are available
accurate measuring devices and height and weight charts. These charts represent measuring norms and must be interpreted
in relation to family tendencies and other factors.
At present, most schools provide for all pupils the services of a school physician or nurse to conduct periodic tests of sight
and hearing, as well as of lung and heart condition. If it is discovered that a pupil has a serious health difficulty, the
counsellor immediately arranges for a consultation of the parents with their family physician or another medical specialist.
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young person's teeth is extremely important. Many schools require each pupil to submit a "dental note" at least once each
school year. The purpose is to discover whether there are cavities or other difficulties which need to be corrected or that
are receiving attention.
In some communities, children whose parents cannot afford the services of a private dentist are sent to clinics or to a
dentist co-operating with the school who examines and treats teeth at little or no charge.
Another function of the guidance department of some schools or of a community health center is that of educating parents
about appropriate diet for the development of strong healthy teeth.
1. General intelligence tests results are used to organise learners into relatively homogeneous teaching-learning groups.
For example, though there is value in "social promotion" (permitting pupils to advance from grade to grade in peer-age
groups regardless of scholastic achievement), complete heterogeneity of grouping can interfere with the learning progress
of both the mentally superior and the slow learners who are in the same class.
2. Differential aptitude batteries are administered to discover the area or areas of learning in which individual pupils are
likely to be most successful. The utilisation of these batteries is especially valuable to a senior-high-school or college
counsellor as he attempts to help students decide on their major field of study in college.
3. The results of the administration of a special aptitude test can indicate the potentiality possessed by a young person to
acquire superior proficiency in a particular area of performance.
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Intelligence Tests
Controversy among psychologists over the nature of intelligence, begun in the early years of the present century, still
continues. Whether the degree of mental ability or of displayed intelligent behaviour represents the development of inborn
potentiality only or is the result of the effect on the nervous system of environmental influences is a moot question.
For the teacher or counsellor, however, the primary purpose of an intelligence test is to determine an individual's learning
capacity at the time the test is administered.
Although the testing instrument supposedly contains materials with which the subject has had no formal learning
experience, paper-and-pencil tests usually include items dealing with numbers, number series, vocabulary, memory of
forms, space-perception, drawing-completion, analogies, following of directions, sentence-interpretations, abstract ideas,
problem-solution, and similar categories. Hence differences in background experiences as well as innate mental ability
may affect test performance, thereby indicating individual differences in learning readiness at any educational level.
Teachers and counsellors need training in the use to be made of intelligence test scores. Too often they base their
evaluation of learning achievement and their treatment of individual pupils on the results of the administration of a single
group intelligence test. Colleges have found that when other factors are equal—that is, student interest in learning and
teaching effectiveness on the lower school levels, marks earned in high school are better indices of college success in
academic studies than is performance on an intelligence test.
The utilization of well-standardized intelligence tests has value in educatioal and vocational guidance. In high school and
college, successful mastery in courses such as advanced mathematics and science requires a high degree of mental
alertness. Learners who are mentally slow usually experience learning difficulties if they are permitted to elect those
courses. It also has been discovered that success in certain vocational areas is dependent on a high degree of intellectual
ability.
The results of intelligence tests assist the counsellor in recommending the selection of those courses which may have
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value toward occupational competency. The teacher and the pupil should remember, however, that the intelligence
quotient is not the sole determining factor in educational, social, or vocational success.
As a result of factor-analysis, based on the multiple-factor theory of trait relationships, some psychologists have
constructed intelligence tests according to what are termed the primary mental abilities. Included among these abilities are
verbal comprehension, word fluency, number-, space-associative memory, perceptual speed, and reasoning. A differential
aptitude battery differs from general intelligence tests since it comprises a battery of tests each of which is designed to
measure one of the primary mental abilities.
A quality or ability that all people possess to some degree can be regarded as an aptitude. A person who possesses, as one
aspect of his total personality pattern, a superior ability to profit from study in a particular, limited area of activity can be
considered to have a special aptitude for it. Whether this superiority is inherited or environmentally induced still is
uncertain. According to the dictionary, aptitude is "natural or potential capacity or ability."
Measuring instruments have been constructed to determine the degree to which an individual shows an innate readiness
for superior performance. Some aptitude tests are designed to discover better-than-average possession of a quality that is
favorable to success in various occupations. Other tests attempt to measure special aptitude for vocational training in
fields, such as mechanics, teaching, law, and medicine.
Controversy exists as to whether innate aptitude is basic to superior performance in the graphic arts or design, music,
literary production, teaching, or other areas of specialisation. It probably is a fact that years of patient, conscientious
practice alone will not produce a virtuoso, or that taking many courses and reading many books will not guarantee a
person's becoming a legal genius, an insightful diagnostician of physical ills, or a master teacher. Superior performance in
any area of human
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endeavour probably represents the possession of many specific abilities rather than an "aptitude."
Although attempts have been made to measure special abilities, the construction of worthwhile aptitude tests has not
proceeded far. Many of the available instruments are unsatisfactory largely because of the kinds of items included and the
widely different populations used in their standardisation. Moreover, an aptitude test is designed to measure the quality of
performance at the time the lest is given.
The results of these tests may indicate future superior achievement in the particular ability or skill tested. Whether or not a
potentiality attains realisation depends on various factors:
(1) the willingness of the individual to engage intensively in appropriate study and practice,
(4) public interest in and demand for the exercise of his special ability.
Nevertheless, aptitude tests should have a place in the guidance programme. If used in conjunction with other means of
evaluation, they can offer the school counsellor some information concerning one of the many aspects of a young person's
developing personality pattern.
Academic achievement is one of the areas in which guidance counsellors can obtain relatively accurate information. The
guidance personnel need this type of pupil appraisal. Teacher-made tests have value, and many standardised tests are valid
and reliable.
(1) by furnishing the individual himself with scores that help him appraise the progress he is making toward the
achievement of his goal;
(2) by furnishing the counsellor with information on the amount of knowledge the individual has in a given field of
learning.
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achievement test can be (1) survey, (2) diagnostic, or (3) prognostic in purpose.
A survey test usually comprises items that include learning materials covered in a particular subject field or subject unit.
The main purpose for a school's administering the test is to discover to what extent its pupils are meeting established
norms. As its name implies, an appropriate diagnostic test is administered to discover the respective strengths and
weaknesses of individual learners in a subject area or unit, such as skill in language usage or the ability to extract square
root. Discovered weaknesses then become the bases of individual pupil- or group-centered remedial teaching.
The reason for administering a prognostic test is to determine a pupil's or a class's readiness for beginning or advanced
learning in a specific subject area. Entrants to the elementary school usually are given a reading readiness test to determine
class placement. Appropriate batteries of achievement tests also are administered in high schools and colleges for
prognostic purposes.
As the first step of an experiment in the study of educational psychology, the authors administered a prognostic test based
on the content of the subject of educational psychology to the 160 students involved in the experiment. The results
showed wide differences among the individuals.
In fact, a few students earned a lower total score at the end of the semester's work than others made in the prognostic test
given at the beginning. It also was discovered that all students knew certain materials that were supposed to be included in
the semester's work and which therefore were accepted as the background of advanced study.
Areas of achievement tests. Many valid and reliable achievement tests have been developed for the elementary schools.
There are available both batteries of tests that include various subject areas and tests in single areas, such as arithmetic,
vocabulary and word usage, spelling, reading, penmanship, science, health and safety, and social studies.
Hundreds of achievement tests have been constructed for subjects on the elementary and secondary levels and more tests
are being constructed. Some batteries also are available. For the most part, these batteries include supposedly fundamental
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They are intended for use at strategic points in the educational ladder: promotional tests in the elementary school, tests for
high-school entrants, college entrance examinations, and graduate record examinations. The data yielded by the
administration of any one of such batteries can assist counsellors in the placement of students in appropriate subject areas
or levels of study in a subject.
Although elementary schools use standardized achievement tests extensively, the value of these tests is limited on higher
educational levels. This difference is understandable. Elementary-school curriculums are relatively similar; they deal with
fundamental knowledges and skills. Curricular and instructional emphases vary in the higher schools, however, according
to educational philosophy and policy, and teacher and student interests. What are regarded as essential learnings may
differ from school to school and even among instructors in the same educational institution.
THE EVALUATION OF PERSONALITY
Personality is dynamic integrated behaviour resulting from the interaction between inherited potentialities and
environmental influences. It is, in other words, the resultant of the interrelationship among all phases of an individual's
behaviour. The personality pattern includes innate potentialities, motivating needs, urges, interests and ambitions;
emotionalized attitudes toward any given situation; overt acts.
Hence "personality" evaluation includes the measurement of intelligence, aptitudes, and achievement, as well as of certain
other qualities or characteristics of an individual of any age. The measuring instruments discussed earlier can be
administered by qualified classroom teachers and teacher-counsellors and the results interpreted in regard to learning
progress. At this point we are concerned with the evaluation of what can be viewed as the more subtle elements of
personality.
Significance of Traits
The many qualities or trait clusters (general categories of related traits) that comprise an individual's total personality do
not function in isolation. There is a constant interplay among them;
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the functioning of one trait may affect the activity of another. However, under certain conditions or in specific situations,
one or another trait or trait cluster may become so dominant that others seem unable to function adequately.
It is well known that factors of personality play a great part in job adjustment and worker satisfaction. Being successful
requires more than possessing the skill needed to do the job. The worker must be able to get along with his employer, his
co-workers, and his family, For example, a worker's feelings of resentment aroused by his failure to receive an expected
promotion may interfere with his performance. An adolescent's experiencing of "puppy love" can exert a tremendous
influence on his attitudes and behaviour. Former unconcern about his appearances changes to an intense interest in clothes
and meticulous grooming; in recitation classes, his attention wanders from the topic being discussed, especially if the
adored member of the opposite sex is a classmate; home assignments may be neglected; in the home, he is likely to be
dreamy, moody, or easily angered.
Experienced teachers and counsellors know that a situation of the kind described is common and they are not unduly
bothered by it unless the constructive development of the young person's potential abilities is too greatly interfered with
because of the effect on him of this newly-experienced growing-up urge.
There are times, however, when parents, teachers, counsellors, and even the individual himself are unable to explain his
overt acts or his inner state. Underachievement in learning, delinquent behaviour, or emotional disturbance may have its
roots in failure to recognise the value of adhering to school or community standards, conflict among offering urges and
interests, or confused thinking.
In order to help a young person achieve self-understanding and consequent self-realisation coupled with self-discipline,
counsellors need to discover the underlying causes of difficulties. Various study approaches are utilized to evaluate inner
motivations of overt behaviour. In addition to the methods of evaluation described earlier, there are available
(1) paper-and-pencil tests, questionnaires, and inventories to measure personality traits, and
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administration of which supposedly yields functional analysis of the integrated 'whole' personality.
(1) questionnaires or inventories, to the various items of which the individual himself responds, and
(2) rating scales, in which one or more persons evaluate specific forms of behaviour or attitudes that seem to be habitual
characteristics of the subject.
Although attempts have been made to standardize personality questionnaires, inventories, and scales, established norms
may not be reliable. The responses of either the self-rater or another rater are subjective. The former may give evidence of
self-deception or wishful thinking; the rating of the latter may reflect personal bias or opinion rather than fact.
Self-administered interest and attitude inventories are concerned with the way an individual feels about people, objects,
conditions, and situations. They include many areas, such as
(3) attitudes in relation to school, home, or community conditions, or toward family members, school personnel,
supervisors, co-workers, or other associates.
Personality tests and rating scales tend to place emphasis on habits, expected reactions in specific situations, and other
aspects of behaviour.
The effective utilization of all these measures depends on the attitude displayed toward them by the members of a
guidance-minded faculty and the inclusion in the guidance staff of a counsellor trained in the use of the various techniques
listed. Discretion is needed in the selection and interpretation of these measuring instruments.
To know is not always to do. Responses to test items may show a knowledge of accepted patterns of behaviour, but the
subject's actual behaviour may differ greatly from his reactions on paper. The guidance counsellor must be able to
evaluate the accuracy of these tests. More than in the use of other measuring instruments, experience in working with the
results of many cases over a long period of time is necessary to interpret intelligently the meaning of the scores obtained.
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A test or inventory dealing with specific personality traits contains "structured" material. It consists of definite items
according to an assigned pattern of response from which the subject or rater selects that which seems to be most
appropriate. Responses are thereby restricted. The "unstructured" situations or tasks presented in a projective technique
permit the subject to respond freely and informally. A test usually is individually administered and the administrator does
no more than ask occasional questions or offer informal suggestions.
For example, the materials of- the Rorschach Inkblot Technique consist of ten cards, each representing an apparently
meaningless form or inkblot. The subject, as he is given each card, is asked to describe everything he sees on the card.
Some projective techniques, such as the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) and the Children's Apperception Test (CAT),
utilise pictorial material. The subject is supposed to tell a story about each of the pictures, including what probably has
happened, what is happening, and what will happen. Here again, the administrator plays a relatively passive role.
In the utilisation of these techniques, the subject can give free rein to his imagination. He is encouraged to project,
through his responses, his hopes and aspirations, his fears and worries, his likes and dislikes, his opinions, and his
aggressive, submissive, or other expressive attitudes.
Because of the informality of the evaluating experience and the ambiguity of the stimulation, objective interpretation of
responses is difficult to obtain. No one except an intensively trained clinical psychologist should attempt to administer a
projective technique or interpret the resulting data.
A situational test is intended for the observation of an individual's behaviour in a disguised or partially disguised "lifelike"
situation. An example of a "structured" situational test might be that of having pupils correct their own spelling test papers
(which already had been rated by the teacher but not marked) in order to discover incidence of dishonesty as evidence by
changing incorrectly spelled words.
The setting up of adequate situational tests is difficult and costly. Unless an individual, participates in many such
situations, one cannot be certain that the displayed behaviour is habitual.
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Moreover, all that is discovered is that the subject acted in a certain way; the reason for the behaviour is not necessarily
apparent.
THE SCHOOL TESTING PROGRAMME
During the early years of the twentieth century, Alfred Binet, a French psychologist, and his associate Theophile Simon,
constructed an individual test of intelligence to discover the mental ability of slow learners in the French schools. This test
then was translated and standardized by Lewis M. Terman as the Stanford Revision of the Binet Scale and used in
America as an individually-administered intelligence test. Later, Terman, with the assistance of Maud Merrill, again
revised the scale.
Individual Testing
The 1937 revision of the Stanford-Binet Scale and David Wechsler's more recently constructed individual intelligence
scales are used by clinicians in their study of deviate individuals. The members of school guidance personnel (unless they
are especially trained to do so) rarely attempt to administer these individual intelligence scales or other personality-
evaluating instruments.
Group Testing
The construction and utilization during World War I of group intelligence tests, the Army Alpha (for literate soldiers) and
the Army Beta (for illiterate or non-English-speaking soldiers) stimulated psychologists to construct group intelligence
tests for use with school children. At first, such group tests were administered spasmodically: a school principal was
moved to compare his pupils' range of intelligence with standardized test norms or with the intelligence status of a
neighbouring school; a teacher, having taken a course in measurement, wanted to "try out" one or another such test. It was
only as school guidance programmes began to be organised that school people recognised the value of using a
standardized testing instrument as a means of gaining needed information about all pupils.
The present trend in schools on all levels is to administer intelligence tests to entering pupils. Some elementary entrants
also are given reading tests. Many secondary schools are
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appropriate tests with their new pupils to determine their mastery of fundamental operations in mathematics, and their skill
in reading and the language arts. At present there is evidence of a growing trend in schools and school systems toward an
organised programme of regularly scheduled testing for all learners at designated progress levels.
An adequate testing programme involves co-operative planning by counsellors, teachers, parents, and pupils, as well as
administrative encouragement and approval. School administrators and supervisors must recognise that the pupils, not the
teachers, are the ones to be evaluated. Sometimes teachers believe that when standardized or other school or school
system tests are administered, it is the teacher and not the learner who is the chief concern of the school administrator or
supervisor.
Pupils should know the purpose to be served by a particular test. They should be given an opportunity to have the test
results interpreted to them. Parents also should know that their children are to be tested and that this is being done for the
benefit of the pupils.
The testing programme should be a long-range one. For example, the testing programme for the schools of Shaker
Heights, Ohio, includes tests in appropriate areas from the second grade through the senior year of high school.
The tests selected should be appropriate to the purpose to be served. Other things being equal, they should be easy to
administer, to score, and to interpret. Since the cost of tests is relatively high, care should be taken that they are selected
carefully and intelligently. Until experience is gained with standardized tests, no more than one or two tests should be
used at one time.
A test worth giving is worth scoring and having its results recorded, interpreted, and applied. The counsellor should be
more concerned with the score made and what it means regarding the next step to be taken in the guidance of a particular
pupil than with whether the score is high or low.
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with the person in charge to study the test and the test manual. They should learn the exact procedures to be followed and
should be alerted to some of the problems and questions likely to arise. Emphasis should be placed on
(1) the importance of following the directions exactly as given in the manual, and
(2) the necessity of preparing test materials ahead of time, so that once the test starts there are no interruptions.
Equally important are the provisions to be made for scoring the tests. Many tests now can be scored by machines, but this
method is expensive. When tests are scored by individuals, the first scoring should be checked. Even if capable pupils
help with the scoring, the final responsibility is the teacher's.
All scores should be recorded. A recording system that includes, besides the individual's score, the standard norm for the
test and the median for the local group is helpful in the interpretation of individual results. This involves extra clerical
work but aids in the interpretation of individual performance.
Test scores do not show absolute possession of the trait or ability tested, but they do represent the measurable degree to
which the individual possesses it. Usually a high rating on an intelligence, aptitude, or achievement test or on an interest
inventory is an index of good potential. When the scores are translated into percentile ranks, they should not be regarded
as absolute, even though they are then more meaningful than as raw scores.
Guidance counsellors have time to rely on the results of valid standardized tests for assistance in analysing the behaviour
and potential ability of individuals. Every counsellor is aware, however, that he needs to know more than the score that
the individual earns on a particular test. For example, a raw score of 72 on an intelligence test made by a six-year-old boy
represents a much higher degree of mental ability than the same score on the same test made by a fifteen-year-old boy.
The scores are the same, but the ages are different, and so are the age norms established for the test.
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a compilation of all available data on an individual who requires intensive study and special therapy. For a case history to
be valid, all items of information must be accurate. Not having any reported information about an aspect of personality is
better than having incorrect data if the case history is to serve as an adequate basis for intelligent evaluation of client
needs and appropriate treatment.
When an individual is referred by the school or another community agency to a psychological clinic for special remedial
treatment or rehabilitation, a trained member of the clinic staff, usually a psychiatric social worker, accumulates and
arranges the various kinds of information needed for clinical study. A complete case history includes the following:
Health history
Family history
School experiences
Physical Mental
Psychological
Psychophysical
Educational
This outline can be adapted to meet the needs of the particular person or situation being studied. One point concerning the
construction of a case history cannot be stressed too strongly. The term case history should not be applied loosely to any
body of information about an individual. For example, one area of college study for persons preparing for teaching or
counselling is that of human development and adjustment.
Often in connection with this course the student is expected to observe, over a period of time, the behaviour of a
developing young person and then report of his findings, including any available data on school achievement, results of
tests administered, and similar pertinent items of information. This is an individual report or a case report, and should not
be
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confused with the case history prepared by a trained social worker or psychologist.
The case study goes beyond the case history. The data of the case history are interpreted, the client's difficulty is
diagnosed, appropriate treatment or therapy administered, and a follow-up continued until satisfactory adjustment is
evidenced.
Conducting a complete case study is a task for specialists. It represents a clinical approach to serious problems of
maladjustment which go beyond the training and experience of teachers and school guidance staffs. Although the school
guidance personnel are responsible for supplying pertinent data to the social worker for inclusion in the case history,
interpreting the data and applying needed therapy are the functions of the psychiatrist and his assistants, a guidance clinic,
or a hospital for the mentally ill. Besides supplying information to be included in the case history, the members of a
school staff have the responsibility of applying any remedial measures suggested by the specialists.
The term cumulative record is a recent addition to the terminology used in identifying the various types of records that
have been used through the years. The cumulative record is constructed and interpreted differently in different schools,
but it usually represents an attempt to begin with certain basic information to which data are added as they are
accumulated. An individual's record may be kept either on a card or in a folder. It is regarded
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The specific items of information usually included in a cumulative record (some to be connected from time to time, such
as address) are the following:
1. Identifying data
4. Health record
5. Academic record
6. Record of out-of-class activities
15. A small picture of the pupil, placed with the record when the individual enters the school. Other pictures of him can
be added at later stages of his development.
Entering on a cumulative record card all of the additions or changes that may be needed to keep items 9 through 14, for
example, up to the minute for every pupil would constitute a time-consuming chore. Consequently, some schools use as
envelope or folder for each pupil in which is placed the cumulative record card indicating pupil progress, and separate
cards containing information concerning, respectively, significant happenings, teacher's or counsellor's comments,
vocational interests, work experiences, and similar notations. In other schools, various areas of information are filed
separately and kept in different offices:
(1) complete health record in the office of health and physical education department,
(2) factual identifying information and yearly attendance and achievement records in the general office, and
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Moreover, in most school systems, the school on each level elementary, junior high, and senior high—keeps its own set of
cumulative records which remains in the school and pertinent data are copied from it for transfer to the next higher school
a pupil will attend. There is a trend toward placing all pertinent data on one card which travels with the pupil from one
school level to another.
In some schools, guidance records are available only to the counsellor. Provision should be made for teachers to see and
make use of these records too, since the learners' aims, interests, potentialities, degree of accomplishment, and application
to work represent valuable data for teachers in evaluating classroom work and in guiding further learning.
There is one exception to this general procedure: confidential information about an individual that is of value only to the
counsellor should either be removed from the folder before the latter is made available for general use or be kept in a
separate file.
Teachers should be aided to understand that scientific study of the individuals as they mature can be achieved through
these records. Staff members who do not have the guidance point of view dislike the job of entering on the record cards
what to them may seem unnecessary information. Once they personally experience the worth of the records, they usually
co-operate fully in evaluating their pupils on the items included on the forms.
Moreover, if teachers are encouraged to consult the folders, they develop an active interest in their pupils as the latters'
stories of progress unfold. Meaning is given the recorded data as the information helps counsellors and teachers gain a
better understanding of human behaviour.
Parents should be acquainted with anything outstanding in a child's record. Greater co-operation from the parents can be
secured if the counsellor can show them written evidence of what he tells them about their child. If parents are shown an
accumulation of data covering a long period of time, they are less inclined to criticize the judgment of the counsellor or
believe that their own judgment is as good as, if not better than, the counsellor's. In some high schools, the student as well
is permitted to see his record and discuss significant items
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2. What are some of the limitations of the observation technique? the projective technique? the testing technique?
3. Describe the various types of measurements of individuals that can be utilized as aids to good guidance.
4. What are the important conditions to be considered in administering a testing programme for guidance purposes?
6. Enumerate the important uses to which the guidance folder can be put.
7. What is the value of cumulative records of student activities to the student? the employer? the school? the college?
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During primitive times, the education of a child represented no more than the simple, practical application of 'guidance' by
parents in the home and by tribal leaders in the community. Through precept and example, the child gradually learned to
understand his status and to accept his responsibility for the welfare of his relatively small, closely knit community.
With the increasing size of communal groups and the rise of nationalism, the position of the child changed. Yet, except
for a selected few, children received scarcely any schooling. In the home, either they were rigidly disciplined or their
childhood interests were ignored.
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been learned by rote. Children's developmental needs and their learning differences were not recognised.
During the Renaissance and Reformation periods in Europe, a little progress was made toward organising schools as
"elementary" and "secondary," and there were sporadic attempts to give some education to children regardless of their
social and economic status. In general, however, rudimentary schooling continued to be a dull, drab, ineffectual
experience.
The assumption of John Locke (1632-1704) that human nature represents the effects of continuing environmental
influences upon an organism which at birth is unformed and pliable was carried a step further by Rousseau. Believing that
the child is inherently good at birth, Rousseau contended that the growing individual can learn best when he is free to
develop according to his natural impulses.
His theory placed emphasis on the educational implications of growth, freedom, interest and activity. Rousseau's writings,
represent the beginnings of certain twentieth-century concepts in education, such as permissiveness in learning, interest as
a learning motivator, and "learning through doing." In his book Emile, Rousseau described in detail the ways in which the
child's learning should be guided from day-to-day.
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that an individual (even though he belongs to an underprivileged group) is helped to help himself develop morally,
physically and intellectually.
The schools for poor children which he established in Switzerland were conducted with gentleness and sympathy.
Pestalozzi emphasised the child's need for a sound family life and mild discipline. He insisted that teachers should study
the nature of a child in order to guide his learning effectively.
Froebel was one of the first proponents of the application of the guidance concept (in its broadest connotation) to the
rearing of the young child. At first, he was a teaching associate of Pestalozzi; later he organized his own schools in
Switzerland and Germany. Froebel stressed the idea that there are no divisions between spirit and nature or between the
individual and society.
He held that the realisation of God's will in human nature can be achieved through the young child's education which, in
the form of free, playful activity, should begin at the age of three or four in the kindergarten (a garden in which the child
grows).
Froebel's work with young children exercised a tremendous influence on American education. The significance of an
individual's early childhood years and the dynamic nature of a young child's activities were recognised by an increasing
number of nineteenth-century educators and parents. Some attention was given also to Froebel's emphasis on the value to
the child of object-manipulation, freedom of activity, exploration, self-expression, and child-group interaction.
School procedures continued to be relatively rigid and formal, however. It was not until the present century that the
concept of the "book-centered" school gave way to the concept of "child-centered" learning initiated by Froebel.
In education as in other areas of human activity, change in ideology usually is a gradual process. It was not until John
Dewey crystalized in his writings the educational ideology of men like Rousseau, Pestalozzi, and Froebel that school
leaders began a definite appraisal of educational theory and practice.
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Dewey's philosophy, exemplified in the experimental elementary school started at the University of Chicago in 1896,
stimulated educators to move away from nineteenth-century religious, disciplinary, and informational aims.
The important modifications in American education were encouraged by significant psychological and sociological trends,
which had their beginnings in the 1890's.
The psychologist G. Stanley Hall (1844-1924) carried on extensive research in human development, especially that during
the adolescent years. Hall's work led many twentieth-century psychologists to concentrate on the study of child
development and the learning process.
At the same time, Dewey, recognising that many social changes had taken place in nineteenth-century. American society,
recommended in School and Society (1899) that teachers not only try to understand the nature of the child but also take
into consideration the social relationships of the individual with other human beings.
The modern interpretation of guidance cannot be found in pre-twentieth-century educational literature. It is true that the
concept is closely related to emphases placed by earlier philosophers on the need to understand the child in order to lead
him into the paths of righteousness and to help him achieve good personal and social development. Guidance as we
interpret the term is a twentieth-century contribution to education.
1. Discuss how the present day educational theory is rooted in Empiricism and Realism and what is its impact on the
interpretation of guidance?
2. Give an account of the Rousseau and Dewey's theory of education which introduced a new trend in guidance.
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The purpose of education is to create competent persons. Such a person is four things, at least, as defined in the USA's
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development Yearbook:
1. The competent person knows how to learn, is adept at it. The goal of teaching (and counselling) is a person who has
learned to learn.
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2. The competent person is aware of his environment and sensitive to the reality experiences in the here and now. He is at
once, complex, intense, and alive.
3. The competent person has great capacity for expressing compassion for other persons. Expression of compassion is
always appropriate and never a means of personal indulgence.
4. The competent person can meet new and stress producing experiences with confidence; he can manage his feelings in
productive ways that leave him in control of his behaviour at all times during the experience.
The teacher and the counsellor must work together to produce learning environments for pupils that help to lead them
toward becoming competent persons.
Mr. Rafferty claims adjustment education is a progressive education artifact that should be replaced with competence to
live in the twenty-first century. We agree on this as a goal but feel that subject-matter-only approach is not enough. We
hold the human personality, and its controlled exposure and development as process in educating a child should have
equal status as a "subject matter" essential in a school system. There is no reason to believe that subject matter disciplines
of geography, history, mathematics, and English, etc., should not be emphasized continuously at every increasing levels of
excellence.
We agree with Mr. Rafferty's stated goal for the educative process. The objective of this chapter is to help the student of
counselling and guidance understand the conditions, and some tactics for achieving conditions, in the learning climate of a
classroom and school building that provide for the creativity and spontaneity essential to producing competent persons.
ROLE OF TEACHERS
In India teacher is simply concerned with teaching without any formal responsibility as a counsellor but in America and
other western nations he does both the jobs. What he does is briefly given hereunder.
We might add here that a guidance counsellor who doesn't know how to teach has no business in business as a guidance
counsellor. This is not to say they must have teacher education,
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including certification, for, we already know that is no guarantee of teaching achievement in and of itself. What we are
saying is: It behooves each incumbent in counselling and guidance practice to know how to teach. If one cannot do the act
of instruction, he is not going to be able to help a teacher in the classroom no matter what his accomplished level of
theoretical competence.
The greatest single deterrent to teacher or counsellor seems to be a reluctance to encounter one's own feelings when
interrupting, intervening, and influencing pupil behaviour. Knowing one's self means that one's own feelings are familiar
experiences to be productively managed under stress so he can say, "I can stay in the situation," and not withdraw
whether psychologically or physically. Neither will "I need to deny my feelings, or question that I should be experiencing
them."
"To withdraw" from a life situation at any interpersonal level, whether counselling or instruction, is to leave "no
influence" in the vacuum created for the potential learner (pupil or counselee). "To withhold" feelings, or "to deny"
feelings, will create a similar conditions for the learner. However, the effect is never zero! The learner brings something
with him into the situation. Let us call it "input."
The teacher and/or counsellor also bring into the situation their accumulated experiences, feelings and methods of
thinking. No matter what process ensues, some learning will occur. It behooves anyone professing the teaching art to
know enough teaching science (counselling) self consciously to know what is learned. This is the author's goal for the
guidance counsellor and the counsellor consultant. The counsellor consultant may become closely akin to the child
development specialist in terms of capability.
Counsellor education has long suffered from the lack of direct counselling experience under supervision by a sophisticated
counsellor. Second to the foregoing condition is the fact that some so-called counsellors have never stayed in a situation
with another person long enough to experience discernible and even obvious behaviour change. Third, it should be
repeated, the counsellor must have the experience of being a counselee, otherwise how can he know what it feels like to
be one? The guidance counsellor who is unable to receive help
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The good teacher, like the good counsellor, is difficult to describe, but when as a student or counselee one encounters the
essence of a real and genuine teacher one knows it. The essence of experiencing the real thing.
Adelson discusses five categories meant to help in explaining the teacher and/or the guidance counsellor as a model. The
source of the five categories come from cross-cultural studies about modes of healing employed by mankind. The
naturalist healer is the epitome of a modern physician, at once impersonal, empirical, and task-oriented. Healing, or
changing the condition of the organism, is thought to be useful in getting a look at teacher or guidance counsellor
behaviour.
Psychiatrists in medical practice are in conflict with their colleagues on this dimension of feeling and knowing.
Mysticism fits teaching and guidance counselling. The chief elements in the mystic mode are insight, vision, and wisdom,
each common to current educational thought.
The religious form is represented by an agent for an omnipotent power or authority. The teacher is a scholar who
documents everything in the name of an authority.
Magic is very popular in guidance counselling and teaching. Formula teaching or technique counselling means a set of
rules are applied in a set order (ritual) and, if followed precisely, over time, certain learning will occur. The psycho-drama
leader has this mode of behaviour in his work. Each person is taught a new structure which releases him from some of his
inhibiting influences and the principle of projection operates. Coaches teach fundamentals to fledgling athletes by use of
very precise rules and procedures. The drama instructor, the music teacher, and some art instructors, each has his set of
rules and rituals.
Counselling and psychotherapy have whole schools or systems which utilize the magic mode. For example, the
practitioners of Adlerian individual and psychoanalytic psychology have evolved elaborate rituals, rules, regulations and
guidelines to follow when training counsellors or counselling cases (persons).
A teacher is highly valued in our society. We entrust to his care and feeding, intellectually and emotionally, our only
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living concrete representations or extensions of ourselves (our children). This makes teaching a very self-conscious
profession. Society will tenderly care and feed any charismatic teacher. The teacher may inspire or influence his students.
Please note that to inspire does not guarantee influence, any more than a warm bath guarantees against infectious diseases.
Time will overcome the effect of the moment. Evangelists are able to inspire large throngs, but, influence on individual
life styles may be much less than expected. So it goes with teaching.
A teacher can be entertaining or just mostly entertainment. Another teacher may be a bore, but students who encounter
him live differently thereafter. The rare specimen is the balanced combination of a teacher with just enough of everything,
and the life impact too. The guidance counsellor Can help each youngster leant how to get the most from each teacher as
an experience.
Teaching that imparts only knowledge and skill remains cold, impersonal, and bland. Such teaching should be done by
machine and programmed instruction methods. Teaching that makes a difference in the personal life of the student must
be done by an authentic human being. As Harlow found with monkeys, it takes a real one to teach another. Wire mothers
and cloth mothers could rear children, but the adults so produced could not be adequate mothers. Teaching and learning
are deeply personal experiences but too often "people" are left out of the educative process.
Bruner thinks it is time to reconsider how the developing years of youth, now spent as "schooling," should be occupied.
This is made necessary because of our increasing understanding of man as a species. Our understanding of mental
development, language, and thought have each experienced a revolution during recent years. Enough change has already
occurred to cause a reexamination of the educative process. Counselling and guidance have evolved from the new
demands inherent in an expanded understanding of what is essential for each youngster if he is to become a competent
(educated) person capable of productive participation in the world of tomorrow. The rate of change impels us to redefine
and reevaluate the meaning and purpose of education.
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The guidance counsellor's work is to change self-defeating behaviour into productive behaviour. In a certain sense, that is
the purpose of all education. The difference for a counsellor is identified as a point of focus which calls for a method
unique to the special, individualised task of counselling: Learning about one's self in relation to the subject matter (facts
and knowledge and skills) of education, which must be done in the total context of the child in home, school, and
community (world).
Counselling and guidance, because it relates self to content, is an integral part of the educative process, not ancillary and
separated function.
The school teaches boys and girls about the world in which they live. Academic and social literacy become minimum
standards for a school to achieve with every child. In a complex society, the minimum standards keep going up and up,
until currently it is not possible to participate productively in society
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next year with last year's minimum achievement for literacy. Obsolescence is built into a changing society.
Education is the counterrevolution for each citizen. Because work, productive participation, is considered the essence of
identity and meaning for the individual person in most of Western culture, it is essential to learn how one confirms and
validates his existence in addition to knowing about it. Like the pretty girl, the experience (how) is not the same as the
description (about).
Counselling process is defined as both a self-confirming experience and a validating experience that helps establish
productive methods of self-defining behaviour for each individual person. Counselling helps one learn to impose a
structure upon the ambiguity of new and novel experience. Counselling process leads a person through the "learning-how-
to-learn".
Counselling and guidance is preoccupied with the pursuit of the possible in the immediate moment of the here and now
within the life situation of an individual. There is a time to dream, wax eloquent, and a time to act in every life event.
Like being asleep or being awake, we are not quite sure which is the more natural condition, only that both are necessary
for normal functioning.
Educative process is normal operating procedure for passing to each succeeding generation a portion of accumulated
culture, but there is no proof that "schooling" is the more natural condition or even the best way to do it. Again, what
other alternatives are possible? The school we have is surely possible. So it goes. We use what we have. Invention has led
to creating and innovating resulting in counselling and guidance. Counselling process is very refined teaching, instruction,
learning—individualised and structured by a sophisticated professional person, a guidance counsellor.
A language of counselling has been evolving that represents a way of thinking. It is a new way of thinking. Language and
thought combine to short-out the impact of disabling guilt. The person is free to use more of his potential ability because
the language gives him a new point of view about himself in relation to the world.
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Interdependent expectations stem from the pupil, teachers, parents, and the total culture or community. In a period of
expanding knowledge, shifting power, and accelerating needs, it is difficult to know or comprehend the magnitude of
what is taking place in the world. Reuter points up what he calls the four hungers as being parallel to what we once called
the four freedoms: human dignity, life, opportunity, and freedom. The current revolution requires our efforts to help
prepare youth to live in a world of tomorrow based upon what is known today. Obviously, acquired knowledge by itself is
not enough though it is essential. What more is required? We think the additional knowledge of how one learns how to
learn constitutes a good portion of what can make the critical difference. Each educated person will have to keep current
with the new developments essential to his continuing productive functioning. So each of us must become self-consciously
aware of what "I" require in order to learn. Who or what will tell me when, how much, or which "new" knowledge "I"
should learn? At the current rate new knowledge is accumulating, it is highly improbable anyone can, or indeed should,
learn it all. How do 'I' select?
The mediator discovers a compatible course for divergent interests through life situations filled with many desirable
alternatives. For instance, it is highly improbable that anyone can mediate life and death in any precise manner. There is
considerable merit in mediating Labour-Management disputes where multiple and desirable alternatives to complementary
behaviour abound. The skills of mediation are legion in the evaluation of alternative behaviour among the principals in the
school setting.
The primary goal is the learning climate for each pupil. Mediation functions include the process and the act of choosing
alternatives to behaviour within the school. The pupil is involved in the process with teachers, parents, and other
significant persons. The pupil learns how to use other persons as resources to help evaluate what is possible for him to do.
Such learning
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is a central concern for the guidance counsellor because it provides a method for mediating interdependent expectations
for behaviour.
The guidance counsellor teaches and uses mediation in direct intervention with pupils teachers, parents, and other
significant persons.
Teacher expectations are subject to modification if the guidance counsellor gathers and orders pupil data to supply
evidence to form a basis for such modifications. (Teachers represent the school, so expectations may reflect academic as
well as social standards.) Standards are not arbitrary. They are guidelines that reflect the status quo for the school,
community, and the teacher's classroom. It is important to note whether the teacher maintains his own life style in a
congruent pattern with expectations for a pupil or pupils.
Parents are partners in the education of their children. Parents need to achieve some satisfaction from their personal
investment but this must not go so far as to be a parent's achieving through a child. A partnership is not an exclusive
franchise! The guidance counsellor should know parent expectations for a child so that he may understand the significance
of the youngster's expectations for himself. As the youngster gets nearer adulthood, he will begin to reflect more exactly
the expectancy pattern of the parents. The generalisation will hold except where some external variable intervenes or
where emotional disturbance enters the milieu from the youngster or one parent or other significant person such as a
grandmother.
The influence on expectations for which a guidance counsellor is responsible can be very extensive. The culture as
reflected in the community and more directly in the neighbourhood contains many influences that bear upon the pupil. A
middle-class neighbourhood values education and expects good performance from a pupil. The poverty neighbourhood
views the school as suspiciously as any other authority symbol and therefore has low regard for education and little
expectation for good academic performance.
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The concept of the counsellor as mediator carries into each activity involving other persons. The function is pervasive and
is a key to teaching other persons to use each other as resources in order to evaluate alternatives to action, as well as being
a process for learning how to learn.
The newer evidence indicates that we must teach readiness. Readiness to learn is not a natural or normal, and therefore,
automatic phenomenon. To mediate is to teach readiness to teachers, parents, administrators, and pupils. It is the new
educative invention from guidance and counselling designed for general practice in all educative processes. The new
education is a programme of discovery and invention. It is a learning together as a group. All teachers must be learning
continuously.
We say one learns how to learn and teaching becomes an artistic byproduct. Counselling is learning how to learn, and the
application of counselling to teaching is the new education.
Teaching and counselling are like prospecting—the treasure is there, we have to search to discover it.
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Anything powerful enough to control values and ultimately the thinking process of persons, needs our concern.
(2) whether learning is evaluated to determine what has been learned, and
(3) what values and attitudes seem to surface in the life style of the pupil.
A free society must face the distasteful choice of persuasion or indoctrination of its youth. What happens can result in the
dilemma of whether or not to contribute to the common defense. A nation that spends up to half its national budget for
power to make war to defend its interests around the world and in space cannot easily afford a generation of conscientious
objectors or even pacifists. Such persons become freeloaders in a warrior society.
The newer dimensions in teaching by use of machines and programmed systems confront guidance counsellors with the
need to know the outcomes, the results.
The counselling business is new enough to allow for experimentation. The authors have shown the efficacy of
remembering the teacher needs a personal contact too, just as the youngster at school does.
The counsellor as consultant is a person-to-person contact for the teacher. Teachers have been isolated in the classroom.
They need a contact in addition to a superior or subordinate (students). Guidance counsellors can bridge the gap to an
isolated teacher and help him learn the dimensions of influence he commands through his teaching. The revolution the
school is designed to institute is the age old notion that knowing is the way to being free from ignorance.
However, freedom from ignorance is not of itself freedom to understand. Understanding comes out of the wisdom born in
experience with actual behaviour. A school will not become a revolutionary institution without help. Teaching by itself is
not enough. Learning is the key to understanding. The school becomes revolutionary as a social institution when it is able
to inculcate the wisdom to understand the application of the knowledge it imparts to our youth.
The counsellor has the new dimension of teaching firmly within his grasp. The new dimension is a definitive method of
involving the teacher in the process of learning about his own
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personal impact upon what pupils learn from experiences with him. The ability to teach by direct involvement methods
can add a vital source for motivation within the learning environment. If we can believe our own research in psychology
and in education, there is no longer any rational or relevant reason why learning environments cannot be created that will
enable students to experience the meaning of freedom and responsibility.
The guidance counsellor should learn to invent the new education. Much of what we have learned about application of
behavioural science and social science points toward a new kind of instruction. The personal component in counsellor
education expressed in laboratory, didactic, seminar, process group, and practicum under supervision offers the
proposition that learning (growth and development) is modification of behaviour.
No change in behaviour, no learning, has been and continues to be the hallmark of good education. A caution: talking is
not enough. The acid test is: If you can counsel, the results will be self-evident, visible. Education that works has a similar
component, somehow the results seem self-evident. As Bernard says, we teach what we are, whether or not we understand
the nature of the process by which the learning takes place.
Graduation from a mediocre high school may not prepare a youth for entry into any posthigh school job or training
programme. The society hopes education can provide an answer to poverty but its product is surplus people. Surplus
people are all those who cannot participate in productive roles within the social system. There is serious doubt that any
system of education could meet such expectations. There is no reason to
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believe our school system will or indeed should give up its competitive nature.
It is believed safe to estimate that our school system is successful with at least one-half of our youth in educating them
through grade 12. If this were true, it would be a profound accomplishment. What other society ever achieved such a level
of success? Within a competitive system, it is the task of the guidance counsellor to complement the work of the teacher.
The team of teacher-counsellor forms the nucleus for creating the process for meeting new problems instead of trying to
apply answers from the past. Meeting the new situation with appropriate behaviour is more important to intelligent action
than any attempt to recapitulate the past. Teachers and counsellors should learn to complement each other in then work so
they will be better equipped to compete with the environment and help the pupil to learn.
Bruner sees education as social invention. Whether self-consciously or accidentally, the teacher defines anew the meaning
of events in the lives of children. The nature, directions, and purposes for living are influenced by the teacher, as a person,
in addition to the passing-on of accumulated wisdom from past generations. The speed of changed conditions, one
generation to another, imposes constraints and opens opportunities for the teacher's interpretation as social critic and
pundit. Teachers need help to understand the pervasive nature of the responsibility they hold in the newer education. We
must patiently pursue the possible for each youth. The guidance counsellor must learn how to do his work with the teacher
as well as his work with pupils and parents.
"The teacher and/or counsellor also bring into the situation their accumulated experiences, knowledge, feelings and
methods of thinking," for the good of the pupil.
2. "Counsellors from Teachers". Do you support this theory or not? Give reasons for your answer.
3. "Teachers are concerned with teaching, Counsellors are concerned with learning." Justify this statement.
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Guidance, like teaching, is a service given by one person to another. We often say the teacher is "teaching a class," but
what he is really doing is teaching each one in the class—helping each pupil to learn. The counsellor often meets pupils in
a group, but his purpose is to help each individual in the group. This help cannot be effective unless the teacher or
counsellor knows the problems faced by each pupil and his characteristics, his abilities, and his desires. On the other hand,
if the help offered is to be accepted by the individual, he must know himself, his limitations, and his strengths. Successful
guidance, like successful teaching, is predicated on the student's being understood by the counsellor and by himself.
IMPORTANCE OF UNDERSTANDING
It would seem to be self-evident that effective counselling toward
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specific goals is impossible without a clear understanding of the individual by the counsellor, the teacher, and the parent,
and that guidance should not be attempted unless such understanding is present. But life is full of tragedies in home and
in school because of the lack of such understanding. Many parents try to determine the future of their children, especially
that of their sons. If the family tradition for generations has been that the first-born son becomes a physician, a lawyer, a
minister, then an attempt may be made to fit a boy into the tradition regardless of his abilities or interests.
However, these decisions are based on the desires of the parents and not on the needs of their children. Such family-
centered vocational and educational decisions indicate a lack of appreciation of the importance of understanding the
individual.
It is often said that what the student does, what courses he takes in school or college, what occupation he chooses, should
be based on the needs that he, himself, feels. There is no doubt that these are important, but the needs that one feels at
any given time may not be based on a clear self-understanding. We often feel a variety of needs at any given time, but
some are quite superficial and relatively unimportant. Assistance in making choices should be based on as thorough an
understanding as is possible of the individual, of his basic needs, and of the real circumstances surrounding his decisions.
This is by no means an easy thing to accomplish. It calls for sympathetic insight into the desires and needs of students and
the unusual ability to put aside any preconceived ideas of what the individual may be.
One important key to such understanding is the physical and social environment of the individual. Careful, long-range
studies are now being made of the relationship between social
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environment and behaviour. Some very significant results are beginning to emerge.
A study made recently indicates that the greatest prestige is often given to those students with organisational leadership
ability—the ability to get other students to agree on what is to be done and to organize them so as to do it effectively,
even if what is planned is not approved by the school authorities.
In some schools the value placed by students upon superior attainment is high, in others it is low. Such student values are
of extreme importance and can usually be developed by the school itself with the support of the homes and community.
This "climate" of the school often becomes traditional.
Recently a father took his son out of a public school that had a very low standard and secured his admission into one of
the private schools in the East that traditionally maintained unusually high scholastic standards. In the public school the
boy received high marks, but his achievement was low.
In the private school the boy was told that he would be dismissed at the end of the term unless his achievement improved.
By hard work, and with the help of outside tutoring, he steadily advanced and eventually was doing the high quality of
work of which he was capable. The improvement was due to the climate of the private school and his acceptance of it.
Subtle psychological forces such as acceptance, rejection, or domination may play important roles in shaping the child.
The relationship between parents and children and sibling relationships may provide us with keys to the behaviour we
observe. The home is often the most important element in the individual's life, and we cannot understand him without
knowing about his home.
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school and the home and thus help both the parent and the teacher to know the student more completely.
Community conditions are of great importance in securing an understanding of individual students and in developing
effective self-concepts. Such conditions are fully as significant as those in the home or in the school. Differences in the
social status of families in a community often are reflected in the attitudes of different groups of high-school students
toward one another.
Differences in dress, in habits of speech, in social manner, in points of view, and in values are often seen. In consolidated
schools, rivalries and clanish customs often appear and cause feelings of hostility between groups. In spite of efforts made
by the school staff to overcome these unfavourable conditions, they often continue. In the school itself, students in the
college preparatory course are likely to look down on those taking industrial courses.
It is important to keep in mind that understanding an individual involves much more than an assembly of facts about him
and his behaviour. Facts themselves are often misleading, and they must be interpreted by reference to other facts and to
the circumstances in which they are found.
Understanding cannot come merely from observation of what a person does, how he acts, and how he seems to feel. It is
important to know the influences that were responsible for his behaviour, "how he got that way," what his purpose was in
doing what he did. Many times he himself does not understand why he acted as he did.
Because of the intensely personal nature of our lives, it is difficult—perhaps impossible—to have complete empathy for
another person, that is, to feel what it would be like to be in his position.
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Young people in particular arc very hesitant to reveal their "true self" to others, especially to adults. This difficulty is
described by James Whitcomb Riley in A Child's World:
Adolescents often go to great lengths to keep another person from knowing what they really are. They are cruel to keep
others from knowing that they are really tenderhearted; they pretend to dislike someone in order to conceal their inner
feelings of respect and liking. Many persons, old and young, feel that it is indecent to "bare one's soul and dare the day".
It is almost as bad as being a nudist! They also feel that "it is none of your business". This attitude, in itself, reveals
something about the individual. A wise and sympathetic counsellor or teacher, who has not forgotten his own youth, can
look behind this bravado and learn much about the student.
It is difficult for adults to understand the behaviour of adolescents; we so easily forget what we thought and did when we
were "young and gay". A common danger is that we may read our own present motives, feelings, and aspirations into the
expressions and activities of the student. Another serious difficulty is that, although we can secure some information about
the individual, what we get sometimes interferes with our understanding of him. "We cannot see the forest for the trees."
The human being is a complex organic unit. He is "more than the sum of all his parts". We can gather together all the
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facts that can be obtained about him—his background, his surroundings, his experiences, his many characteristics—and
still not understand him. There is real danger in half-truths and in unrelated information. No one type of information can
stand alone; it must be considered in relation to all the other data.
Real understanding of another person involves an unusual ability to put oneself sympathetically and intelligently in his
place. At the same time one must stand apart and be impersonal. The privacy of the individual must be respected; we must
not be in a hurry see what the student is not ready to disclose.
Individuals Change
One difficulty in dealing with the adolescent is that he is constantly changing, even from day-to-day. As a consequence,
by the time data are obtained and recorded, he has changed, and the data are important only as they show a developmental
picture of the student. Such a picture is important, but it does not tell us what he is now. A current picture is very
difficult to attain.
Cumulative records have great value in showing the development of the individual from year to year—his scholastic
record, his changing interests, his attitudes toward teachers and fellow students, the changes in his personality patterns.
But more important is a truly understanding teacher or counsellor who can interpret the conflicting behaviour of the
developing adolescent. Such understanding is absolutely essential. The past must not be confused with the present.
Records tell us what was; only the individual himself can tell us what is.
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It is difficult to determine all the causes for this change which has been both gradual and complicated. It was not caused
by increased time on the job since the "workday" of the majority of workers has decreased until the forty-hour week is
now the standard and pressure is being exerted to make it even shorter.
Nor can it have been caused by the increased time necessary for household duties, because electrical appliances of all
kinds— for cooking, dishwashing, laundry work, housekeeping, refrigeration—have materially reduced the time necessary
for such responsibilities. There is actually more time available for home life and for closer relationships. In some homes
this "free time" is being utilized to enrich home life and has resulted in closer relationships between parents and children,
but in the typical home this is not the case.
There seem to be two main factors that are largely responsible for this situation. One of these is the increased participation
of fathers and mothers in activities outside the home in social, civic, church, and political affairs. Such activities, for
example, those of the parent-teacher association, are often very useful and desirable, but they reduce materially the time
spent in the home.
The second factor is the increased independence of children which results in a decrease in the feeling of need for help or
even for association with parents. The many out-of-class activities in the school—athletic, musical, dramatic, school
government, social—provide group satisfactions and reduce both the time and the need for companionship at home. At
home the children have the radio, the television, and the record player at their disposal, and they need no assistance from
their parents to enjoy these facilities.
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This new kind of less-intimate family seems to have resulted in much juvenile delinquency, although it is difficult to
determine exact statistics in this area.
In any event, in spite of increased efforts to cope with the problem, juvenile delinquency still persists in some of its worst
aspects. Stringent laws, more adequate police supervision, heavy penalties, establishment of "homes" and detention
institutions where delinquent youth may be separated from adult prisoners have all helped, but they are by no means the
solution of the problem. The cause of delinquency is in the home and in the community in which the youth lives.
If juvenile delinquency is ever to be eliminated, the home and the community must be improved. As a first step, there
must be closer and more effective cooperation of home, school, and community in securing accurate and significant
information regarding the conditions and influences that are responsible for the attitudes and purposes of youth. Once
identified, these conditions and influences must be changed to provide an environment more conducive to a wholesome
life and respect for law.
Another area of great importance in the lives of young people in which there have been far-reaching and significant
changes is that of morals and religion. The reasons for these changes are difficult to determine. Developments in our
social, economic, and industrial life probably have contributed to the change, as has the interaction of different beliefs,
customs, and morals brought to America from all parts of the world.
Whatever the cause, we cannot fail to understand the great importance of different moral codes and religious beliefs to the
development of young people, even though both these areas are considered to be the private concern of the family, the
church, and the individual rather than of the school.
Many people believe that religion has a greater hold on people than it ever has had and point out that the growth in church
membership in all denominations has steadily increased and many new churches are being built.
Some believe that the fear of destruction by atomic bombs and the ensuing uncertainties have served to increase the
interest
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in religion. Others feel that, in spite of the growth in churches' membership, the real hold of religion on people has
perceptibly decreased, that it is no longer as important a factor in our lives as it once was.
Of one thing we are certain: religious customs have changed. The great majority of people are far more liberal in their
beliefs and more tolerant of those who do not believe as they do than they once were. Young people are increasingly
thinking for themselves and refusing to accept religious dogmas merely because they have been recognised for centuries.
In this atmosphere of controversy, of changing beliefs, and of lack of belief, it is small wonder that young people are
confused and often unable to adjust properly and to distinguish between transient and permanent values. Wise assistance is
needed. Much of this help must be given by the home and the church, but the school also has a responsibility here.
Our situation regarding morals contains so much that is undesirable that we may even wonder whether our moral
standards are not weakening. Racketeering, graft, and corruption are everywhere apparent, in politics, business, industry,
government, and labour unions. Some men become wealthy and powerful not because of their contribution to society but
because of trickery, clever dealing, influence, control of the political machine, or even theft, intimidation, or murder.
Our legal system is slow, cumbersome, and too often ineffective. Criminals sometimes escape just punishment because
they have money or influence or because of the work of lawyers who specialize in helping criminals evade the
consequences set up by the law. The old virtues of industry, thrift, and honesty have, in some cases, been the actual cause
of poverty and suffering.
Men who have worked long and hard and who have been thrifty have sometimes been cheated by the unscrupulous and
lost their money. They have found themselves poor and ruined not because they were dishonest or prodigal but because
they were thrifty and honest.
Standards of good conduct are continually changing. Some conduct that was once considered acceptable is now
unacceptable, and what was unacceptable is now acceptable.
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to determine the real effects of an act, and this makes it hard to make right decisions. We need to know the probable
effects of the proposed action on others and on ourselves before we can decide intelligently what is best to be done.
Some research has suggested that youth indicate relatively little concern about problems of morals and religion or of home
and family. Two opposite conclusions might be drawn from these findings. We might say that young people are well
adjusted in morals and religion and to home and family since they apparently have few problems in these areas.
On the other hand, it is possible that young people have little consciousness of morals or moral obligations. It may be that
church and religion are not vital forces in their lives and that they have little trouble with parents and home because
parents are not important guiding and restraining influences in their lives.
In other words, young people may not be conscious of problems in these areas because they have little sense of moral
obligation and little restraint imposed on them. The mounting delinquency rate among youth might indicate that the
second conclusion is correct.
During the past fifty years there has been a marked change in the attitude of youth toward standards of accomplishment in
schoolwork. In most schools the number of high-school students who have the ambition to do their best in studies is
small. Some think that one of the causes of this situation stems from the attitude of workers during the depression of the
1930s. Unemployment was high, and the government took the responsibility of providing jobs for all. It was difficult to
find or create enough jobs for all who needed the income, and, as a result, much of the work was unnecessary, and there
were more men on each job than were needed. There was no incentive to do the job quickly or well. A very common sight
was that of workers on road jobs leaning on their shovels. This unfortunate attitude toward work permeated nearly all
kinds of public employment and society in general.
Another cause of the change in attitude toward standards of accomplishment is the prevailing emphasis placed on social
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Still another factor related to this situation is the social pressure not to be different from other members of the group.
"Who wants to be a brain?" "I want to be like other people". To many students in high school it is no longer considered
important or desirable to get high marks or to do one's best— getting by is enough.
A community can have whatever kind of school it wants, but it must agree upon the things to be considered important. It
may be a school where each student is stimulated to do his best and where high standards of conduct are maintained, or it
may be a school with low standards of achievement and conduct.
The climate of the community will determine in large measure what kind of school it will be. Most young people will
respond to whatever values are set by their companions, their school, and their homes. To understand the changing
meaning of work and accomplishment for our adolescents, we must remember that the adult society created the climate
that helped these new and troublesome values to flourish.
One of the most important social changes in recent years has been that in our philosophy of education as it concerns the
place of the child in the teaching-learning process. This change is so intermingled with the changes in the home and in
religion and morals that it is difficult to tell whether the changes in the philosophy of education are responsible for the
changes in the home and society or the reverse.
Formerly, education was the process of passing on to the young the cultural heritage of the past. It was the process of
inculcating in the young those habits, skills, ideas, and knowledges that were necessary to enable them to take their place
in adult society. The central figure in this process was the teacher. The student was the recipient and, as far as possible,
passive and obedient. He was thought to be too young to have any voice in determining what he had to do or to learn.
Discipline was the process of preventing behaviour that would interfere with this attitude of docility.
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were developed with the purpose of molding the pupil into the kind of individual who would make a good citizen and an
exemplary person. This educational philosophy was the prevailing point of view in the schools of all countries until the
beginning of this century.
The new educational philosophy places the child at the center of the educational process and is concerned primarily with
his development, that is, with what he is now rather than what he may become or what society may demand of him. His
needs for personal development, his own interests and desires, are dominant. His impulses for action are of extreme
importance and should not be unduly restricted. He should have a large part in decisions regarding what he should do—
even regarding what he should study.
The extreme of this position is that he should not be made to do what he does not want to do. Failures are considered
undesirable and should be avoided. Because punishments and restraints are negative, they should either not be used at all
or at least be minimized. The rule of promotion for all is sometimes adopted.
Even though some of the extreme implications of this philosophy have not been generally accepted, its impact has been
very great. Probably its most important implication is the empahsis it places upon the enlarged place of the individual in
choosing his own way of life and in selecting his own activities.
Even young children are allowed and often encouraged to make important choices for themselves. Many of these choices
may be unfortunate; but when the choice seems undesirable, instead of arbitrarily refusing to allow the child to do what he
has chosen to do, we try to help him evaluate the wisdom of his choice.
The underlying idea of this educational position emphasizes the fundamental purpose of guidance—helping the individual
to make wise choices. The necessity for adequate guidance in the very early years of life in order to develop this ability is
emphasized. While this emphasis is certainly desirable, the popularity of this new philosophy has also resulted in much
confusion, uncertainty, and even bewilderment among teachers and parents.
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Some children have been quick to take advantage of this situation in the home and in the school and have become restive
under old restraints. Formerly, it was expected that children, willingly or unwillingly, would do what they were asked to
do, but now some of them argue about it and often win.
Parents and teachers who grew up when a different educational philosophy was in vogue often cannot understand the
young people of today and are puzzled by their actions. This puzzlement makes them uncertain about the best methods of
dealing with today's students. The usual result is that little or nothing is done to change the behaviour of the student or to
develop his sense of values.
Crimes by youth continue to increase as a result of this treatment, yet we know that it is not wise to commit them to jails
where they associate with confirmed criminals. We have as yet failed to solve the problem of dealing with delinquent
youth. We know that the old method of treating them as criminals is not good; we also know that leniency of the courts
does not by itself solve the problem.
Some more effective guidance is absolutely essential. Many national and local agencies are working hard to solve the
problem, and some of the suggested solutions seem to be hopeful. At the root of any successful plan must be some form
of intelligent guidance
The last few years have seen great changes in our society. Adults trying to understand adolescents must take account of
the fact that the world of their own childhood is gone. It is not likely to return. If you wish to understand today's youth,
you must first understand his world—however much a stranger you feel in it, however much you may disapprove of some
of its elements—for the youth and his world are so much a part of each other that they cannot be known separately.
AIDS IN UNDERSTANDING
Many techniques are needed to help us understanding youth. Such an understanding cannot be attained merely by watching
what they are doing. We must know the reasons and motives that impel them to act as they do. This level of
understanding requires close and sympathetic personal relationship over a reasonably long period of time. The problem is
made more
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difficult because youth do not understand themselves and therefore cannot give much direct help to adults who are striving
to learn more about them.
Mutual Experiences
One of the most effective methods of achieving understanding is by having a shared experience in working together
toward a common goal. Father and son may work together making needed repairs on the house or improvements in the
yard; mother and daughter may share in some enterprise relating to the improvement of a room or the preparations for a
social occasion. Sometimes the leader of such enterprises may be the parent, sometimes the youth.
It is a major disaster that parents so often are "too busy" and too much absorbed in their adult concerns to be comrades to
their children. Scout leaders and athletic coaches, because of their close relationships with youth, often have very valuable
information about them.
It is unfortunate that such types of information are not more often assembled and made available to counsellors, teachers,
and parents. When we wish to understand what a student is really like, we should not overlook the value of sharing a
meaningful experience with him; we may even enrich our own lives in the process.
Cumulative Records
A cumulative record is a collection of information about a student and constitutes a picture of his development—
physically, academically, and socially. These records, which have great value in showing year-to-year development,
include, as we have stated earlier, his scholastic record, his changing interests, his attitudes toward teachers and fellow
students, and the changes in his personality patterns.
Well-organised anecdotal records—objective statements of significant incidents—may be very helpful if carefully made
from time to time. Autobiographies often reveal characteristics and attitudes unsuspected even by the student himself.
Valuable as they are, such records are quite inadequate to provide a real understanding of the pupil.
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teacher or counsellor who can interpret the conflicting behaviour of the developing adolescent and look behind and beyond
the records themselves to see him as he is. This is essential in any attempt to give guidance to the individual.
Cooperation in the School
The development of the self, the ego, is a gradual process which may continue throughout life, but for most people the
period of childhood and youth is by far the most important time in the formation of the self. Understanding of an
individual comes from a knowledge of how he acts in different situations and why. It might be that the person best able to
understand the youth would be the one who has the closest relation to him for the longest period.
Therefore the parents, especially the mother, would seem to be the ones. There is no doubt that the mother can be, and
often is, a very knowledgeable observer of how her child acts and how he changes in behaviour as he grows, but parental
love and pride often interfere with judgment and obscure important elements essential for understanding.
Teachers see children four to six hours a day, five days in the week, for nine or ten months a year and observe their acts
and judge their motives. Teachers, however, see the individual in a more or less restricted situation and are not completely
qualified to understand him. Fellow students, on the other hand, observe their classmates in many types of situations
which are more varied and lifelike than those seen by parents or teachers.
Although the counsellor is the person who is charged with the responsibility for bringing together all the data in the
school records, including the observations and opinions of teachers and peers, he may have comparatively little personal
contact with individual students. Often, however, he can judge more objectively than parents and teachers, even though he
might not be able to develop a completely accurate understanding of the whole personality by himself.
It must be conceded that there is no way by which the real self of an individual can be accurately determined, but it seems
clear that the only way in which the school can approximate such an understanding is by the cooperation of all the
individuals and agencies who come in contact with the
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individual. This means that, since all the institutions in the community have a responsibility for the education and training
of children and youth, they must also cooperation in developing an understanding of them.
The school and the family share the greatest responsibility for understanding. They are so closely related that there is
every reason and need for cooperation, but effective methods to bring this about have as yet not been developed. The
major responsibility for initiating such cooperation rests upon the school system. During the past ten years a number of
systems have been experimenting with different types of cooperation, some of which seem to be very promising.
Close personal relations are developed among teachers, parents, business and professional people so that they are known
to each other as individuals. Through social occasions and professional meetings they come to know one another better
and to realise the necessity for cooperation among friends in all areas, not only in the schools.
In many schools lay people have been invited to come to the school for a variety of reasons so that they can know and
understand it better. Some schools are providing "parent" rooms where there are easy chairs and books and pamphlets on
school matters and where desirable conferences with teachers, counsellors, and administrators can be arranged.
At present the chief means of cooperation with the home is through reports to the parents on the status and progress of the
child, but it is difficult to make such reports meaningful to them. The primary meaning is conveyed by the grades
received, promotion or nonpromotion, and comments on the child's behaviour. At times conferences are arranged between
the teacher and the parents to discuss the status of the pupil. In most schools, however, this conference is held only when
there is something wrong. If the pupil is getting along well in school, no need for a conference is seen.
The difficulty in providing these conferences is very great; but in the schools where such methods have been adopted, a
very definite change has been seen in the relation between teachers and parents not only in their personal contact but
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also in their friendly cooperation in the solution of problems of pupils and in the improvement of school facilities.
Community Information
Teachers and counsellors should know their community if they are to be of maximum help to students. The school needs
to know about the community activities of the students. Which ones are active in church work? Which ones are leaders in
their neighbourhood peer groups? Which ones are leaders in their neighbourhood peer groups? Contacts with service clubs
such as Rotary, Kiwanis, and Lions have been found to be very useful in revealing sources of assistance and also in
securing information about students who are friends or relations of members of these organisations.
Many schools have found it helpful to initiate some type of community survey, which reveals the resources of the
community, such as men and women who are leaders in business or industry and who are willing to talk with students
about opportunities and qualities essential to success in life. Such contacts will help students to understand social and
economic conditions and to realise how they may prepare themselves for lines of work for which they are especially fitted.
2. Explain how social changes have effected the understanding of the individual and thus complicating efforts of effective
guidance.
3. Explain the role of various aids is understanding the individual to ease the process of guidance.
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The importance of the self-concept in guidance stems from the fact that individuals live in separate and constantly
changing worlds which constitute the only reality they can ever know. The individual is the center of his world, and. we
can never completely share his view of things since we can never join him in his private world. To understand our
behaviour we need to assume that all of us have drives to actualise, maintain, and enhance ourselves and that what we do
constitutes an attempt to satisfy our needs in the world as we see it. We all behave in ways that are consistent with our
view of ourself and our world. Healthy people admit to consciousness all experience, but others deny or distort whatever
is not consistent with their rigidly held notions of themselves and their worlds. In many cases an understanding of the
individual's self-concept is a key to understanding his behaviour.
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It is impossible to overestimate the importance of self-understanding. A well-formulated self-concept that takes into
account the realities of the working world makes for an easier transition from school to work than does a hazy or
unrealistic one. A major goal of education is the development of clear, well-formulated, and realistic self-concepts.
Guidance workers also attempt to help people develop clear and consistent self-images not too opposed to social reality
and not too distant from the ideal which we all hold up for ourselves. In summary, if we are to understand the individual,
we must strive to see the world through his eyes. If we are to aid an individual, we must help him clarify his self-concept
and think through its consequences—personal, vocational, and social.
To some it is electrifying and deeply satisfying; to others it is depressing, for it signifies that he is alone in the world.
Such a dramatic experience is by no means common; but when it does occur, it may well be the beginning of real self-
understanding.
For most youth the development of self-understanding is a slow and relatively unconscious process involving some degree
of emotional maturity and readiness. It requires more than the collection of data about oneself. It calls for the ability to
interpret these data in terms of self and environment.
The individual must come to see himself as he is in comparison with what he wants to be. He must come to grips with
himself as he is, as well as with what he thinks he should be; that is, he should have a clear and realistic concept of
himself, his surroundings, his obligations and opportunities.
A realistic self-concept, that is, accurate self-understanding, is not attained at any given age. Some attain it in early youth;
some later; some never. An accurate self-concept usually begins to appear in early adolescence, becoming clearer with
growth
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and experience so that it is translated into terms of life work in later adolescence or early maturity. For a limited few the
life concept is fairly clear at graduation from high school or even before; with others it may not come until after a year or
more in college or even until entering an occupation. Some never attain it.
It will usually be possible to share with the gifted youth all available data about his strengths and weaknesses early
enough and fully enough so that he can develop or remedy them. He will certainly be able to use this information
realistically in planning.
If the purpose of guidance is to help the individual solve his own problems and make his own choices as an adult, the
responsibility for the choices he makes as a youth must also rest primarily on himself. If he is to make choices that are
wise, he must understand himself, his needs, and the choices available to him.
High school students are at the age when many important psychological, physiological, and emotional changes are taking
place, and it is no wonder that they do not always understand themselves. It is at this time that the understanding and
sympathetic teacher or parent can help the student to accept his new and troublesome desires and attitudes.
In helping the student to understand himself, one must take great care that he does not develop the habit of morbid
introspection to the extent that he either becomes the center of everything—the most important person in his world—or
shrinks in importance so much that he feels worthless to himself and to others. Either result will make it impossible for
him to assess correctly his abilities and aptitudes and will defeat his attempts to reach emotional maturity.
It is difficult to decide how much, if at all, the individual should participate in gathering information about himself. The
prevailing feeling is that the school counsellor is a person with special training in the methods and techniques of guidance
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and that he, with the other school personnel, is responsible for securing the necessary information about pupils and
recording it in the cumulative folders.
After studying these records, he consults with teachers and with the pupil and, on the basis of all this information, helps
the pupil to understand himself, to adjust to school, and to plan his future. This approach is quite logical if the counsellor
is considered to be the center of the guidance process.
If, however, the individual student himself; he should participate in it and, through this participation, learn more about
himself.
We should also remember that certain important data cannot be obtained without the cooperation of the pupil himself. The
pupil needs information about himself as an aid to clear self-understanding.
One school carried out a very interesting project involving the cooperation of the students in learning more about
themselves. The students were asked to make out their own cumulative record in which information about grades, test
results, attitudes, and interests was included along with comments and interpretations by the pupils themselves based on
their own reactions and on interviews with the counsellor.
Another quite similar plan has been the custom in many schools of having each student write his autobiography. This
autobiography includes information of various kinds about school progress, results of tests, self-estimates, estimates of
teachers and of schoolmates, and statements of his hopes and plans for the future.
Sociograms may help in self-understanding by showing the pupil how he is seen by his fellow students. Even when the
judgments of other students about an individual are incorrect, they may help him to ask, "What have I done that makes
other students see me as they do?"
In one high school the students who were nominated for various offices were brought together in a number of conferences
where they discussed the purposes and duties of the various positions and the kinds of ability and qualities essential for
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them. Each nominee was stimulated through these group discussions to examine himself and find out whether or not he
had the attributes considered essential for the job for which he was nominated.
In another school a still more interesting and daring plan was used. A selected group of seniors engaged in a free
discussion of the qualities and characteristics of different members of the group. The teacher sat in the rear of the room
and took no part in the discussion except when he was asked for his suggestions.
One boy was selected as the subject for discussion, and a student evaluator gave in detail what he considered were the
good and bad characteristics of the boy. When he had finished his summation, another student spoke in defence of the
individual being discussed. Finally, the boy himself was given an opportunity to speak. However, there was not the
slightest evidence of hurt feelings by any of the students.
The teacher in charge was confident that the plan was a very useful one in helping the student to understand himself and
in helping fellow students and teachers to understand the individual. Perhaps the secret of the success of this plan was that
the teacher had real sympathetic understanding of youth. He had not forgotten his own youth, as unfortunately is the case
with many teachers, counsellors, and parents.
Such devices are useful in helping the individual to develop an understanding of himself, which is essential for adjustment
and for the solution of personal problems. While it is difficult even for an adult to attain a complete understanding of
himself, it is still more difficult for an adolescent, for in this period of his life he is experiencing many crises and is often
a stranger to himself.
He is a strange mixture of boy and man. The entire direction of his future depends upon choices that are made, and wise
choices are determined by the degree to which he understands himself. Wise counsel by sympathetic and understanding
teachers and counsellors can be of great help at this time.
MEASUREMENT OF SELF-UNDERSTANDING
By its very nature the self-concept is so private and deep that it probably cannot be completely communicated to others.
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Attempts are made, however, to disclose this core of the student's personality so that guidance may be based on the
individual's 'reality.'
Autobiography
The autobiography has been previously mentioned as a device for developing realistic self-pictures, but it is also used for
disclosing the self-concept. Through these life stories the student may tell how he sees himself and how the world looks to
him. This instrument has especial value because it can be adapted for use at nearly all grade levels and is easily related to
the regular work of the classroom. By examining a student's autobiography, the teacher may assess the extent of the
understanding which the student has of himself.
Interview
Perhaps the most useful method for disclosing the individual's level of self-understanding is the interview. If we give
students a chance to talk in a non-threatening atmosphere, they will tell us much about themselves, and in the process they
may be helped to clarify what they really think and believe. The feelings of the student will be expressed to his and our
benefit if we but take time to listen.
There are a variety of scales and check lists on the market which are sometimes used to help teachers and counsellors
understand the self-concept of their students. For the most part these instruments are not standardised tests but research
devices which are still in the developmental stages.
Teachers may want to construct their own lists of incomplete sentences to be completed by the student. Such 'stubs' as the
following may be useful: I am ... ; People say that ... ; I get nervous when ... These approaches should not be thought of
as clinical tools but merely as stimuli which may help the student to clarify what he thinks about himself. Lists of
adjectives are also used for this purpose. The student is presented with a list of flattering and damaging descriptive terms
and asked to underline the ones which he thinks apply to him. So used,
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devices of this kind may provide us with gross measures of the student's concept of himself.
John's Family
Susie, age 8
The family lives in a semirural district. Their home is in a lower-class neighbourhood near a section which has no
sidewalks, electricity, gas, or inside toilets. John's home is in an area only slightly higher on the socio-economic scale.
John lives in a small house with a tiny yard in front and a large yard in back. A small cement walk leads from the
pavement through the yard to a stoop a few inches higher than the ground.
The front door opens into the parents' bedroom. This room contains a bedroom suite and has a linoleum rug on the floor.
Off this room is a small living room with a bright blue, heavy, overstuffed sofa, two armchairs, two cigarette stands, a
television set, and a linoleum rug. A stairway leads upstairs to two bedrooms and a bath which is as large as an ordinary
room. Beyond the living room is an immaculately attractive kitchen, with a procelain breakfast set, gas stove, electric
washing machine, electric refrigerator, and electric clock. (How might living in this neighbourhood and home affect
John's self-concept?)
According to the mother, the children have not always been well. All have had the usual childhood diseases—measles,
chicken pox, whooping cough. Mrs. M. says that John's twin brother has been through the Cardiac Public Health clinic,
though nothing was found to be wrong. According to the mother, however, he has had rheumatic fever and several heart
attacks.
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The family attends a Protestant church; John goes to Sunday school, but only under protest, because he cannot go out to
play on Sunday unless he does. He does not belong to any organised youth groups of the church.
Neither John's father completed elementary school, and his mother stopped two months before graduating from high
school.
The status of the family in the community is not high. The boys have a reputation for fighting. When neighbours
complain, the boys are protected by their mother, who in turn gives the complaining neighbour a tongue lashing. Some of
these parents have threatened to give John a beating and say they are willing to pay a fine for doing so.
Father's Family
Robert M., John's father, was born in a Southern city. He was one of five children whose parents were poor, hard-working
people who lived in rather meager surroundings. None of the children completed elementary school. He is an enlisted man
in the Navy.
Mother's Family
John's mother is an only child and was born in the same Southern city. Her father was an enlisted man in the Navy. He
retired from the Navy after twenty years' service and then worked at the Naval Academy for many years. He was held in
high esteem by his associates. He built a five-room home in a desirable residential section and was very proud of it; he
worked diligently to keep the surroundings neat. He was very well read, and it was said that he knew his Bible form
"beginning to end."
The father was very severe with his daughter and would not let her entertain her friends at the house. He expected very
exceptional work scholastically. He bought a piano for her musical training and also encouraged her work in art. He
would not allow her to attend any social gatherings where boys would be invited, so she began meeting boys on street
corners without the knowledge of her parents. When this happened, the father realised that he had been too strict, and he
tried to remedy the situation; but it was too late because the kind of company that he wanted his daughter to keep would
not now accept her as a desirable companion.
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John's grandmother was one of several children of a family which was held in high esteem in the community, and she
enjoyed a pleasant childhood and marriage. Upon the retirement of her husband they enjoyed a good reputation until the
daughter started "running wild."
Since the death of John's grandfather, his grandmother has turned to drinking as did her husband before his death. At the
present age of fifty-eight she is well known in ill-reputed taverns.
During the first year of his first marriage, John's father began to drink. This behaviour continued over a period of five
years during which time he did not support the family; there was naturally much strife in the home. Due to their low
income they were forced to move quite frequently.
John Himself
John is a healthy fifteen-year-old boy whose appearance is generally neat. His school records tell us little about him
except for an occasional comment from a teacher.
Third grad. "John is very trifling. He seems to think he is very funny. He should put more time on his work."
Sixth grade. "John gives up very quickly. If he makes a mistake, he doesn't try again. He needs to stick to his work every
minute. Am pleased with his attitude. John needs some help at home on his tables."
The comment in this last grade is very interesting because in the fifth grade John was suspended from school for telling a
teacher to "Take your damn hands off of me." The teacher was attempting to force the boy into his seat after a rather wild
exhibition in the classroom. There is also evidence of John's frequently getting in trouble for infraction of school
regulations. On many occasions he has indicated an utter contempt for school and everything pertaining to it.
In an interview John listed the following hobbies: fishing, crabbing, woodworking. He said that at one time he belonged
to the YMCA but quit because he did not like the leader. His employment experiences to date include a one-year job
delivering milk and another assisting a truck driver for an oil
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company. His present stated occupational preferences are movie-machine operator, fisherman, and sailor.
The subjects that he says he likes best are arts and crafts, athletics, arithmetic, and spelling. Although he has average
intelligence (IQ range from 85 to 98), he is two years retarded in reading.
A friendship sociogram revealed that John was selected two times by boys whom he did not select and rejected by the six
boys that he selected.
John's mother says that he is a problem at home. When questioned about receiving help from the family with his studies,
John declares that he is rejected by them because of his inability to understand his school assignments. He says he is "too
dumb to learn."
Given John's family, community, and school experiences, what might we expect his self-image to be, and what behaviour
can we predict? In studying the case of John, we should remember that the attainment of a life that is really successful
and satisfying depends upon the development of an understanding of the self.
This is a major goal of education and especially of guidance. A study of the home and the community will be of great
assistance in understanding conditions that influence or even determine this self-concept. The improvement in conditions
in the home and the community is one of the most valuable methods of influencing the development of satisfactory and
effective self-concepts in youth.
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(1) to know exactly what are the general and specific kinds of services to be rendered by the school or other institution;
(2) to understand thoroughly the kind and extent of activities in which he should engage as related to the duties of his co-
workers; and
(3) to be prepared to deal with his specific responsibilities as effectively as he can with a minimum of duplicated or
wasted effort.
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size of the school or school system determines the number and kinds of duties that are allocated to one particular person.
No matter what the distribution of duties, no matter how extensive or narrowly prescribed the job of a guidance worker
may be, one guiding principle of responsibility should be understood and strictly adhered to: Each member of the staff
must know and stay with his particular job, refraining from engaging in guidance or counselling activities that rightfully
are the respective responsibilities of his fellow workers, except as he cooperates willingly and intelligently with all or any
of these others in situations that require such cooperation. The purposes to be served by the guidance and counselling
programme may be stated to be as follows:
1. To collect facts necessary for understanding the growth experience, interests and needs of the individual pupil at
successive school levels.
2. To organise and record these facts so that they can be interpreted and made available for the continuing use of
educational personnel, parents and students.
3. To use an agreed-upon common terminology at all school levels when discussing a student's record with the student, his
parents, college representatives, and/or business and industrial personnel.
4. To make available pertinent educational, personnel, social, and occupational information through group guidance,
individual counselling service and literature.
5. To provide for each pupil a personal counsellor to serve as a friendly consultant from whom the pupil may expect to
receive reliable assistance with his educational, personal, social and occupational problems.
6. To plan cooperatively with each pupil a programme of experiences which will utilize his abilities, capitalize upon his
interests and satisfy his needs.
8. To utilize all available resources in school and community activities and facilities to assist in carrying forward the
developmental plan.
9. To help pupils to make the transition from one experience level to the next as easily and efficiently as possible.
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11. To provide for the continuous professional growth of all teachers and administrators in the understanding,
improvement, and revision of the guidance and counselling services.
12. To promote better understanding by teachers, administrators and pupils of the constantly changing community
opportunities which pupils may use while they are in school and specifically include in the planning for their life after
leaving school.
Administrative Responsibilities
1. Knowledge and acceptance of the basic philosophy and principles of effective guidance services.
3. Encouragement of a guidance-pointed attitude among the members of the entire staff by means of one or another form
of in-service education.
6. Provision, within budgetary limitations, of space, equipment, and materials needed to implement the programme.
The final responsibility for the success of a guidance programme rests with the administrator. Best results usually are
achieved, however, when he encourages the co-operation of other personnel in the exercise of his duties. Among the staff
members can be included heads of subject departments, school secretaries, librarians, the school custodian and, of course,
the guidance workers themselves.
Provision for the in-service education of all faculty members is an important function of the school head. This can be
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accomplished through faculty meetings, individual conferences with the more resistant teachers, personal example,
provisions made for qualified persons to give short courses held on the school campus dealing with the fundamentals of
guidance, and encouragement of teachers to enroll at neighbouring colleges or universities during the school year for
courses in guidance or in guidance workshops during the summer vacation.
In many school libraries at least one section contains materials for use by faculty members. Books and pamphlets dealing
with child development, guidance approaches, and related topics are finding their way onto these "teachers' bookshelves."
Of value also are some excellent films portraying ways in which young people can be helped toward the solution of their
problems. (See film list in Appendix.) During the course of a school year, two faculty meetings can be devoted to the
review and discussion of new books in the guidance field or to the showing and discussion of appropriate films.
Responsibilities
The director of guidance of a whole school system can be regarded as a liaison officer who, working out of the central
office, co-operates with the personnel of individual schools in providing special services for them and in helping guidance
departments improve their programme offerings. The remainder of this discussion is concerned with the work of the
school guidance co-ordinator or chairman.
With the approval of the principal and in co-operation with his staff, the co-ordinator establishes the guidance policies and
implements them. He assists other staff members in solving difficult problems of adjustment; he keeps the teachers
informed about the activities of the programme, and enlists their cooperation in matters such as making referrals and
administering remedial measures; he maintain an attitude of friendly interest
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in and co-operation with pupils; directly or indirectly, he supervises testing programs, pupil admissions, pupil
programming, and out-of-class pupil activities; he meets and discusses with parents their children's interests, plans, and
problems; and he serves as the liaison officer between the school and other community agencies.
Personal Qualities
A person who is interested in young people, who has leadership qualities, and who does not resent hard work and much
apparent failure is guidance chairman material. The co-ordinator's responsibilities are many, his hours are long, and his
degree of patience must approach that of Job. He must be all things to all people.
He must be able to meet a frown with a smile and to remain calm and emotionally controlled amidst unbridled
emotionalism on the part of pupils, parents, or teachers; he must at all times be tolerant, understanding, objective, self-
possessed, co-operative, and ready to pour oil on troubled waters.
At the same time, he must be a human being who has known what it means to endure suffering, to face disappointment, to
take unjust criticism. His own experiences should serve to make him sympathetic toward the weaknesses of others.
Above all, he must know how to meet his own emotion-arousing problems of adjustment and to solve them with a
reasonable degree of objective behaviour.
The co-ordinator should always maintain an attitude of cheerfulness born of sincerity and desire to serve. Although he
may sympathize with an offender, he should not condone the offense.
By precept as well as by example, he should strive constantly to encourage attitude of honesty, industry, cooperation, and
other high ethical standards among those with whom he is associated.
One activity that should not be included among a guidance co-ordinator's duties is that of administering punitive
disciplinary measures to recalcitrant young people. As a matter of fact, no
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counsellor should be expected to assume this responsibility. The fulfilment of the avowed purpose of guidance is defeated
by such practice. This does not imply that the guidance approach should be sentimental or that counsellors condone anti-
social behaviour and are advocates of soft pedagogy.
On occasions, the best interests of a pupil are served through firm and objective treatment of him and his problem, but the
young person must be made to realise that his counsellor is trying to help him, not punish him. The attitude of pupils
toward the guidance staff should be that of confidence, friendliness, and a desire to seek help from these adults who are
kindly disposed toward them and interested in their welfare.
The guidance office should be a room to which pupils come willingly, even eagerly. These pupil attitudes cannot be
maintained if the guidance personnel become associated in the minds of the young people with reprimands, scoldings, or
punishments administered for the infraction of school rules or other forms of misbehaviour.
There should be some person connected with the school whose function it is to handle routine discipline problems. This
person should not be a martinet, but being summoned to his office should be an experience which most pupils will want
to avoid. The disciplinarian should be guidance-minded and acquainted with the guidance services of the school.
Assignment of Responsibilities
In some school systems, certified counsellors are assigned to two or more schools. These counsellors
(3) conduct meetings of teacher and parent groups to improve their understanding of young people's adjustment problems
and to encourage their practice of guidance principles, and,
(4) serve in a general liaison capacity between a school's guidance staff and other groups, such as administrators, teachers,
specialists, and community leaders.
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Most teacher-counsellors serve on a part-time basis. They are released from one or two periods of teaching per day, and
sometimes from home-room or other duties. Others give full time to counselling. There are disadvantages in the latter
arrangement. Spending a full day, week by and school year by school, in guidance and counselling activities may cause
the counsellor to lose contact with the classroom situation.
An attitude of detachment from classroom learning may lessen his efficacy as a guide to young people who spend most of
their school day in a classroom. Personal participation is an excellent basis for understanding of and sympathy with
problems of classroom management and activities.
Something should be said also, however, about the difficulties that may develop as the result of a teacher-counsellor's
attempt to meet successfully the two different types of activities embodied in classroom and guidance-office
responsibilities.
He may come to feel that he is running around in circles, that he is failing to achieve success in either area of
responsibility. He may be in the middle of an important conference with a parent or a pupil, or not quite finished with
another phase of guidance activity, when the bell rings, and he must jump and run! Many of his guidees may not be free
to see him during his scheduled counselling periods; this means arranging to meet these pupils either before or after
school hours.
The specific activities of the school counsellor are legion. Every new school policy or curriculum addition on expansion
appears to add to his already too-heavy load. The many aspects of his responsibilities include the health, educational,
social, and vocational needs of each of his pupils. The counsellor participates in the administration, correction, and
recording of tests and in the interpretation of testing results. He is responsible for giving careful and accurate help in pupil
programming.
He confers with the co-ordinator; his staff associates, and other teachers concerning matters that deal with his guidance
function. He sponsors pupil activities and guides pupil-initiated projects. He engages in guidance in group and individual
situations.
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As the coordinator of services is all things to all people connected with guidance services, the counsellor is all things to all
members of his pupil group and to everyone interested in individual pupil welfare.
In the descriptive reports of guidance programmes received by the authors from schools and school systems throughout
the country there were included long detailed lists of the duties of a counsellor. In Wilmington, Delaware, the Guidance
Workshop developed a list of the general duties of each counsellor and, in addition, a breakdown of the specific
responsibilities of the counsellor on respective school levels. The list of the general duties of each counsellor is presented
here:
General—Each Counsellor
Assists in familiarizing new classroom teachers and other school personnel with guidance services available.
Participates in an Orientation Programme for entering pupils and assists in articulation: attempts to establish proper
rapport between school and pupils; assists in development of desirable school, home, and community relationships.
Develops a counsellor's folder for each new pupil to be added to as time progresses.
Explains various school records that are unfamiliar to pupils—with special attention to new pupils.
Administers or assists in the administration of tests used for guidance purposes. When desirable, interprets results to
pupils and parents.
Obtains as much of an objective measurement of a pupil's abilities, interests, aptitudes, and physical characteristics as
possible.
Assists each student (and/or parents) to plan his course of study and elect courses that will enable him to attain his highest
level of efficiency and satisfaction and to meet his educational and vocational needs and plans. A minimum of one
unhurried conference a year with each student will be arranged with as many more arranged as needed to meet
contingencies that may arise.
Gives assistance and counsel through interviews with each pupil to enable him to understand himself and his problems.
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Maintains close contact with school nurse in all health problems of students. Arranges for modified schedule for pupils
with health problems. Provides class lists for periodic physical examinations.
Obtains a knowledge of the relevant aspects of a student's home environment, economic status, and personality.
Confers with parents as needs arise, in homes, on telephone, in school, etc. Arranges group meetings of parents as deemed
desirable.
Exchanges information and recommendations for the welfare of a pupil with other school personnel by means of reports
and conferences.
Has a specific responsibility to know the strengths and weaknesses of each pupil and to help stimulate each to make
maximum use of his ability.
Must be constantly alert to signs of emotional difficulties. If discovered early enough, many cases can be handled by
teachers and counsellors. Difficult cases should be referred to available specialists.
Makes referrals through dean, principal or nurse to: Child Development and Guidance Department for psychological or
social worker service, psychiatric clinic, Governor Bacon Health Center, vocational Rehabilitation, Youth Aid Division,
hospital clinics, Nemours Clinic. (Note: Referrals to most other community agencies clear through coordinator of school
and community agencies.)
Provides counselling for a pupil relative to educational and personal problems or plans.
Collects occupational information about the world of work, particularly about areas or specific jobs in which pupils have
interests.
Arrange or helps arrange field trips for individuals or groups designed to provide students with realistic educational and
occupational information.
Plans, organises and arranges with deans for career conferences when considered useful.
Refers interested students to Vocational Counsellor for interviews with members of Vocational Guidance Advisory
Committee in area of employment relative to pupils' interests.
Assists student in making vocational choices commensurate with his ability and skill.
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Helps to arrange school guidance clinics involving all persons (e.g., nurse, social worker, psychologist, classroom teacher,
parents, etc.) for the purpose of pooling information to be used in assisting an individual student who is experiencing
some type of difficulty.
Assists pupil to develop initiative and independence so that he will progress in self-direction.
Disseminates information about activities involved in the next grade or school, including types of subjects or courses
offered and requisites for them.
Determines advisability of course and programme changes by analyzing information from teachers and other school
personnel, and the home.
Aids potential drop-out to make the school experience as profitable as possible, in some cases, attempts to enroll such a
student in a work study programme.
Suggests that drop-outs register with the Delaware State Employment Service.
Arranges for group Guidance through: class meetings; group meetings—College Prep, Business Education and General;
bulletins for individual distribution; visits to English classes (where students are scheduled); session with guest speakers;
films; discussions of desirable traits and attitudes; and activities to promote social adjustment.
Accepts invitation of 'sending' schools to meet the pupils who will be under his jurisdiction the following fall.
Is cognizant at all times of the desirability of a follow-up process in all phases of the Guidance Programme. This follow-
up often lasts for some years after the student is graduated in matters of job placement, recommendations, college grades,
and class reunions.
FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES
1. Competencies needed to work with pupils. The ability to:
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(g) Evaluate the personality patterns of the pupil and to determine both strong and weak areas.
(h) Evaluate the socio-economic status of the pupil and of his background.
(p) Evaluate the information a pupil possesses in relation to his educational occupational, and personal problems.
(s) Select or devise forms for the economical gathering and recording of information.
(t) Organise records and establish procedures for effective and economical utilisation.
(v) Match job requirements with pupil abilities in individual pupil placement activities.
(z) Deal with emotionally upset pupils at least to the extent of recognising their situation and, if necessary, referring them
to others.
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(a) Gain the confidence and respect of the administrative, supervisory, and teaching staff.
(f) Organise and lead group and forum discussions on pupil problems.
(g) Organise and carry out a programme of in-service training.
(h) interpret and present effectively the results of a follow-up programme and attendant curriculum needs or changes.
(j) Conduct research and evaluation studies on all phases of the guidance programme.
(c) Enlist the cooperation of parents in the solution of pupil adjustment problems.
(d) Work with both pupil and parent in the pupil-parent conflict.
(c) Explain the entire school programme and to show how the guidance programme is a part of this programme.
(d) Develop effective relationships with employers and other community groups.
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(h) Identify other guidance agencies in the community and to develop a guidance programme that utilizes the available
services of these agencies.
A psychologist with training and experience in education can utilize his specialised knowledge concerning child
development, learning, learner-evaluation, and interpersonal relationships to help counsellors and teachers gain a greater
understanding of their pupils, especially those who are exceptional. Although in some schools psychologists serve as full-
time members of the guidance department, it is more common for psychological services to be available to individual
schools as the need for them arises.
The chief responsibility of a school psychologist is to administer, correct, and interpret the results of whatever
standardized instrument of evaluation are used to determine the learning readiness of pupils or to discover something
about their interests, attitudes, or behaviour trends.
The Psychiatrist
A young person's emotional difficulties may be so serious and deep-rooted that a school guidance staff or a psychologist
is unable to cope with the problem. In a situation of this kind, the service of a well-trained psychiatrist is needed. Every
school should have the opportunity to obtain such psychiatric treatment for pupils who seem to be evidencing symptoms
of incipient or serious mental illness.
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In some junior and senior high schools, interested and relatively well-qualified teacher-counsellors have the responsibility
of giving vocational guidance and of placing pupils in jobs, either part time while they are attending school or full-time
after graduation. Such an arrangement is rarely successful. The teacher counsellor must combine vocational guidance with
a part-time teaching load. The tasks of acquainting purpils with vocational opportunities, helping them in their vocational
choices, locating jobs, and making appropriate placements are time-consuming. Pupils' class schedules and employers'
convenience must be taken into consideration, as well as the teacher-counsellor's teaching periods.
The Teacher
We have already seen the role of a teacher-counsellor in the guidance programme. At this point, we shall discuss briefly
the influence of a full-time teacher on his pupils in classroom situations. It has been said that guidance begins and ends
with the teacher.
It is the alert teacher who, recognising a pupil's need for out-of-classroom help, refers him to an appropriate counsellor; it
is the co-operative teacher who carries out in his classroom relations with the maladjusted pupil the recommendations of
the counsellor.
The Librarian
Modern educational curriculums and procedures are placing an increasing emphasis on research by pupils in connection
with learning activities. Hence the librarian, who in some school systems has the training and designation of teacher-
librarian, is a valuable member of the guidance staff. Through helping young people find reference materials as they
engage in research projects, she can come to know them rather intimately. Not only does she guide their learning
activities, but she also can and very often does bring the results of her observation of their attitudes and behaviour to the
attention of the dean or appropriate counsellor. On many occasions, the teacher-librarian gives great assistance in meeting
serious problems of pupil adjustment.
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Among the resource materials that should be in a school library are a wide selection of books and other reading materials,
and audio-visual materials, including a diversified selection of films, film strips, and records. The library can be
considered a work laboratory for learners and teachers alike. The librarian then becomes the center of many curriculum
activities. The effectiveness of the librarian depends on his
(3) concern for the individual needs of learners and teachers, and
(4) ability to select and interpret material that have direct bearing on adjustment.
Another factor in the development of the consultant role is the improved level of preparation of counsellors. As they
perform vocational guidance at a more than perfunctory level and as they provide effective counselling for personal
problems they perceive the need for further expansion of their role. Moreover, their higher level of competence provides a
confident basis upon which to build the consultant role. Urbanisation and technological change are also factors in the
development of counsellor-consultant role.
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a situation and continues with dialogue in proposing a solution. He is one who calls others together to deliberate, to
consider, and to plan, cooperatively, programmes for pupil development. The word consultant is often used to refer to the
expert, the specialist who enters a situation for a few days, evaluates it, and makes some pertinent recommendations.
Boy and Pine have given a description of the counsellor-consultant under the heading "Elementary School Counselling
Consultants." They describe this professional as having five major areas of work:
(1) working with children in terms of assessment placement, and individual and group counselling
(2) working with principals and teachers conducting conferences relating to pupils, in-service courses, interpreting the
objectives of the pupil personnel programme,
(3) working with other school personnel such as instructional materials managers, librarians, nurses, reading consultants,
and speech therapists,
(4) working with parents to consider educational programmes and problems, counselling with parents, organising
workshops and discussion groups, and interpreting pupil personnel services, and
(5) working with community agencies on referrals, participating in staff conferences, and being active in professional
organisations.
Stripling and Lane in surveying the history and scope of guidance, indicate that one of the most effective ways of
accomplishing guidance objectives is through consultation with parents, teachers, and other adults who are concerned with
pupil growth.
The role of the counsellor-consultant has expanded as emphasis has shifted from the child to those who deal with child
most ultimately and for the most hours per day. In addition to working with parents and teachers, some see the evolving
role as having responsibility for coordinating the pupil personnel services of the school. Others see the one who exercises
such leadership as being the one who should interpret the pupil personnel services to the public, not only so that the work
can be done more effectively but in order to counteract successive
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waves of suspician and undue popularity and high expectation. Certainly, it seems much too early to attempt to formulate
a concept of exactly what the role should be.
Today's school counsellor is involved in so many activities that oftentimes he isn't sure what he is or what he is supposed
to be. He bears the title counsellor but usually he hasn't time to involve himself in an inter-personal counselling
relationship with a troubled student since he is too busy with programming, interviewing students who are academic
failures, handling discipline problems, checking absences, arranging a co-ocuricular activities schedule, and handling a
variety of other administrative duties.
The emerging role of the counsellor is that of concern about the network of interactions which characterise a learning
milieu. Danskin, Kennedy, and Friesen refer to the circularity of learning processes as student ecology.
This student ecology takes cognizance of research results which indicate that the key determinants in the pupil's learning
success are
(1) the socio-economic status of the home in which the pupil was reared,
(2) the reference groups (peer groups) from which the pupil so largely derives his values, and
(3) his intelligence and the manner in which it is used.
If this emerging role is to be effectively performed some modifications of the counsellors increases are required. It will be
necessary for the counsellor to:
Spend much less time planning future educational and vocational programmes for students while spending much more
time in exploring and probing current educational experiences of students. Planning for the future will flow from being
alive to the present experiences.
Invest a much larger part of his total resources in observation of systematic research into the learning climate of the
school. For this he will need time to reflect, discuss, and write, without the pressure of having to do the highly visible
guidance functions.
Greatly enlarge the scope of his contacts with teachers and administrators. He would become the important "human
development consultant" in issues concerning curriculums, activities, policies, etc.
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as the major forces in improving the learning environment of the school. Such action means that a generalist in interest of
knowledge uses his specialist skill in dealing with people. This specialist skill is the ultimate outcome of the counsellor-
consultant's preparation and orientation. While most school a workers are concerned with cognitive skills—the acquisition
and methods of acquisition of subject matter—the orientation of the acquisition and methods of acquisition of subject
matter— the orientation of the counsellor is toward the pupil. To the counsellor the pupil is the subject matter to be
learned. The counsellor must, however, remember that he himself is very much a part of that subject matter; he is
irrevocably involved
Within the past decade, starting for example with Kelly, there has been an increasing interest in a broader responsibility
and involvement of the counsellor in relationship to the curriculum. Because there must be alternatives, if there is to be
choice and if there is a genuine attempt to meet unique needs, it is logical that counsellors become active participants in
curriculum evaluation, development, and change.
Involvement of the counsellor in curriculum development is not just a matter of adding to the work load of the already
busy counsellor. It is a matter of multiplying the impact of one's effort by doing more efficiently the work that needs to
be done.
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Parents, concerned about their children's future, and school people, conscious of their responsibility for the welfare of their
pupils, can assist one another in the achievement of a common
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goal. Whatever is accomplished through school and community co-operatively benefits all who participate.
In no area of endeavour is constructive and tactful leadership more necessary than in the field of human relations. With
few exceptions, people are interested in the welfare of others. Especially are adults concerned about young people's
(2) opportunities for participation in personality satisfying and socially acceptable life activities, and
Fundamentally, parents are responsible for guiding their children's activities. They are interested primarily in their own
children, however; too often, they themselves need guidance in handling their own leadership problems.
It would seem reasonable for those men and women who primarily represent service groups to assume leadership in areas
of human welfare. We refer specifically to heads of religious organisations, directors of social agencies, the courts, and
school guidance personnel.
Even though school guidance departments are woefully understaffed, counsellors and teacher-counsellors probably are in
the best position to discover the personal and social needs and problems of individual young people.
Still the results of studies that deal with adjustment during the formative years indicate that many youthful difficulties
stem from home or general community lacks. Unless every adult assumes his share of responsibility for promoting the
physical and mental health of the young, school guidance is likely to be merely palliative rather than preventive or
curative.
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If a guidance programme is to be developed that includes the home and the community as well as the school staff, the
school personnel must be trained to be community minded. It is becoming customary for programmes of teacher-
education to include opportunities for student participation in community agency activities and parent-teacher conferences
as well as in supervised practice teaching.
In the past, too many teachers were selected from among those who secured their education by studying textbooks and
who made good grades based on classroom activities. They were prepared to tech children or other learners the material in
the textbooks but they were disregarding the rich environment about them.
Today we are trying to enrich every teacher's background of training by expanding his experience in as many directions as
possible. The potential teacher becomes acquainted with the physical and cultural environment of the individuals he will
be teaching; he gains some understanding of parental attitudes; he discovers what it means to guide learning in group
situations.
In some cases, students preparing to become teachers are expected to engage in community service for a definite period of
time each week. When enrolling in a course, such as introduction to education, educational psychology, or human
development and learning, each student is assigned to an appropriate community welfare service or recreational agency.
During his stay with the agency, the student observes the procedure of trained social workers, assists in the leadership of
small-group projects, observes the behaviour of a designated number of participants in the agency's programme, and
summarizes his findings in the form of case reports.
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The student also escorts children on neighbourhood trips, confers with parents, and in other ways gets the 'feel' of
community living. Counsellor trainees engage in similar, but broader and more intensive experiences that are aimed at the
development of leadership skills and individual counselling approaches.
The initial group of four families was counselled by a team of two counsellors. There have been numerous subsequent
groups, each with a team of counsellors and up to six graduate students observing and/or participating. Family group
consultation has proven to be a most dynamic training procedure, in addition to producing good counselling results.
A family is an established ongoing dynamic group. It has a strength as an integrated social system and will mobilize to
maintain a kind of internal consistency or homeostasis. The idea is to keep the counsellor from becoming entrapped by the
forces in the family that keep it a living and dynamic group. A counsellor can be disqualified by any number of events
occurring before and during intake.
First the family will usually not make any contract with the counsellor. Someone in the family will remain reluctant to
participate. The counsellor begins with whatever portion of the family is available to counselling.
Second, the family will fence off some restricted territory some subject or topics that are taboo. Do not make an issue of
any of these.
Third, the family must present itself as a working unit and the trouble must be the member with the presenting problem.
The attitude is usually characterized as: "Fix him and we will be all right." The counsellor must respect the family as it
presents itself and support any 'myth' it wishes concerning father, mother, or other relatives.
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Fourth, a consultant helps a family learn. A family views the counsellor consultant as a foreign agent. The counsellor has
a task to teach the family how to use a consultant.
Fifth, the family needs to be reassured about the integrity of their group. It is important for each member of a family to be
present in the counselling group. Therefore the counsellors must insist upon the importance of each member's participation
of family group consultation is to have its best chance for success.
Finally, not every family should be involved in family group consultation. There are life conditions that do not lend
themselves to group procedures. Instead, these conditions may need individual attention.
We can give only a common-sense guideline for making such decisions. If the family feels safe enough to come to the
group, you can usually be safe in working with them. The contract is a simple agreement shared in common among the
family members and the counsellors.
The counsellors sometimes decline to continue group counselling with a family whenever the parents or a youngster
persist in using the counselling relationship to support an individual programme or campaign against some other person or
persons in the family. The counsellor always refuses to take sides. The counsellor refuses to be 'used' by someone in the
family, if he finds out about it.
The family is a complex social system with forces at its command to make or break a person, a truly life-and-death
power. Mobilizing the forces of a family and launching a family group consultation programme can enhance the natural
potential in every family for using its rehabilitative power.
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The guidance counsellor can involve community agencies with the school through a parent education programme. This
requires some management and administrative organisation but the dividends are valuable.
Pendleton, Oregon, has had such a programme in operation for the past several years. It takes two full years to get such a
programme underway. This includes getting community and school personnel to support the efforts of family group
consultation.
Sharing in the experience of family group consultation and visible results are the two ways the guidance counsellors get
community and school support. Parents want their children to learn and welcome opportunities to work with the school as
partners.
2. The counsellors analyze the meanings within contexts and within events—for each personal construct as it is identified.
3. Validation of (a) Each person's perception of what happened in a life event with each other person's perception
(McCully). (b) The meaning within contexts for the individual.
5. Family practice within groups of families for the purpose of achieving new skills to use at home.
6. The process (learning how to learn) is taught by the counsellors and families able to be assistant counsellors.
2. The family needs an internal congruence between role expectations for an individual and the self-definition
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All of these variables, and more, carry on the concrete expression of the abstract basis of attitudes, values, and processes
of inducting the young into socialisation experiences leading to full adult participation in the life style of the particular
social class—upper class, upper middle class, lower middle class, upper lower class and lower-lower class.
Each of the above class differs in many way on account of income, nature of work, participation in religious and social
activities civil activities, value system, friendship, education, family and self-conscious behaviour and leisure time. All
these aspects effect the behaviour of the child accordingly and thus child's need for guidance and counselling differ.
Identity of a personal 'self requires confirmation for validation in the life experiences (interactions with environment) or
the individual. If identity is confused, the person's productive potential for appropriate, relevant behaviour is impaired.
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Contrary to a popular myth, neurotic or 'sick' people are not as productive as healthy persons.
The useful descriptions of behaviour in each social class strata help the guidance counsellor identify the life conditions a
youngster may be experiencing. Coping behaviour is useful to observe as a youngster meets a new and novel situation.
The repertoire of relevant behaviours available to a youngster reflects his learned responses and gives the guidance
counsellor a quick look a what possible social class background he represents.
The customs, attitudes, and interrelationships peculiar to a home often derive from racial, ethnic, social, or religious
influences. Unless school people, especially counsellors, can interpret abnormal pupil behaviour in relation to family
patterns of living, they may find it difficult to help a child or an adolscent adapt himself to another way of life. Too often
the young person becomes confused by or resents the conflict between home and out-of-home standards of conduct.
The rapid pace of modern living, social and economic pressures, and loosely-organised family units are basic to the lack
of parental discipline in some homes. Harassed parents are concerned about so many things that their children are
permitted to or assume the right to do as they please. It then becomes the school's responsibility, during the relatively
short school day, week, and year, to motivate these young people to develop self-control, assume appropriate
responsibilities, and respect the rights of other people.
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Basic Factors of Parent-School Relations
When parents and school people cooperate in their efforts to benefit children, two objectives are served: improved
understanding of child nature, and greater recognition of what a good education can do for a child.
According to Maria Piers, parent-teacher or parent-counsellor conflict can result from the presence of one or another of
the following attitudes. Parents may (1) be afraid of the teacher, (2) think the teacher does not recognise or appreciate
their efforts, or (3) feel the teacher doesn't know how to handle their child. The teacher may (1) resent parents because of
her own childhood experiences, (2) feel parents are to blame for all of the child's actions, and (3) assume an attitude of
superiority toward parents.
During his developing years, the child himself can further complicate the situation as he gives voice to changing
prejudices and loyalties. Before he enters school he usually indicates his faith in his parents by expressions such as "My
mother and father know everything."
During elementary-school years, he may struggle to gain independence from home rule by insisting that he behaves as he
does "because teacher says so." The attitude of the older adolescent toward teachers may be one of good-natured
tolerance.
At the same time, having achieved some independence in his home relationships, he is able to view his parents more
objectively than he had during the growing-up process. He recognises their strengths as well as their weaknesses,
admitting that "Mother and dad are not so bad, after all."
2. Invite the parents to an informal tea or coffee hour given by the children at the school. On the lower grade level, this
activity would probably be supervised by the teacher.
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3. Through the P.T.A., catalogue information on parental backgrounds, including education, employment, interests and
hobbies.
4. Set up hostess committees to assist teacher in greeting parents on P.T.A. nights. This would insure a warm welcome for
all parents.
6. Set aside one afternoon a month when parents may consult with teacher.
Various types of services and studies in this area have been undertaken. For example, the school studies the cultural
background and educational needs of the children. The faculty participate in community living through their leadership in
garden clubs, community chests, churches, social groups, health councils, and children's theatres.
With the increase in the sizes of schools and cities goes an increasing need for expanding the guidance services. In small
communities, citizens become acquainted with the school and with its work. In larger communities, many citizens know
little or nothing about the kinds of schools that exist or the offerings in these schools.
The public must be convinced of the value of the guidance services that are instituted in order that they be willing to pay
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for them. In many cities a formal guidance programme is delayed, not because the school leader has no plan put rather
because the people have not been convinced that money spent for guidance is money well spent. Dollars expended in a
good guidance programme may have as much value as those spent on teacher service in the classroom.
Present emphasis on breadth as well as intensity of educational offerings points out the need to use many resources to
supplement classroom study. In most communities various individuals or organisations are willing to co-operate with the
schools by demonstrating certain skills or by furnishing specific information that will broaden learners' understandings.
Such persons include supervisory personnel in special fields, nurses, doctors, religious leaders, representatives of local
health centers, fire and police departments and citizen groups, such as the Rotary and Kiwanis Clubs.
School guidance staffs avail themselves of the services of physical and mental health clinics, community welfare,
recreational, religious, vocational, and employment agencies. Various individuals, corporations, foundations, and business
or philanthropic organisations offer scholarships to qualified high school graduates or grants to schools for special
projects.
Children's courts are being established in an increasing number of communities. Although punitive measures sometimes
need to be employed, these courts are interested primarily in the rehabilitation of young offenders. The schools and the
children's courts work together closely.
In some communities members of the school system function as full-time liaison officers between the courts and schools.
The school furnishes the court with background information about the young person in question. If the individual is
remanded in the custody of a probation officer, the school cooperates with the latter in helping the delinquent get a new
start.
The court may commit the child or adolescent to an institution or may recommend clinic treatment. Unfortunately, as in
other areas of service, inadequate budgetary appropriations retard the community's meeting of recognised needs.
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Lay co-operation with the professional staff aims to enrich and increase the effectiveness of the school programme rather
than to relieve the board of education or the school people of their responsibility in educational matters. The school and
the community should consider together school policies, curriculums, and buildings. This school and community
interaction may take place through group action or through the services of individuals. Co-operation that is carried out
effectively between school leaders and lay citizens in an increasing number of communities is illustrated in the following
types of activities:
Educational policies
Building programmes
Teaching conditions.
A teacher-training programme
Nursery schools.
8. Communities and schools deal with the problems of health and child care.
Citizens committees can exert considerable influence on public opinion, thereby obtaining financial support for needed
school services or equipment.
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2. Explain the value of Family Group Consultation and involvement of school and community in Family Group
Consultations.
3. Explain the importance role of Life styles 'in Families and their social class as a factor for counsellors understanding to
do his job effectively.
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(2) the extent to which the learning experiences fulfil these objectives,
(3) the kind of organisation that will maximize these experiences, and
(4) the determination of the extent to which the school's goals are being attained.
One aim of education is the development of a basis for constructive living. It involves helping children to recognise
problems and think clearly about them, develop satisfactory attitudes toward people, situations, and conditions, plan day-
by-day activities wisely, and utilize sufficient self-direction to
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achieve useful purposes. Thus, through their continued daily experiences, individuals gradually learn to become worthy
citizens.
We are concerned here with those school activities that may contribute toward the fulfilment of the aims and goals of
education. Every member of the school personnel, regardless of the title under which he operates, has the responsibility of
contributing whatever he can toward enabling the entire school programme to give maximum benefit to the pupils in the
school and to the society of which the school is a part.
A curriculum which embodies all the activities and learning situations that can be provided under the aegis of the school
potentially becomes broad enough to afford pupils self-expression, within the range of their individual differences. A
guidance-based curriculum recognises the need for
A guidance-based curriculum becomes so flexible that teachers with differing personalities may adapt general curricular
suggestions to their own individual procedures. Learning units included in a curriculum must offer them a sufficient range
of choice to meet individual interest and modes of approach without sacrificing continuity of purpose. Curriculums also
must be designed so that they may be adapted to the individual interests and differing personalities of the learners.
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A curriculum need not be limited in its construction to the learning activities that take place within the schoolroom or on
the playground. It should reach out to include those community activities that provide opportunities for the learner to
expand his intellectual horizons and to develop understandings based on real rather than vicarious experiences.
Curricular adjustment involves not only the kind of activity that is to be included but also the amount of time to be
allotted to each activity and its value to the learner. Rigid time schedules often interfere with the success of learner
activity. An ingenious teacher will attempt to solve this problem by adapting his teaching units to his time limitations.
However, a crowded curriculum often makes it impossible for the teacher to proceed at a desirable rate for learning
mastery. This often causes hardship to the slower learner, especially if misconceptions result from incomplete
understanding. Adequate learning mastery becomes increasingly difficult and the guidance counsellor is given extra work.
Curriculum Considerations
A well-planned curriculum is not static. It changes and evolves as educational leaders work with children. An evolving
curriculum functions in the daily lives of children, is based on their needs, motivates them toward further learning, is
suited to their capacities for learning, and assists them in their development of self-understanding, self-realization, and
self-direction.
The broadening concept of the responsibility of the school personnel and of their concern with the educational process in
the development of each child's capacities toward desirable social goals has placed new demands on the school
curriculum. Attention has been given to the criticism that the different levels of instruction have been too independent of
one another. Neither has there been co-ordination or articulation among the various subjects on the secondary level.
Consequently, critics have directed their fire against the duplication or omission of needed material.
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parents, curriculum specialists, and the children themselves. A teacher, a guidance counsellor, or a citizen who has helped
construct a curriculum probably will be motivated to do whatever he can toward its effective operation. Each participant in
the project can evaluate the learning outcomes intelligently, even if these fall short of the expectations of nonparticipating
community members.
The curriculum which the teacher follows must be one in which he believes. He cannot be expected to understand
completely or accept without question a superimposed curriculum in the building of which he has had no part.
Curriculum Improvement
Guidance-oriented teachers are interested in the development of guidance-centered curriculum units. The appropriateness
of the school's curricular offerings is a major concern of guidance counsellors as they work with children as well as with
teachers, supervisors, and administrators.
Through evaluating and suggesting, teacher and other school personnel can work closely on common problems. Since
counsellors are in a good position to discover the learning difficulties of their counselees they can contribute much to
curriculum improvement. The pupils themselves often have good suggestions if they are permitted to share in curriculum
planning. Moreover, when counsellors or qualified teachers meet with pupils in group guidance sessions, discussions
dealing with the curriculum are valuable.
The functions of guidance-minded teachers and counsellors on a curriculum committee vary somewhat with the school
level concerned. On the elementary-school level, the teacher guides the development of each of his group of pupils
through all the various media of fundamental learning; the counsellor (if there is one) shares with the teacher the
responsibility guiding this developmental process.
Curriculum materials need to be adapted to a learner's emotional as well as intellectual level of development. One of the
immediate responsibilities of a teacher is to discover as much as possible about each pupil's background experiences in
order to plan appropriate instruction units.
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Both the basic experiences and the social or other limitations that may arise out of home and community living must be
known if the teacher is to provide learning experiences that will aid rather than harm the emotional and intellectual
development of the learners involved. Information about home and community assets and limitations will be of value both
to the teacher and the counsellor.
The counsellor plays an important role in gathering information about pupils. He often is able to obtain much of the
needed data as he continues from day-to-day with his regular work. He can discover facts such as the occupation of the
father, the special problems in the home, the status and role of a pupil in his family, the attitudes and beliefs of respective
family members, the young person's assets, and other significant matters.
Since these bits of information are vital adjuncts to an understanding of what makes the child 'tick,' the counsellor shares
them with the teacher so that the latter can make instructional activities more meaningful. Through these means integration
is furthered in the classroom.
Value of Co-operation
The worth of a guidance-based curriculum depends on the extent to which the teachers, counsellors, and other school
personnel are able to work together toward providing curricular experiences which can be shared by the learners.
The stronger the teamwork and the closer the unity of purpose, the more effective will be the basic curriculum that is
constructed. It must rest on a recognition of differences among individuals and a respect for their needs, interests, and
motivations. The curriculum becomes most functional when the lives of the learners both within and outside the school
are affected for the better.
Co-operation among school personnel also is required in providing a good learning environment and utilizing techniques
that will call forth learning responses. Teacher understanding of the psychology of learning and of behaviour problems
also will increase the probability that a guidance-based curriculum will yield more favourable results for all pupils
involved. Emphasis should be placed on the need for integration of learning as the materials of the learning units are
prepared.
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The developing interest in the child among education-minded philosophers, especially John Dewey, and the research
findings of psychologists resulted in a twentieth-century curriculum improvement movement that has paralleled the
guidance movement. Attempts to make curriculums more functional in their approach gave birth to a series of catch
phrases, such as 'individualization,' 'enrichment,' 'acceleration,' 'rapid progress,' and 'integration of learning.'
Experimental curriculums were constructed in USA in various school communities to meet what were considered to be
the specific learning needs of the community. Because of their successful operation, some of these curriculums were
adopted in toto by other schools or school systems where too often they did not serve their supposed purpose. The chief
cause of their failure is that they were superimposed and not fitted to the learning needs of the schools in which they were
introduced.
Some of these 'new' curriculums were based on sound psychological and educational principles. With appropriate
modifications, many of their basic concepts have exercised a pervasive influence on much of present-day curriculum
construction and implementation. Among the most well-known experiments are these which are listed along with the
names of their originators and described briefly.
211 212
Curriculum Descriptive Statement
The Dalton This plan stresses freedom of expression, individual initiative, and group interaction. Job assignments are
Laboratory made that are to be completed within one month. A pupil can choose the job he wishes to complete first.
Plan Helen The morning hours are spent in academic work; specialty subjects, such as art, music, and physical
Parkhurst education are taken up in the afternoon sessions.
The
Winnetka The plan permits the learner to follow his own rate of learning in each subject area. It is based on learner
Plan Carle readiness for continued study, as determined by a pre-test in each subject. The child continues his study
ton until he can pass the prescribed test for the learning material.
Washburne
The Project
This plan gives learners a chance to work together in the planning and execution of such projects as
Method
producer-consumer problems and drill projects. Learning is individualized according to the child's interest
William H.
and ability.
Kilpatrick
The
Activity In this plan attempts are made to introduce many activities into the curriculum. Children participate in the
Programme planning of their daily activities, in research and expressional activities, as well as in the planning of field
J.C. trips.
Morrison
The
Experience
This plan implies that the value of a child's experiences depends on the extent to which he is stimulated to
Curriculum
make them functional in his thinking and behaviour. Dewey believed that an experience included "an active
John Dewey
and a passive element peculiarly combined."
and
followers
The core curriculum is based on the assumption that some learning experiences on every school level are
of value to all learners. The core thus is organized around common areas to meet the learner's needs in his
Core personal adjustments and in his social relations. On the secondary level, a core class usually is organized to
Curriculum include lengthened class periods (two to four regular periods) and regular class periods for subjects not
included in the core. A core usually includes English and social studies, and sometimes art, music, and
science.
CURRICULUM ARTICULATION
Articulation Between School Levels
The specific problems associated with articulation between levels are discussed in later chapters; at this point we shall
consider some of the general problems. The kindergarten child needs to be oriented to the other children and to the
teacher as a mother-substitute. When he enters the elementary school, the child also requires much individual attention in
his orientation to a new environment.
Although the problems vary somewhat, the fact remains that each learner, when he enters a higher level of learning, has to
make certain adjustments. The responsibility for his welfare is that of school. Here the class teacher and the guidance
counsellor become persons of first importance.
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Curriculums can be planned in such a way that the problems of articulation can be lessened, but the teacher and the
guidance counsellor must be alert to meeting all pupil problems in order to ensure good articulation within the school. The
elective system in high school and college allows for gaps in learning.
These should not be permitted to occur. Counsellors can suggest the kind of programme that may prevent gaps. By
making certain that no important areas of the course of study are omitted, theachers provide all the learning experiences
that assist learners to achieve relatively complete mastery.
A primary concern of the counsellor is planning for learner adjustment. This concern extends to school levels both lower
and high than the one in which he currently is functioning. He must be alert to the curricular offerings of the feeder
school as well as of those schools to which his graduates are sent.
One of the greatest shortcoming of the present-day school is the high degree of departmentalization
(compartmentalization). Teachers and other school personnel constantly are seeking devices to make each subject more
functional and to integrate the teaching-learning activities of the various departments. The learner needs to cut across
areas of learning. He should be encouraged to bring to his class discussion in one subject area whatever knowledge or skill
he has achieved in other learning areas that may apply.
CURRICULUM EVALUATION
The evaluation of curricular offerings on any school level or in any learning area is a constant process requiring the
participation of all members of the school personnel. Periodic evaluations include the consideration of the (1) validity of
basic hypotheses, (2) effectiveness of the specific teacniques utilized for attaining curriculum-pointed goals, and (3) extent
to which the personal biases of the formulators may be evidenced in its patterning.
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or modification. Fundamental to whatever is done with and for curriculum adjustment are the following concepts:
4. Conclusions concerning the adequacy of a curriculum that are based on samples of what appear to be typical reactions
of learners usually are valid.
Through continuous evaluation and curriculum planning new procedures are developed and appraised and improvements
made as inadequacies are identified and eliminated. This dynamic process serves to
(3) point up the value of guidance for the individual learner, and
(4) provide educational information that will be meaningful to parents and other interested citizens.
2. Write a note on the importance of attempts to functionalise the curriculum as advocated by various educators.
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Rogers values man in a process of becoming—of achieving Worth and dignity through the development of potentialities,
of becoming so self-actualized that he reacts creatively to new changing challenges. The counsellor, accepting these
values,
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deals with the counselee as an unique individual and engages in a genuine relationship of caring. He accepts the individual
in his various moods and is so emphatic that he sees the world through the counselee's eyes.
Counselling, by whatever name it might be called, has as a major purpose the changing of one's view of himself, others
and the physical milieu. Counselling in some instances is perceived to be synonymous with psychotherapy, while to others
such a notion is anathema. To these latter counselling may be a matter of giving information or instruction. Much
vocational counselling falls into this category.
Super has taken cognizance of the many concepts of counselling and suggests the possibility of the emergence of a field
of applied individual psychology or consulting psychology. In this Super envisions the practitioners consulting with people
in a variety of situations as they deal with a variety of adjustment problems.
Counselling is perceived as a form of teaching; but, let it be clear that teaching is not synonymous with counselling. It is a
developmental process. Presumably in counselling, as is the case with a sportsman's guide and the hunter, the counsellor
knows more about the goals and conditions than does the counselee. This does not mean that he knows more about the
person being guided than does the person himself.
Therefore the counsellor must not be too sure of the next step. He must be willing to change his hypotheses and how to
interrupt, when to intervene, and in what ways to influence as the counselling sessions progress and provide better mutual
understanding. The counsellor, like the master teacher, is involved not just in a teaching situation but in a teaching-
learning process. The counsellor must be aware of the assumptions he is making in each situation at every moment. One
must be able to confront danger if he is to counsel.
Counselling deals with a variety of problems, a variety of teachiques, a variety of degrees of difficulty, and has a variety
of outcomes—including both failure and success.
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The physical and the mental health status of the person are important, for example. Anyone who possesses a healthy
physical constitution and who, consequently, does not suffer aches and pains or is not unduly concerned about the
possibility of contracting a disease usually is able to meet ordinary annoyances or disappointments with a reasonable
degree of adjustment. Similarly, a boy or girl or a man or woman who has developed an objective, relatively unbiased
attitude toward himself in his relation to others probably will be able to excercise self-control.
Home and school guidance, however, has not yet been successful in developing these desirable qualities in all individuals.
Even those who believe they possess a fair amount of emotional stability sometimes come to grips with that proverbial
"last straw."
The purpose to be served by counselling is directly related to the age, interests, and experiences of the counselee.
Moreover, one of the responsibilities of the counsellor in individual counselling situations is to help the individual
discover the fundamental causes of his problem. The difficulty may stem from his experiences in the home or the school,
on the job, or in his social relationships or recreational activities.
Home experiences. It is not unusual for a child occasionally to resent what he considers to be unjust treatment by his
parents, to be jealous of apparent privileges granted a brother or sister and denied him, or to be embarrassed by the fact
that his home compares unfavourably with that of his classmates. If the mother as well as the father is working and is thus
away from home, the child is likely to engage in unsupervised after-school activities that get him into trouble with the
parents of neighbourhood children and elicit consequent punishment from a work-weary mother when his misdemeanors
are reported to her. These are but a few of the many problem situations that
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are likely to arise in the home even when the father and mother try to be good parents.
The effect on a child or a young adolescent of real or fancied home difficulties may be such that it necessitates
individually-received assistance from a counsellor. In some instance, the situation lends itself to help that can be given by
a member of the school guidance staff. If inner resentments and conflicts become too serious, the situation may require
clinical or psychiatric attention.
During later adolescence and adulthood, matters dealing with plans for establishing a home of one's own become
extremely important. Choosing a mate, marrying, selecting and furnishing a home, budgeting the home finances, and
rearing children give rise to questions that may cause the young person considerable concern. The older adult also needs
help toward the solution of problems of marital adjustment and parent-child relationships.
School experiences. During his elementary-school years, the child usually can be helped to meet his problems of
adjustment in group situations through the efforts of an alert and guidance-minded teacher. It usually is best not to place
too much emphasis on the personal difficulties of the child by subjecting him to individual counselling situations that will
seem to set him apart from his schoolmates.
A child needs to experience a feeling of oneness with his group. Any procedure that causes his fellow classmates to feel
he is receiving more or different treatment from theirs may be more harmful than beneficial. However, there are instances
of inability to keep up with the class or of tendencies to engage in behaviour that is deviate from that of the group. Such
situations need individual attention.
Secondary-school pupils and college students may require individually received help in planning their courses or in
adjusting to them. An individual may have academic difficulties or his attendance record may be unsatisfactory.
Personality differences between a student and an instructor often cause difficulties. Ineffective study habits or too little
time for or lack of interest in home study will interfere with school success.
The questions often asked by young people about their school experiences indicate their concern over matters that may
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not seem important to the adult but that are extremely significant in the lives of high-school and college students.
Vocational and occupational adjustment. Many problems in this area can be taken care of by guidance in group situations.
There are times, however, when the pupil should receive specific information about his particular situation, or when the
solution of a problem is made difficult because of his attitudes or the behaviour of other people.
It is in situations like these that the individual should be able to avail himself of the services of a counsellor; who will
help him think through the problem and arrive at a reasonable conclusion. The specific questions raised by an individual
about vocational choice, preparation, and job satisfaction are extremely important to him.
One might think that an individual could find answers to many of his questions without outside assistance. Some persons
who are very objective in their attitude toward themselves and toward those whom they believe to be responsible for the
difficulty can do so.
Feelings of insecurity or of personal ineffectualness and expressed or implied criticism of one's course of action are likely
to arouse one emotionally to the point where clear thinking and unbiased judgment are almost impossible. In situations
like these, an individual feels the urge to talk over his problems with someone in whom he has confidence.
Social and leisure-time adjustment. Not all of an individual's waking hours are spent in meeting his home, school, or
business responsibilities. Everyone should take time off to play, preferably in the company of others who have interests
similar to his. Personal inadequancies, lack of opportunities, and pressures of duty can give rise to more or less serious
problems of adjustment.
A problem is intensified if the individual is unable or unwilling to recognise the fundamental cause of his difficulty. He
may place the blame on elements in the situation outside himself rather than recognise that the fault lies within him. Many
of the questions asked counsellors give evidence of this shift of responsibility for personal adjustment from one's own
shoulders to those of one's friends and acquintances.
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An adolescent seeks the opinion of a teacher about what to wear at a part or how to conduct himself at it, where he can
gain information concerning a project on which he is working, or what he should do in any one of many situations arising
in the course of the day or week. These are more or less casual in import. College students bring similar situations
involving decisions to those instructors in whom they have confidence.
Four basic assumptions must be accepted if counselling is to be successful. First, it is assumed that the student is willing
to participate in the process. He may have a concern, a wonderment about the world around him, or curiosity about what
he is experiencing. While the process may be unfamiliar to him and he may display resistance at moments, counselling
will not be successful unless he participates fully.
Second, the counsellor must posses appropriate training, experience, and personal attitudes to function effectively. He
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must be able to relate easily with the student, assist him in establishing objectives and goals, and employ any ethical
means that will assist the student to change or learn behaviours necessary to cope with his environment and work toward
the objectives they mutually have established.
Third, an appropriate environment is necessary. Depending upon the nature of the interview, this environment must
provide assurance of confidentiality, a mood of contemplation, and/or adequate information resources.
Finally, as the term is used in school settings, counselling must provide a relationship that allows for meeting both
immediate and long-term needs. The counsellor must be available at moments when the student needs him for specific
assistance.
Another objective toward which the counsellor works is assisting the student to examine the psychological dimensions of
what he is thinking and saying. The counsellor's approach in this regard is quite the opposite of that of a person engaged
in social conversation. In social situations we react to remarks of self-doubt or anxiety by attempting to "close down" the
display of emotion. We may interject mirth, change topics, give words of comfort, or suggest that things really couldn't be
as they seemed.
Counsellors do quite the opposite. Rather than "close down" the student, the counsellor will focus upon the central concern
of the student and help him to open up. When a test-anxious student suggests that he will fail, the conversationalist
reassures, "I can't imagine you failing. You've always done so well." The counsellor, however, probes, "You're certain
you'll fail. Why?"
The counsellor must be mindful of limits in time and his ability to assist the student. Assisting the student to open up
carries with it the obligation, on the part of the counsellor, to have the time and skill to follow through and terminate the
interview successfully.
During the course of practice, counsellors find themselves operating at various points along our dimensions. The nature of
the relationship of the student's awareness may determine, in part, the counsellor's behaviour. However, the counsellor's
basic philosophy concerning human development and the translation of this philosophy into a theoretical approach to
counselling also influences his behaviour.
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Examination of these dimensions is not made to determine which is appropriate and which is inappropriate; rather, they
are stated here to help the counsellor order his thinking and understand the meanings and purposes of the four continua.
1. Diagnostic-developmental. Our problem-solving nature sometimes causes us to attempt to 'diagnose' and 'prescribe' in
the best tradition of the family doctor. The counsellor's insight may prove immediately helpful to the student. He may be
able to make a specific observation that causes the student to view himself more clearly. More than one-shot problem
solving is involved in counselling, however. Concerns frequently are of a developmental nature. The student may wish to
explore subtleties of his environment and culture or learn how to relate effectively with peers. In these instances, he -will
learn more effectively through experiencing than being told.
2. Cognitive-affective. Both intellectual content and personal feeling are the substance of counselling, and a relationship
seldom develops in the absence of either. Again, it is the responsibility of the counsellor to assist the student in focusing
upon facts and descriptive content at one moment and their affective meaning to the student at another. The counsellor can
sometimes combine both in his response. He may say, "You see that you're not accepted, can understand why, but feel
pretty angry about it."
3. Observer-participant. The counsellor must, at all times, view himself as operating in two distinctly different ways. A
part of him must remain the detached, scientific observer who takes account of student behaviours, formulates thoughts as
to their implications, and subjects these thoughts to tests by questioning the student or observing whether or not behaviour
is consistent. However, the counsellor is fully involved in the relationship, must act and react, and cannot remain a stoic
observer if the relationship is to be marked by involvement and movement.
4. Ambiguity-structure. Stress has previously been placed upon the need for structure within the interview. That the
student may need some assistance in understanding the purpose of counselling and what is expected of him in general
terms is not argued. At the same time, he needs freedom to decide what he feels is important and how he wishes to
proceed. The counsellor, therefore, may vacillate from stimulating student responses through general, ambiguous leads.
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Many come to the counsellor, not with any great degree of hope, but with a willingness to pay for companionship. For
these and countless similar reasons, the core of counselling is an interpersonal relationship. The qulity of relationship is
what determines the effectiveness of the therapist, teacher, counsellor, social worker, and the parent.
It is Rogers' belief that the quality of the relationship is much more important than is one's knowledge of theoretical
issues, the availability and use of assessment data, the nature of his professional training, or the teachnique and orientation
of the counselling process to which he adheres. There are several aspects of this relationship which, because they are
susceptible to development, are worthy of attention.
Bearing in mind that the counsellor must help as well as to understand, it is important to distinguish between sympathy
and empathy. One can feel sympathy without comprehending the meaning of another's behaviour. Rogers suggests that
empathy is a matter of sensing the counselee's private world as if it were the counsellor's own world; but the "as if" must
be preserved.
Empathy means awareness of congruent feelings but the utility of empathy depends on the ability to keep the counsellor's
and the counselyee's feelings separated. When the counsellor experiences sympathy alone, he becomes part of a bundle of
conflicting emotions and is unable to lend his influence for structure and ongoing process.
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Empathy is an essential part of an effective interpersonal process because it gives access to the counselee's perceptions,
feelings, and behaviours. The concept is limited in the sense that we can never share completely the feelings, attitudes,
and actions of another—through it does seem that identical twins often come very close to it.
Empathy is expressed by the counsellor when he becomes emotionally involved in the counselee's dilemmas. While there
are those who warn the counsellor against such involvement, it can also be maintained that emotional investment is more
effective than is being aloof and objective in the counselling process. Becoming emotionally involved does not, however,
mean that one cannot judge his own action and course of it when necessary.
Empathy is particularly needed when dealing with young persons. Quite often they come to a counselling situation ready
to invest much of themselves. Unless counsellors block the communication young people will move readily to productive
interpersonal relationship. But the movement toward investment must be reciprocated, otherwise the counsellor falls into
the error of advice giving, preaching, and exhorting.
Rogers asserts that empathy is rarely received and rarely offered because one runs the risk of being changed in the
process. But the effort to be empathic is appreciated.
Counsellor-education programmes are increasingly coming to recognize that empathy can be enhanced by experience
when "sensitivity training" or "process sessions" are part of the programme. This is but another way of saying that the
counsellor's personality development should be a central focus of counsellor education.
The value of the counsellor's being congruent, real, genuine is such that it can be reiterated that counsellor preparation
programmes should place strong emphasis on the understanding of oneself. Counsellors should be involved in sensitivity
sessions, interpersonal dynamics, self-examination. It may be called a variety of names and should entail a variety of
approaches.
Involvement, as was suggested in the discussion of empathy, is perceived by many to be essential to an optimally
productive counselling process. Being subjectively involved tends to keep the counselee emotionally involved. It is a
matter of being keenly interested in helping another resolve some of his difficulties; it involves human warmth and
psychological closeness. Subjective involvement must, however, be balanced by professional objectivity.
Skill in listening is an essential aspect of the counsellor's effectiveness. It is a difficult skill to teach because
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(2) there has been no distinction made between hearing and listening, and because,
(3) one is in such haste to help another that he must speak his words of wisdom—to which the couselee will probably not
listen because of limitations quite similar to those listed.
Listening as a technique has two advantages in a counselling milieu. One is that we can become aware of—and formulate
hypotheses, if not draw conclusions from—changes in speech rate, accompanying breathing patterns, levels of intensity,
and varying choices of words. But the technique is much less important that is the process of counselling, in which the
matter of feeling becomes ascendent. Meanings flow from the 'feeling' which is aroused in the counsellor.
In addition to the mechanics of being objective one must also listen with his "inner ear" by his willingness to make a
subjective investment, to become personally involved. Listening might conceivably include giving attention to visible
signs such as clenched fists, finger twisting, facial mobility, posture and leg and arm movements.
These do not tell us anything precisely but they do give indications of the feelings being experienced by the counselee,
which is one of the things real listening will do—it makes us aware of the fact that there are feelings behind the words.
Because counselees, in common with all other persons, need to protect their private inner world, the words they speak are
often used to cover feelings rather than to reveal them.
Attentive listening, to the person and not just to the words, will be an approach to the understanding sought. The other
advantage is that listenting provides assurance to the counselee that he is not alone, that there is someone who will give
him time, and share feelings, without criticism or moralizing. Even the experienced counsellor will do well to recall those
numerous instances in which he did not give suggestions or hints but was only mentally exploring possible ways to help.
Nevertheless, at the end of the session the counselee would say, "This has helped me so much." Even if no plans were
formulated the ventilation was helpful, psychoanalysts use the word catharsis to indicate what has taken place.
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element of counselling—that of encouragement and support. This does not necessarily mean endorsing the things a person
does, though there are occasions when one persisting in the face of devastating odds deserves that endorsement. It also
implies an emotional acceptance of the counselee as a person with whom fellowship is established. It suggests that it is
understandable that one would react to situations as the counselee had been doing.
Persons who look for therapeutic counselling are quite frequently lacking in ego strength. Support is afforded by calling to
attention, in some way, a particular trait or behaviour of the individual which is commendable. We have found that
support can be expressed merely by allowing children and teenagers to be with us—taking them out for a hamburger,
letting them walk to the parking lot with us, or giving them some minor chore or errand to perform in the office.
Spontaneity is to be sought as a goal of counselling because the goal is to free the individual to become his own best self.
He must then get from behind his blinding masks. We are, however, not talking about discarding all one's defenses. The
concern is to help the individual appreciate his unique qualities and aptitudes—to see that he is unique and also that he
possesses much in common with others. Because spontaneity is sought in the counselee's behaviour it is advantageous for
the counsellor to be spontaneous—to be real. It has been noted from observations of numerous counselling sessions that
when the counsellor is trying to play a role he and his counselee are ill-at-ease and the session is not characterized by
flow.
When the counsellor decides to "play it by ear" the session may lack finesse (inasmuch as clues are missed, interruptions
occur and fruitless avenues of folklore are pursued) but the counselee is at ease. Because he is at ease it is easy to return
to those aspects of the session that require reexamination.
Spontaneity leads to consideration of the need for the counsellor to be himself as a basic aspect of counselling. It was
mentioned above that some persons, on introspection, find they like to counsel with athletes, honour students, poor
readers, potential dropouts, or those interested in art, music or some other special interest area.
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can be made to fit personal preferences to the advantage of both. 'Some' provision does not mean complete avoidance of
counselees not particularly liked. It is desirable that one's margin of comfort be extended by spending some time in the
area of discomfort. It is particularly in the area of discomfort that one becomes aware of feelings.
A dictionary definition of psychotherapy may be reassuring to those who doubt the wisdom of the counsellor's becoming
involved in difficult ases. Psychotherapy is the treatment of maladjustment by any psychological technique including faith
cure, hypnosis, or psychoanalysis. Therapy may also include activities in which counsellors routinely employ assurance,
advice, suggestion, and psychodrama.
The term carries no implication of the seriousness of the problem. It would seem, therefore, that Arbuckle's emphasis on
psychotherapy as a semantic problem is justified. It is the belief of the authors that when one undertakes to guide people
in their educational and vocational careers and choices he is influencing and intervening in behavioural, attitudinal, and
social aspects of the counselee's life and personality quite as much as if the counselling were quite frankly being called
psychotherapy.
The big difference between counselling and psychotherapy appears to be a matter of structure. It has been indicated that in
psychotherapy the approach is general and initially vague while in counselling, as typically viewed, the relationship
involves a specific problem. It is a simple matter to demonstrate that very frequently a specific problem of vocational
choice is an excuse the counselee uses to deal with a general problem of dislike of parents, distrust of teachers, and fear of
one's peers.
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It must also be admitted that aversion to psychotherapy on the part of the counsellor is an indication that he lacks the skill
and knowledge that will give him sufficient self-assurance to function in a situation lacking the comfort of discernable
structure. The final fact is that making a vocational choice often does call for an examination and evaluation of personal
problems.
Differentiating psychotherapy from school counselling is more easily done on paper or in academic discussion than it is in
an active counselee-counsellor relationship. Knowing when to refer is not the province of an outsider. The counsellor
must know his own strengths—and weaknesses. Experience in work with clinic teams and with psychiatric consultants
will improve the comfort of making the decisios but the difficult decisions will still persist.
We have previously stated that the counsellor's skills define his role. Those who are inadequately prepared must
necessarily seek comfort in those conceptualizations which limit the range of their counselling activities. Those who are
well prepared in theory and laboratory experience find it difficult to limit their work to an information-giving role similar
to that of a classroom teacher. Their perception of the bearing which the counselee's attitudes, prior conditionings, and
personal self-defeating behaviours have on all decision-making makes it difficult to avoid their assumption of
psychotherapeutic roles.
To the extent that one's skills or knowledges are small or limited he becomes the victim of people and circumstances. It is
sometimes difficult to see or believe that a few persons do not want to become free. It is apparently easier for them to live
with other person's making the decisions, with trodding the well-known path of routine schedules and being directed by
clear cut structure.
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It is less difficult to see, and believe, that such people are not free. Their homeostatic strivings have completely
overshadowed their heterostatic inclinations. For a small proportion of the population—for instance, the mentally
handicapped—such a trust in structure and prescription is an advantage and a comfort. For much greater numbers it
indicates that personal development has been arrested at the level of safety needs and the prospects of reaching the level
of self-actualization—of becoming the best "I" or "Me" possible—is a very remote possibility.
It is the purpose of individual counselling to try, by the approaches which seem appropriate for the counselee and the
counsellor, to help the person enlarge his vision, to make choices, to define goals that will enhance his freedom. What is
appropriate may in a specific case be developing a new skill, seeing a situation in a new light, or taking a new view of
himself as a person. For healthy children these developments probably are a natural concomitant of their burgeoning
strength and wisdom. For less healthy children such growth and appreciation of one's self is by no means automatic.
These are the ones who need the help of prolonged counselling.
It should be noted, however, that if the counsellor assumes the burden (responsibility) for indicating that new skill, for
revealing the new perception of a situation, or for presenting the new view of self, then the responsibility is wrongly
located. It is the individual who must assume responsibility. Counsellors do a disservice to individuals if they "dredge up
the past" for a counselee and create the impression that he is the unfortunate victim of foul circumstances.
Pierson points out that in much of counsellor education there is an issue regarding the nature of society—whether it is
deteministic or indicative of freedom. Most counsellor educators believe that although there are deterministic factors
(cultural demands, availability of jobs, racial discrimination, geographical location) the individual has choice. He has the
chance of controlling his future by the choices he makes of developing flexibility and versatility.
He has, for instance, the choice of permitting those factors which mitigate against vigorously pursuing his education to
rule him, or to decide how to use the advatanges he has
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(however few) to keep the gates of choice open. In short, acknowledging deterministic factors is not the same as
succumbing to a fatalistic philosophy.
The developing individual needs help in achieving the degree of freedom which might characterise his life; and he needs
help in maintaining it. The world is too complex to win the freedom by rebellion alone. But neither will freedom be won
by those who are led by the counsellor to dependent relationship. The counsellor must aim at the counselee's assumption
of responsibility and thus establish and/or maintain his thrust toward freedom.
The clinical approach is employed as a guidance teachniqe for those cases of emotional disturbance which are serious in
nature, in which many maladjustive factors both within and outside the individual appear to be operating. The study and
treatment of these cases may require a relatively long period of time.
Method of Approach
(2) gathering extensive data on the client and recording them in the form of a case history,
(6) following up the case for the purpose of determining the kind and extent of adjustment effected.
The client is referred to the psychiatrist or the clinic when it is believed by the person or institution making the referral
that his maladjustment is such as to require expert care. It is usually the responsibility then of a social worker to
accumulate relevant data on the immediate situation and background history.
The reliability of the materials included in the case history depends, as noted in Chapter 8 on the honesty of the reports
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on the part of parents, teachers or other persons who are interviewed concerning the client; the validity of the tests that
have been administered to the client; the degree of co-operation by the client, and the objectivity of the social worker who
is constructing the case history.
If the study is being made by a clinical staff, the psychiatrist, pediatrician or physician, psychologist, and social worker
hold staff meetings at which the findings are discussed. Expert interpretation and evaluation of available data is extremely
important. Usually it is found necessary to supplement data resulting from the administration of tests, scales, and
inventories with the utilization of evaluating techniques peculiarly suited to clinical purposes.
Appraisal Techniques
The techniques of appraisal include individually administered measurements of sensory acuity and muscular co-ordination,
mental capacity, learning achievement, and personal qualities. One of the most valuable techniques of evaluation for
clinical purposes is the projective method, mentioned earlier, through the utilization of which one may gain insight into
the individual's unconscious or fantasy life. The Rorschach method of ink-blot interpretation and thematic apperception
tests are widely used by clinicians. Another approach to the study of young children is that of play therapy, in which
children are supposed to give vent to their unconscious desires, animosities, and conflicts as they play with "doll families"
and other toys. In their behaviour with these objects they express their attitudes toward the adult or situation which appears
to be the cause of their difficulties.
Effecting Changes
Changing or removing maladjustive elements in the individual's environment, of course, is important. More significant,
however, are the desirable changes that can be effected in his own attitudes and patterns of behaviour. This purpose can
be served best through a series of therapeutic interviews conducted by skilled persons.
A 'case' should not be closed when the individual has been led to gain insight into his difficulties, as a result of which he
starts on an improved course of action. He needs help during
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his adjusting process, and he should continue to have the services of the clinical staff and any others who have
participated in the remedial procedures until his adjustment is satisfactory to himself and his counsellors. Unfortunately,
clinical treatment often ceases too soon, leaving an individual who is still mentally half-sick to continue unaided in his
struggle toward complete adjustment.
The interviewing phase of counselling for personal adjustment is an art; for it the interviewer must have certain specific
personality qualities, thorough training, and experience under expert guidance.
It is important that the interviewer possess those desirable personality qualities stressed in this book as requisite for
dealing with people in any guidance situation. No matter what the purpose of the interview may be, the teacher, the
school counsellor, the employer, or the staff member of a guidance clinic should give evidence of being an understanding
and personally well-adjusted human being. In adjustment interviews, especially, possessing these qualities is imperative.
According to practically all state requirements for school counsellor certification some teaching experience is needed. The
reason for this is easily understood. Before a person can undertake the responsibility of counselling an individual pupil
wisely, he needs the experience of working with individuals in classroom groups.
The counsellor's behaviour should be friendly but dignified. He must avoid a sentimental or a 'kidding' approach that is
supposed to set the counselee at ease. An individual seeking help from a counsellor needs to have sufficient confidence in
the latter's acceptance of him so that thoughts and feelings can be expressed freely, without fear of recrimination.
At the same time, the individual must respect the counsellor's judgment and be secure in the knowledge that whatever his
problem may be, its serious import to him will be recognized by the counsellor and will receive thoughtful consideration
as the two work together toward a satisfactory solution of it.
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For a counselling situation to be effective, good raport between the participants is necessary. This relationship can be
achieved as the counsellor helps to relive counselee tensions by a friendly smile or a casual comment in a lighter vein.
The display on the part of a counsellor of a kind of "hail-fellow-well-met" attitude is likely to repel rather than to win the
confidence of the individual seeking help.
Most counselling within a school setting is, in a sense, initial interviewing. School counselling is not marked by a long
series of weekly or biweekly interviews. The student visits the counsellor, for example, in November for one or two
interviews, and they may not have another conference until spring of the following year.
Although the counsellor follows the student's progress and may have several brief chats in the corridor or at an athletic
event, their next meeting starts the process all over again. Quite likely, the objectives established for the first interview or
interviews will bear no relationship to those established at a later date. The school counsellor, therefore, must be
particularly skilled at initial interviewing. Basic procedures are presented and commented upon.
1. Preparing for the interview and getting started. Counselling can hardly be expected to be effective unless both
counsellor and student are prepared for what is to take place. The counsellor may need to review background data
concerning the student or read notes made after the last meetings. He may know of some materials or information sources
that he could have readily available. The student, if he is aware of the purposes of counselling, should consider, how he
can best use the time available. As described earlier in the chapter, the counsellor uses his skill in communication to draw
upon what the student wants, what he is attempting to say, and what he considers of current primary importance.
2. Developing opening structure. The student needs to know who the counsellor is, what he is able to do, and what he
eypects of the student. This should be done briefly and simply. Experienced counsellors know how to communicate
quickly and effectively.
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3. Establishing the objectives. As a product of his training and experience, the counsellor will be aware of objectives be
can set for himself in counselling. These stem from his professional value system and the way he conceptualizes human
development. They are manifested in the ways that he can effectively behave and communicate with students.
During the opening minutes of the interview, the counsellor and student need to establish objectives or goals toward
which they can work in the time available. The objectives are not of a fixed nature and may be revised as the interview
develops. An objective must be attainable and realistic in order to be a goal worth pursuing.
The student who suggests, "I'd just like to be everyone," will need assistance from the counsellor in making the objective
realistic. "I wish I had two friends who cared" would be a goal toward which they might work. Counselling without
process objectives on the part of the counsellor and student objectives in terms that are meaningful to him is a futile
endeavour.
4. Building the relationship. As the interview progresses, the counsellor must continue to build upon the relationship that
has been established. His honesty, expression of interest, humanness, and perceptiveness will allow the student to realize
that the counsellor is fully committed to assisting him. At times, however, the novice counsellor needs to remember to let
a little of himself out. A warm smile, a touch on the hand, a nod of understanding, any act of caring that is shown will
help the student to invest a little more of himself and be more honest in his communication.
5. Helping the student to talk. The counsellor may perceive that the student is reluctant to discuss some concerns or some
aspects of concerns even though a sound, trusting relationship has been developed. When this occurs, the counsellor may
need to give particular assistance to get communication going.
The threatening nature of the concern probably prohibits approaching it frontally. The counsellor must therefore rely upon
spontaneity and sensitivity in (a) assisting the student to express his feelings, (b) understanding why the student is
experiencing difficulty, and (c) helping the student to recognise feelings of which he is unaware or has difficulty
accepting. The counsellor's own relaxed and reassuring manner will convey more than the words he uses.
6. Terminating the interview. The counsellor must use his skill in developing closing, as well as opening, structure. He
initiates this phase of the interview by pausing longer between responses, focusing more upon cognitive than affective
aspects of the student's concern, and not encouraging further exploration of subtleties or tension-producing areas. His
sensitivity assists him in determining when the focus might be changed to the summary and plans for subsequent
meetings.
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This may be initiated by his suggestion that "our time is all but up." The counsellor asks the student to summarize those
aspects of the interview that were most meaningful and assists him, as necessary, in reviewing the objective and whether
or not it was achieved. Plans for the future must then be made.
Will there be another interview? When? Where? Or should there be a referral? Should tests be taken? Information sources
tapped? When counsellor and student have reached an understanding concerning how they might handle matters such as
these, the counsellor stands up (an excellent way to prevent a reopening of concerns) and sees the client to the outer
office.
7. Planning the follow-up. After each interview the counsellor should make some brief notes as a check upon his own
faulty memory and in order to keep a running record of what has transpired through the series of interviews.
These can be reviewed briefly before the next formal contact with the student. Even though no immediate contact is
planned with the student, a note can be made to see the student briefly after a week or a month to learn whether the
established objectives have been reached and whether the counsellor can be of future assistance.
This informal, individual follow-up can be structured to give the counsellor some evidence of whether or not he was
effective. A more comprehensive, mass follow-up is conducted separately as a guidance service to study groups such as all
seniors, all recent graduates, or all students now in technical schools.
Regardless of the approach utilized in a particular counselling interview, there are certain general considerations to which
attention should be directed. The interviewer should try to
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put himself in the other person's place and listen to what he has to say without bias or prejudice. Suggestions made or
questions asked by the counsellor should be given in a friendly manner aimed at setting the counselee at ease and winning
his confidence.
Without seeming to hurry the interview, the interviewer should keep the conversation focused on the problem at hand,
avoiding consideration of extraneous matters. Finally the counselee should leave the interview with the feeling that he has
been helped by his counsellor and that he can return for further counselling.
A question often asked is whether or not the interviewer should take notes during the interview. For the purpose of
evaluating the interview or in preparation for an ensuring interview, on-the-spot notes are better than attempts at recall
after the interview. However, an emotionally disturbed individual may react unfavourably to seeing the counsellor job
down what is being said. The counsellor can make it a practice to allow the interviewee to see what he writes and to
explain its purpose.
Usually this procedure encourages co-operation on the part of the counselee. A code may be used for any point which
should not come to the individual's attention. Recording an interview has value either if the counselee is unaware that it is
being done or if he knows about it and approves. Otherwise, the presence of the recording equipment may inhibit free
expression on the part of the counselee.
The success of an interview depends on whether or not the counselee (1) believes that he has been helped, (2) is willing
to return for another interview, and (3) exhibits an improved ability to meet and solve similar problems in the future.
Whether the interviewer plays a relatively active or passive role, he can benefit from practicing the following "Do's" and
"Don't's" that are included in a handbook for the teachers, counsellors, and principals of the Canton, Ohio, Public Schools.
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2. Write a note on the importance of counselling relationship between the counsellor and the counselee.
3. Discuss the need of clinical approach as a guidance technique in the case of emotional disturbance.
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'Group' as a concept is used extensively within the school programme to create and maintain the learning climate. It is
unfortunate that group dynamics is not made a substantial section in ihe study of educational psychology and in methods
of teaching.
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The power of a group lies in the behaviour of its individual members. An individual becomes a member of a group as a
matter of his own choosing, or assent. A person chooses a group because he agrees with the values it supports and the
purposes it purports to achieve. Groups are natural phenomena in our culture. The dynamics of any group may be
described if one has access to individual members and/or if one can observe the process of the groups. The process of the
group is the interaction pattern, or who talks to whom under what conditions. The dynamics of a group may be described
by labelling the roles within the group. Leadership development for management of task-oriented groups use labelled
roles.
FUNCTIONS
1. Groups to be Served
Guidance in group situations usually is thought of as referring to those guidance services that are made available by
school personnel to large or smaller groups of pupils. Yet, though the welfare of every member of a school's pupil
population is the major concern of its guidance personnel, it must be remembered that successful functioning of a
programme of services involves the guidance of parents and of members of the school staff, as well as of the young
people themselves.
The achievement of self-understanding and understanding of others is the ultimate objective of all guidance-pointed
activities. Those persons who are the recipients of help from others in managing their affairs certainly need to gain these
understandings. Unless parents, teachers, and counsellors also possess the same understanding attitudes, it is difficult for
them to provide effective assistance. In this chapter, we shall consider the purposes and operation of programmes intended
to offer guidance services to the various kinds of groups.
2. Group Leadership
To be a stimulating and effective group leader a person must (1) have creative imagination, (2) be willing to devote time
and thought to the activity, and (3) possess the ability to encourage leadership from among the members of the group.
Whatever is attempted in the way of guidance through group
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activity should focus on the vital interests of the participants. This is a fundamental principle that should be adhered to
strictly. Whether the group consists of school pupils, teachers, parents, other community members, or a business or
industrial group, its guidance objectives probably will include one or more of the following:
(3) gaining of an understanding of the group's general attitudes and points of view, or
Leadership in a group situation can be more direct if the purpose to be served is that of giving information. Of course,
individual interests and needs still are of primary importance. Those who are supposed to benefit from the information
which they receive must recognise the value of the information to themselves.
Assuming that the members of the group are interested in the topic under consideration, the leader engages in direct
instruction. In order to hold interest, the material should be well organised and the presentation of the topic stimulating
and couched in language suited to the comprehension abilities of the listeners. Usually the lecture is followed by a
discussion period in which some or all of the group can participate.
Direct guidance in group situations aimed at providing desired information may be given by qualified teachers, members
of the guidance staff, or representatives from community agencies, such as business and industrial leaders, government
officials, or leaders in art, music, literature, and other fields of general education. Guest speakers should be persons who
not only know their field but also possess audience-awareness, so that they can adapt their presentation to the educational
status and interests of the group.
A more indirect leadership approach is needed when the topic under consideration deals with the personal interests,
attitudes, or problems of the group. This form of leadership often is difficult to achieve. For the most part, the discussion
consists of a give-and-take among the members of the group. Not only young people but also many supposedly mature
adults
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show behaviour and attitude contradictions. They want to believe that they are managing their own affairs. At the same
time they need to gain security through the displayed interest in them and the guidance of experienced leaders. To be
really effective, however, guidance of group activities must always be tactful and unobtrusive.
A successful group leader listens with courtesy and interest to the comments of any member of the group, aids in the
clarification of ideas, brings about harmony in group thinking and planning, and encourages the less vocal members to
express their ideas. It also is the responsibility of a group leader to initiate and guide the organization of a group activity
according to individually expressed interest. It may be necessary for him to summarize ideas expressed by others, but his
remarks are brief and to the point. Perhaps, most important is the leader's ability to accept objectively any expressed
disagreement with own ideas, suggestions, or points of view.
Programmes of guidance in group situations that are related to the specific functions of the guidance services of an
institution should be planned and sponsored by the members of the guidance staff. Although counselling represents a
personal relationship between the counsellor and the counselee, time can be saved, and perhaps better results achieved, if
the counselling is conducted with small groups of individuals whose problems or questions are similar.
The question of one member of the group may stimulate the thinking of another, or the shy and retiring person may be
motivated by the group situation to ask questions or to seek help more easily than he would in a face-to-face conference
with a counsellor.
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of guidance services; still others arise from current needs. At this point, we shall consider the purposes of guidance in the
kinds of group situations that can be organized, their respective functions, and their expected outcomes.
Purposes to be Served
The objectives of guidance in groups vary with school level, pupil needs and interests, administrative philosophy, and
available school personnel qualified to lead group activities. In those institutions which provide group programmes,
children, young people, and adults can receive the following benefits through participation in them:
1. Information that will assist them in adjusting to their various areas of experience, including:
(a) initiative,
A young adolescent, sometimes a child, or an older adolescent, is prone to believe that he is experiencing problem
situations and conditions that are peculiar to himself. Often his parents do not understand him; he is the prey of
conflicting urges or interests; his teachers expect him to obey certain class or school rules which to him seem foolish; he
is bothered by physical and physiological changes which he does not recognise as symptomatic of the growing-up process;
he has difficulty in peer-age group relationships.
Too often the young person keeps his worries and anxieties
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to himself. He gradually builds up resentments or feelings of insecurity that may continue to be unnoticed by adults unless
his difficulties are recognized by an insightful parent, teacher, or counsellor.
When young people, in appropriately organised groups, are given the opportunity to discuss their respective interests,
ambitions, attitudes, or emotional reactions, they come to realise that many of their supposedly personal 'troubles' are
experienced by all or most of their age peers. A wise group leader, who has earned the confidence of the group, then can
motivate a boy or girl having a special problem of adjustment to seek individual counselling.
In the broader connotation of the term guidance, every group teaching-learning situation possesses guidance implications.
Schools vary in the number of guidance-pointed group situations and activities provided and in the efficacy of the ones
that are included in the programme of guidance. The more prevalent types are:
3. Guidance courses
Some of the general functions and organizational patterns of these media of guidance are considered here briefly.
The school assembly is a form of group participation common to all educational levels. The weekly schedule is so
arranged that one or more opportunities are afforded for bringing together in an auditorium or large assembly room all or
as many of the student body as the room can seat. In some smaller elementary schools, all of the pupils are brought
together daily for the opening excercises. In larger elementary schools and in most junior and senior high schools, the
regular assembly is held
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weekly or biweekly. Some of the larger colleges and universities have dispensed with the assembly except when particular
groups within the institution are brought together from time to time for a special purpose, such as listening to a noted
speaker or presenting a group project.
Nonschool institutions recognize the value of assembling their personnel for the purpose of encouraging an attitude of
oneness among them and of bringing to the attention of the group certain matters of interest to them. Many business
houses, industrial plants, professional groups, and social and civic organizations have regular mettings which are attended
either voluntarily or under requirement by all who are associated with the institution or the group.
At such meetings, instruction is given, operational plans are discussed, or management and worker problems are
considered. The assembly on any level or of any group is extremely worthwhile if the programme is related to the
interests of the participants and is well organized and well presented.
Various values have been attached to the school assembly. It affords opportunities to:
2. Integrate and broaden classroom learnings through various media; guest speakers, motion pictures or television
showings, and educational programmes prepared and presented by pupils and teachers.
5. Acquaint pupils with voting-procedures as applied to the selection of school government officers.
6. Give recognition to individuals and groups for good academic achievement and other phases of school performance.
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Much has been written concerning the benefits to pupils of participation in home-room activities. During the home-room
period, certain administrative details must be taken care of. These include recording attendance, making reports, and
reading notices. Such activities are time-consuming, since they may give rise to pupils questions and discussions. No
matter how efficient a home-room sponsor may be, he often finds the period slipping away before little if any of a planned
programme has been reached. In addition, the home room should be what its name implies, a home situation in which
individual pupils can settle many of their school or personal problems with teacher assistance.
Pupils want to discuss their common problems and interests. They also are interested in organizing home-room activities
in their own way. Young people enjoy participating in projects dealing with school or community welfare, such as school
government, filling Christmas stockings for poor children, planning clean-up and safety campaigns, and other worthwhile
activities.
The home-room period can be a valuable medium for guidance if administrative details are handled expeditiously and if
programmes are geared to pupil interest. During the daily ten-or-fifteen-minute period, little can be accomplished except
routine matters. Hence one period each week should be lengthened to forty-five or fifty minutes.
What is done during the long home-room period and how it is done are important. In some school it is a 'silent' period
during which teacher and pupils are supposed to prepare themselves for the day's teaching and learning activities. It may
be a 'gossip' period in which pupils discuss their personal affairs with one another while the teacher attempts to prepare
class assignments or make out reports. The time may be devoted to informal teacher-led discussions concerning matters of
immediate interest to the pupils.
3. Guidance Courses
The home-room period then can remain a time during which the class engages in informal but teacher-led activities of
immediate interest to the group. The scheduled guidance period
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is not a regular recitation period; no marks are assigned for performance. Although the content of the course usually is
'structured' so that the topics for discussion fit into a sequential framework.
As an individual progresses through succeeding school levels, he needs to learn the "know-how" of adjusting to the
various areas of his present and future life experiences. At least a part of this learning process takes place in his regular
study programme. Factors closely associated with one or another particular area of adjustment probably can be dealt with
more adequately in special group situations or guidance classes. The areas most commonly included in such courses stress
educational and vocational opportunities and human relationship or mental hygiene.
Young people like to participate in activities with similarly minded schoolmates in which they can give expression to their
interests and display initiative and self-direction. Although they often appear to be extremely self-centered, they also
welcome opportunities to do things for other people. Interest and activity clubs are excellent media for the satisfaction of
these youthful urges.
Clubs may either be an outgrowth of regular classroom work or stem from personal interests and school or community
relationships. For the purposes of our discussion, they are included in these out-of-class activities.
Both educators and young people differ in their attitudes toward school club activities. Some principals believe so
thoroughly in the value of pupil participation in out-of-class group activity that they set aside one period of the regular
school day for club activities. Every pupil is required to join a club. Thus, those pupils who are barred by home duties
from participation in after-school activities are afforded an opportunity to be in a club.
This policy usually is not desirable, however. As soon as club activity becomes a must, some pupils rebel; club activity is
regarded as another school chore; spontaneous enthusiasm is absent. Many teachers also object to this procedure, since it
means that every teacher is expected to be a club leader, whether
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The point of view of some educators is that all cocurricular clubs should be included among curricular offerings. The
advocates of this policy stress the idea that recitation-class sessions then would be conducted in the same informal manner
that characterizes club activities. This would seem to be almost impossible in some areas of studies, especially on the
secondary level. The teacher's approach is restricted according to the demands of a course of study. Class activity is work,
even though it should be a pleasant experience; club activity, no matter how great its educational value and how seriously
the club members participate in the completion of projects, still is regarded by them as interesting 'play' or recreation.
Organising and carrying out a programme of pupil-teacher school government and management offer excellent
opportunities for guidance in democratic living. Such programmes can be found on all school levels. As young people
grow in maturity and the power of decision-making, they may be permitted to assume added responsibility for the
management of school affairs. However, they should not have complete control. Since members of the faculty are as
much a part of the school community as the pupils, the former should have a voice in matters which concern the welfare
of the entire school.
Moreover, young people are not all-wise. In their efforts to improve school conditions, they may propose the introduction
of facilities or procedures that would violate school regulations or that are impossible to carry out. The administrative
head of the school is responsible for whatever is done in the school; hence he has the veto power over activities of the
student council. In schools where teacher members of the school government council exercise tactful and indirect
guidance over pupil enthusiasms, the principal rarely needs to exercise his veto power.
For every member of school's pupil population to participate actively in school government would constitute an ideal
situation. Counsellors sometimes find it difficult to motivate even a few young people to assume responsibility for helping
initiate and carry on certain pupil benefits resulting from student
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government action. Yet all pupils want to avail themselves of privileges achieved. In many instances, non-participating
individuals are reflecting the citizenship attitudes displayed by the adult members of the family. The worthwhile outcomes
of participation in student-school government include:
In addition to guidance rendered through general school-sponsored group activities, counsellors and teacher-counsellors
often are called on to lead small-group projects or confer with small groups of pupils concerning immediate problem
situation involving the interests or welfare of the group.
Such group-guidance conferences usually represent emergency needs, require little preparatory planning by the counsellor,
and need no more than a few sessions to accomplish their purpose.
The holding of small-group conferences sometimes is requested by a member of the guidance staff. More often, they are
initiated by the pupils themselves. Among project conferences can be included preparation of a topical outline for group
classes or home-room guidance periods; volunteer service to a neighbouring hospital or other community agency; plans
for an assembly programme; organization of pupil-tutoring groups, and many other similar service projects.
Small groups of pupils having similar educational or vocational interest, or school-life problems may wish to meet with a
staff member to receive information about opportunities for specialised education, specific business or industrial openings,
learning difficulties in a particular field of study, teacher-pupil relationships in a particular situation, pupil-pupil
relationships, or any other area of interest or difficulty common to the group.
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guidance of one kind or another, he arranges for conferences with them as a group. The degree of success attained in any
small-group conference depends on the pupils' recognition of the counsellor's sincerity, co-operative attitude, and ability to
be helpful.
In many school systems, beginning teachers and teachers newly appointed to a school meet as a group with the principal
or an assistant for orientation purposes. They are briefed on the school's policies, organizational plan, composition of the
pupil population, school standards, curricular offerings, and pertinent aspects of shool and class management. One or more
such group sessions may be needed. A 'new' teacher may be paired with an experienced member of the faculty for
individual briefing.
Counsellors, whether beginning or experienced, need to know what their duties and responsibilities will be in the school
to which they have been newly appointed. Orientation or induction sometimes is undertaken by the administrative head of
the school. More often it is achieved through group meetings of administrators, supervisors, older members of the
guidance staff, and selected teachers.
Guidance Associations
The annual conference of the American Personnel and Guidance Association and its affiliates offers an excellent
opportunity for guidance workers throughout the country to meet in large and smaller groups where they can become
acquainted with one another and exchange ideas about the various guidance functions, approaches, and techniques.
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been organised by guidance workers to serve as media for the improvement and growth of guidance services. Respective
groups are concerned with one or another phase of guidance activity, such as vocational, mental hygiene, human
engineering, or research. Associations of elementary-school counsellors, secondary-school counsellors, college guidance
personnel, and counsellor-trainers also are promoting appropriate projects in the field.
At present, there are so many organized groups of guidance workers that a worker in the field needs to be selective in his
group membership. The larger organizations and even some of the smaller groups publish reports of their meetings,
including papers presented at them. Even though a counsellor finds it possible to serve actively only in one or a few such
groups, he can profit from reading accounts of the proceedings of all groups.
The attitudes and skills which a counsellor finds effective with individuals closely parallel those desirable for group
counselling as well. Ethical behaviour, flexibility, intellectual competence, acceptance, understanding, and sensitivity are
among the basic attitudes and skills of the group counsellor. Each was described in some detail in the previous chapter.
As is the case in working with individuals, the counsellor is concerned with helping. His function differs from that of
other group members in that he neither seeks nor expects the group's assistance in facing his primary concerns. He gives
his full attention to whoever is talking, attempts to assist him in working toward his objective, and generally serves as a
model for group members to follow in terms of attentiveness, understanding, and assistance.
Individual counselling, although the best single background experience, may cause problems for the counsellor who
attempts to apply this experience directly in the group situation. Communication within a group is far more complex.
Experience in counselling individuals may well have taught him to be aware of the student's every verbal and nonverbal
act. Those who choose to continue the intensive one-to-one interaction learned from the previous counselling experience
are forced to treat the group as a succession of individuals.
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His intensive personal interaction wiht a single member deprives the counsellor of the opportunity to be sensitive to the
needs of others, and their participation cannot be properly encouraged. Other than its observational value for group
members, the counsellor is essentially conducting a series of individual interviews. Group counselling is built upon the
assumption that members are assisted by helping others as well as being helped by them. The counsellor, therefore, must
facilitate student-student communication as well as counsellor-student interaction.
This is done through what is termed the linking function of the counsellor. As members talk, the comments of the second
speaker may have relevance to those of the first that are not readily apparent. Unless the counsellor is able to link these
comments by emphasizing their common purpose, the contributions of the various members will lack cohesiveness.
Linking, further, helps the individual to feel a common bond with other group members. As each member, in turn,
attempts to link his comment to what has previously been said he feels more inclined to assist his fellow member. The
experienced counsellor, then, is able to enlist the efforts of group members so that the individual receives help from many
members as well as the counsellor.
Counselling, individual or group, can be effective only when an objective or terminal behaviour has been identified and is
understood by both counsellor and student. Group counselling further implies the involvement of other group members in
assisting the individual. Procedures that follow are those which the counsellor must understand thoroughly and be able to
implement before he involves students in group counselling.
Group counsellors frequently organise a group and then expect members to find group and individual purpose while
participating. The wide range of interests and purposes that an individual may express diminishes the likelihood that
sufficient time can be concentrated upon a given objective to ensure its attainment.
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No doubt should exist about the purpose of group counselling. The counsellor may need to meet with potential members
individually and determine the purpose of each in joining the group. This often requires specific probing as to whether the
objective is fully understood by the student, whether it is attainable, and which conditions or activities are deemed
necessary if the objective is to be attained. The counsellor can then assign the individual to a group when objective
attainment seems possible.
2. Organizational Decisions
The counsellor needs to consider the optimal size, physical site, and length and frequency of meeting for each group with
which he works. Too often the counsellor applies the same alternative to all groups.
Ample conjecture and some research indicates that a group of five or six is optimal for counselling purposes. As group
size increases, the leader tends to become more dominant and addresses himself to group rather than individual needs,
members become more dependent and talk less, and feelings of frustration, threat, and inhibition concerning participation
increase. There may well be cases, however, where a larger number would actually be advantageous to the group. For
example, a number of individuals might be meeting with a counsellor because each has expressed a desire to participate
more effectively in classroom discussions. A group size of ten or fifteen might prove more effective in this instance than a
group of five because the larger group more nearly approximates the classroom situation.
Students who have difficulty in addressing strangers might better hold some sessions in a school cafeteria, activity room,
or even the main lobby or corridor. Confidentiality may not be possible, but increased opportunities for trying out
behaviours and receiving immediate reinforcement counterbalance this factor
The counsellor may vary the length and frequency of sessions, also, in order to enhance goal-directed behaviour. During
the early stages of a group, he frequently finds that two or three meetings each week are beneficial. As more intensive
attempts are made by the individual to reach his objective outside the group setting, formal group meetings may be
reduced to once weekly.
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Length of sessions may also be reduced as the group continues. Some groups have sessions as long as four, eight, or
twenty-four hours soon after they are established. As communication channels are cleared and interaction becomes more
open, sessions may be shortened to ninety minutes or less. The counsellor should attempt to have flexible time limits
available to him in light of these considerations.
Two potential sources of group members exist for the counsellor. First, he might make the opportunity for joining a group
available to students with whom he or his fellow counsellors are working individually. Second, he could make
announcement of the opportunity to students more generally. As an example, he may be working with two students who
are unable to communicate effectively with members of the opposite sex and might benefit from working on this objective
with a group.
He could obtain the names of other students who had this concern from fellow counsellors or through public
announcement. Students would meet individually with the counsellor and be encouraged to enter the group only if this
seemed to be a primary concern and if they seemed motivated to work toward effective communication with the opposite
sex.
The counsellor may, on the other hand, consider it advantageous to have a group composed of people with different
primary concerns. A girl who has trouble conversing with boys might well gain more insight from an effective
communicator than from another like herself.
The critical issue for the counsellor is in determining the group composition that will maximally benefit each member.
The complexity and unpredictability of human behaviour may force him to rely more on hunch than scientific observation.
His knowledge of people from previous counselling contacts may guide him.
4. Getting Started
The counsellor can get the group started by giving a brief but clear description of his role and clarifying the role of
members. Some counsellors place primary emphasis upon counsellor-student communication and discourage extensive
contributions
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from members. Students should be aware of the counsellor's perference and reasons for his choice of primary
communication pattern.
Each member has already discussed with the counsellor his objective in joining the group. He needs to share this purpose
with other members of the group and also inform them of what he expects of them or how he feels they might be most
helpful. The counsellor may supplement these individual statements by suggesting how those with similar or dissimilar
problems may be of maximum assistance to each other.
Care must be exercised that the time and place of subsequent meetings is agreeable to members' schedules. Cautionary
words must also be given concerning the importance of confidentiality and the opportunity provided for setting any other
rules or procedures that seem appropriate.
As is the case in individual counselling, the counsellor must be able to assist the group in starting to talk. Attention to
natural difficulty in getting started may release tension a bit. To state, bluntly, "Where shall we get started?" may be
threatening and cause members to be needlessly uneasy. From prior contact he may be able to identify a member who has
little difficulty in communicating and encourage this student to begin. The use of open-ended leads rather than specific
questions will assist the individual as he begins to speak. Concurrently, the counsellor must be sensitive to other members
and encourage them to participate.
As the group develops, the temptation is great for a member to wander from his original purpose and confuse his own
objective with that of another. This is somewhat akin to "intern's disease." As we hear of another's specific symptoms and
concentrate upon the manifestations, we begin to believe that the problems are ours, not theirs. The counsellor may have
to be rather direct in reminding a member of his objective.
The counsellor's transparent honesty and sincere interest will allow the student to realise that the counsellor is fully
committed to assisting him. The counsellor, through the linking function, must assist other members to participate
effectively also. The pooling of insights and mutual encouragement will
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help members to attempt new behaviours outside the group as they gain more confidence In some instances a member rnay
be accompanied by another in order that he might have immediate reinforcement for attempts at changed behaviour. Other
circumstances may suggest that this is unwise or that the member is able to act more independently.
The rate of development varies greatly among group members. Some will attain one objective, then identify and attain
another before others have made much progress. Inevitably, some will have exhausted the group's potential, and the
counsellor must concern himself with terminal alternatives for the group and probably will wish to involve the members in
discussion of the alternatives prior to reaching a decision.
A primary decision concerns whether members will leave the group singly or whether all will stay until the entire group is
terminated. To ask members to remain after their purposes have been served may seem to be an imposition. These
members, however, have a commitment to assist their peers and frequently will be among the more active contributors. If
they are allowed to leave some of the most beneficial helping relationships may be eliminated and the effectiveness of
group counselling may be reduced.
When members are allowed to leave a continuing group, a second decision must be made. Would it be to each member's
advantage to allow newcomers to enter the group? The addition of new members may cause problems of communication,
mutual trust, and reduced group effectiveness. On the other hand, the new recruits should benefit from working with those
who have experienced group counselling previously, and they may provide forms of assistance to veteran members that
were unavailable from those who left the group.
The counsellor's experience and assessment of needs of remaining group members will guide him as he faces these
decisions. The group should be reconstituted only if it can continue for sufficient time to assist members, new and old to
attain the objectives they are identified.
7. Evaluating Outcomes
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be measured by observing how successful the student is in attaining the objective outside of counselling that he
established at its outset. Observations of a counselling group at work or members' ratings of their peers are not indicative
of effectiveness.
Assessment is not a particularly difficult task if the objective has been stated in terms that are measurable. This explains
the need for counsellor assistance in developing a specific objective prior to entering the group. "I hope to generally get
along better with people" represents an objective that could only be measured by inference. No direct way exists of
measuring attainment.
An objective that states the conditions for attainment might be: "I am shy and awkward with strangers. My objective is to
be able to carry on a five-minute talk with a stranger in the student union in which I introduce myself, reveal my thought
on at least two current issues, and recall the stranger's name after he leaves." A simpler, yet equally measurable objective
might be identified by a person whose nervousness in tense situations causes him to stutter. If, as the result of group
counselling, he could deliver a two-minute speech to a class without stuttering, counselling would have been effective.
Evaluation conducted in this manner allows the group member to know immediately and specifically whether group
participation has been effective. He may identify new objectives or continue present efforts based upon the outcome. His
efforts and those of the group are not consumed in repeating ineffective procedures. Those that are helpful are continued.
Those that are ineffective or inefficient are replaced.
GUIDANCE OF PARENTS IN GROUPS
During his early childhood, the child is at the mercy of whatever parents can and will do in the way of guiding his
attitudes and behaviour. Throughout the developing years, an individual is influenced greatly by his experiences in the
home. Social and occupational activities are closely tied to parental interests and activities. Educational progress depends
to a great extent on the co-operative endeavours of parents and school personnel. The school, the community, and the
home are tending to work together more closely for the welfare of the child and adolescent than they did in former years.
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Parent-Teacher Associations
In the United states there now exist two national organisations for parents: The United Parents' Association and the Parent-
Teacher Association. The objectives of the two organisations are similar —sharing with the schools the responsibility of
educating children and youth to become wholesome, productive citizens. As their titles imply, the membership of the first
group consists of parents only; the second includes interested teachers as well as parents.
Each school chapter holds monthly meetings for the purpose of considering, as a group, the ways in which the
organisation can be of service to the school. It is becoming customary to invite guest speakers to some of these meetings
with whom the attending group members discuss particular aspects of child-rearing and guidance.
On occasion, the principal, a member of the guidance staff, or another qualified person is asked to attend a meeting in
order to clarify school policy and procedures, such as curricular offerings, instructional techniques, promotions and class
placement, available guidance services, and similar matters of concern to parents.
In addition to these monthly meetings, small committees serve in specific areas. These functional meetings often are led
by a member of the school guidance staff. Such sessions offer excellent opportunities for informally administered
guidance of parents.
Grade-Parent Groups
Although most good parents are interested in the welfare of young people of any age, their chief concern is with their own
children and the latter's peer-age group associates. Consequently, the organisation of parents according to child grade
groupings is encouraged. Many parents of children in nursery schools and kindergartens meet once a week in a group
session to discuss with the teacher the attitudes, behaviour, and needs of their individual children. These meetings are
especially valuable if the parents can observe their children in action during regular class periods.
Child-Study Groups
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parents meets once a week, usually between one and three o'clock in the afternoon. During a period of from four to six
weeks, the group is led by a counsellor in the study of an aspect of child development and adjustment chosen by the
parents.
Difficulties Encountered
The various approaches to parent guidance in group situations have great potential value. Counsellors often find that when
they are dealing with a young person's problem, it is the parent, not the child who needs guidance. When parents avail
themselves of opportunities to improve their own attitudes and behaviour in relation to their child, many of the latter's
maladjustive experiences can be avoided.
School counsellors sometimes are faced with a difficult situation. Often a mother devotes considerable time and energy to
co-operating with the school in every way possible in order to become a better parent. Her intent is to learn how to utilize
preventive measures as the helps guide her child's activites.
This type of parent takes her responsibilites so seriously that, without meaning to, she intimidates the child. Hence it
becomes the counsellor's task, in group sessions or in individual conferences, to try to teach the parent the difference
between sympathetic guidance and too-strict discipline.
Most discouraging to the counsellor is the attitude displayed by a father or mother who evinces no interest or concern
about the child's school progress. It may be admitted that the young person is unmanageable but it is claimed that nothing
can be done about it in the home. It becomes the school's responsibility to discipline him or in other ways change
antisocial or harmful personality habits. These parents accept no guidance from counsellors, refuse to participate in parent
group activities, and seldom respond to requests from the school to confer with the child's counsellor.
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appropriate books, motion pictures and film strips, radio and television programmes, and tours or visits. Added to these
can be "try-out" experiences for young people, especially on the junior-high-school level.
Reading Materials
Much reading material for use with young people has been published. National Forum, Inc., has prepared a series of books
and eyecatching charts for guidance classes, grades seven through twelve. Many pamphlets or handbooks, some for young
people and others for teachers and counsellors can be obtained from Science Research Associates, Inc. Individual books
and pamphlets as well as journals and magazines are available for use by young people, teachers, and counsellors, or
parents.
They deal with areas of group or individual study, such as child study, human development and adjustment, ways of
implementing guidance services, parent-child relationships, and similar topics.
School people are beginning to recognise the value of utilizing appropriate reading matter in connection with group-
guidance projects. Some schools prepare their own pamphlets. Student handbooks are common in educational institutions
from junior high school through college. They also can be found in a few elementary schools. These handbooks include
information of value to both the young people themselves and their parents.
A series of leaflets dealing with elementary-school counselling contains pen-illustrated, tersely stated information about
the guidance services in the elementary schools of Tacoma, Washington. Some of the titles are: "Ways to Use the
Elementary School Counsellor," "The Teacher as Counsellor," "Teachers and Counsellor Work Together," and "How
Counsellors Work with Parents."
Audio-visual Aids
Motion picture films depicting life situations offer excellent approaches to guidance in group situations for pupils and
parents. Also available for group sessions of teachers, teacher-counsellors, and counsellors are films in which ways of
using guidance-pointed techniques in and out of the classroom are presented. In the utilization of motion picture films or
film
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strips it is important that the members of the group be prepared for their showing and the subsequent discussion.
The leader of the group (1) selects an appropriate film and previews it, (2) makes certain that the running of the film goes
smoothly and that the time consumed in its showing does not prevent immediate discussion of it, (3) alerts the group to
the purpose of showing and suggests points to be considered during the showing, (4) after the showing, asks a few
pertinent questions about what has been viewed, and (5) then encourages free discussion. Unless the group is properly
prepared for the viewing of a film, some individuals may concentrate on unimportant details and miss the film's purpose.
This situation is likely to occur especially in film-viewing by children.
More and more states and cities are sponsoring local radio and television programmes presented during the school day for
educational purposes. Various pertinent programmes are so scheduled that they can be utilized during assembly periods or
in the classroom. Radio broadcasts also are transmitted by the school's public address system to several classrooms at the
same time.
Some of these programs and recordings have guidance value. Like appropriate films, they can be used to pinpoint
discussions in guidance class sessions. Similar programs presented on commercially sponsored radio and television
networks can be recommended for viewing by parents as a basis for child-study group meetings. The suggestions offered
for showing motion picture films should be followed here as well.
Visits by young people or parents to community agencies, such as health centers, local institutions of higher learning, or
business houses and industrial plants, serve as aids to programmes of guidance in group situations. The leader of the group
or a member of the agency visited conducts a discussion on the agency's offerings.
Try-out courses, especially on the secondary-school level, give young people an opportunity to observe, participate in, and
discuss in group sessions various occupational fields. In some junior high schools, interested pupils may engage in several
of these group-guidance experiences during the course of a
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(1) to recommend to groups of pupils the kinds of courses for which they seem to be fitted by inter groups of pupils the
kinds of courses for which they seem to be fitted by interest and special aptitude,
(3) in group sessions, to discuss with them whatever they need or want to know about the occupations.
3. Write a note on the activities and importance of various Group Situation Programmes.
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effective it must be a continuous process from the child's first contact with the school until he is ready for placement on a
job or in some type of post-secondary education.
Emphases may change as the growing child's needs change, but the essential process of helping each child to understand
himself in relation to his own needs and to those of his environment must begin long before he is ready for secondary
school. Early guidance which helps the child to make adjustments to each new situation can strengthen his ability to apply
his self-understanding to the solution of problems in his later years.
Guidance is no longer based on a concept of services designed to meet crises but rather on a concept of continuous
development. This view emphasizes prevention and good mental hygiene and demands organised guidance services in the
earliest years of the educational experience.
The present emphasis upon the development and utilization of human resources is bringing increased demands for earlier
and more effective identification of individual differences. This demand for earlier identification is gaining impetus with
the growing recognition that guidance services in the elementary schools are especially effective because (1) the child is
flexible and has had less time for problems to become deep-rooted; (2) the parents are more actively associated with the
school; and (3) many years of more successful development lie ahead for the child who can be helped to understand
himself and to find acceptable approaches toward the solution of his problems.
Reasearch findings and developments in the curriculum field point up the necessity for increased guidance services in
these early years of the school experience. The concept of readiness for learning includes the recognition that educational
stumbling blocks may appear if curriculum experiences are offered too soon or too late. This concept demands the earliest
and best possible identification of individual differences and calls for greatly improved systems of pupil records.
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This concern also calls attention to the school's responsibility to provide consultation services for the teacher in this most
complex educational programme. In short, time, energy, and money spent in the earliest years of the child's school life pay
larger dividends in the conservation of human resources than can be expected from remedial and corrective processes
offered in later years of the pupil's school experience.
Research shows that children exhibit every conceivable combination and variation in their growth patterns. Some grow at
the same rate in all four areas, while others grow unevenly. Children may show rapid physical development with slow
mental development. In addition, the same child may show both spurts and lags in his growth and development.
These differences are mainly the result of the built-in growth pattern but may be influenced to a limited extent by disease,
nutritional deficiencies, or other extreme environmental deprivations.
Middle childhood usually covers the years between six and ten. In this period the child is growing in all parts of his body
but less rapidly than in early childhood. Muscular growth and coordination are uneven and incomplete, but manual
dexterity and eye-hand coordination have developed sufficiently to allow the child to use his hands and fingers for writing,
drawing, sewing, and playing musical instruments.
He still has better control over the large muscles than he does over the small. The child needs opportunities for active play
to release pent-up energy and a balance of rest and relaxation to meet the increasing demands which school places upon
him.
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The mental development in middle childhood is characterized by learning to read and by the acquisition of many other
knowledges and skills. Olson says there is evidence that these children learn best when they can be active while learning.
This is the period when children begin to recognize differences in how boys and girls are expected to behave. Socially
and emotionally, they are developing sexual feelings, but a divergence in interests between boys and girls results in less
play together.
These children are becoming more independent, are learning to take more responsibility and to show increasing control of
emotions. This is a period of emerging values with some concern about right and wrong.
Children in grades 4 to 6 have received only limited attention in research and in the study of human growth and
development.
These children are active and want to be on the move. Physical growth is slow, and health is good. Some, particularly the
girls, may be maturing more quickly and may advance into the more rapid growth phase of prepubescence. The child of
twelve or thirteen may show evidence of physical ungainliness and awkwardness of movement.
Enlarging hips, breast development, and menstruation may present problems of adjustment for those girls who are earlier
matures. Voice changing and characteristic sex changes and developments in boys may appear in grade 5 or 6. These
pupils want to be making things, want to be doing and performing in response to their need to try out their own powers.
This is the period when children are showing a tendency to draw away from adults and to turn toward their peers for
companionship and for modes of living. Independence in ideas and activity is normal behaviour at this age.
These children need support from both adults and peers, for both help in defining acceptable limits of behaviour. In many
cases children show fears and worries which centre in developing independence, parental and school expectations, and
home problems. Competition may also be a threat to emotional well-being.
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Later childhood is characterised by a desire to learn and by a wide variety of interests. The child is developing an
understanding of cause and effect, forming concepts, and beginning to solve simple problems.
Value judgments of right and wrong are not as well defined for the child in grade 6 as they were in grade 4. This seems to
be the age when the child develops some tolerance and the ability to see things as gray rather than as black or white.
In a summary of studies of how human beings grow and develop, we see the following:
Each individual grows according to his own time schedule and in his own style.
We also learn that conditions in the environment which encourage the proper development of human beings are:
(1) those which support physical well-being and stimulate growth—food, warmth, air, light, activity and rest, and safety;
(2) those which support emotional well-being—giving a sense of security and of worth or self-respect; and
(3) those which lead to increased ability to cope independently with life situations.
Finally, the emotional needs of all human beings must be kept in mind when we attempt to understand the nature of
elementary school children. These are the need for belonging, achievement, economic security, love and affection; the
need to be free from fear and relatively free from guilt; the need for self-respect and self-understanding.
The major goal for education is to help children meet the developmental tasks imposed upon them by their innate growth
drives and by the society in which they live, that is, to help them to grow up properly.
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Johnston, Peters, and Evraiff say, "The school must be conceived of as the setting for learning experiences, and
everything which helps to make that setting educational is a concern of the teacher." Teachers affect the lives and
personalities of children, and thier influence goes far beyond the academic area and what can be measured by achievement
tests.
Ohlsen says, "If the teacher will accept each pupil as he is, with all his strengths and weaknesses, and will help him to
improve where he needs to improve, the teacher will have many opportunities to help pupils understand and accept
themselves and to aid them in defining reasonable life goals—two major aims of guidance. He may also influence the
attitudes and feelings which contribute to making independent choice either easy or difficult."
Child study is a basic guidance function and is accomplished through the use of both formal methods involving tests and
cumulative records and informal methods based upon observations of the pupil in his classroom and in other settings.
The teacher learns much about the child as he studies the pupil's production, his oral and written work, his art work, and
his reading record. The teacher seeks to observe hobbies and interests as an aid to motivation through understanding.
Observations of behaviour systematized through the use of the anecdotal record provide a rich source of data for child
study. The teacher in an elementary school is in a strategic position to conduct child study, for he sees the child in many
differing situations and has frequent opportunity for contacts with parents.
The first-grade teacher who must provide more formal learning experiences for children entering school for the first time
faces a big task in studying the individual pupils in his
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class. Too frequently a reading-readiness score is the only objective evidence of individual differences.
This score is too often interpreted as a measure of general mental maturity. The need to establish other levels of readiness
and maturity must be met in order to provide a learning situation in which the child can find the satisfaction which will
lead to more learning.
Readiness for learning depends upon physical and mental factors, situational factors, and the self-system of the child. The
child must see what is to be learned as meaningful and useful as it relates to his needs, goals, and self-concept. The
teacher must first look at the individuals in his class in order to determine each child's readiness for learning, the degree to
which individual needs are being met, and how each child sees himself.
The teacher also looks at himself and raises the question, "How do I feel about each of these pupils? What are my
personal needs which may influence my relationship with the group or with individuals within the class?
Early identification of individual needs makes educational planning more valid. Identification and planning, however,
must be continuous and not a one-time experience.
Identification involves observation in many areas of behaviour, a study of developmental records, and interviews with
parents and children. Kough and DeHaan provide teachers with techniques and procedures for observing behaviour. Their
handbook provides descriptions of behaviours which can be observed as a basis for recognising children with special
interests, abilities, or problems.
One of the most useful techniques for informal study is the anecdotal record together with the roster of observations kept
by the teacher.
Such records, if they represent accurate and objective reporting of incidents, can help the teacher better to understand
individual pupils and to recognize more clearly the relationships within the class group.
Teachers need help in developing skill in this type of reporting. An excellent discussion of this and other informal
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The teacher will also participate in the collection of data by more formal methods and will utilize all the data in the
cumulative record of the child. Such data usually cover personal and family background, health, attendance, scholarship,
and activities both in and out of school. The standardized test, inventories, and rating scales may all be used in the
elementary school to provide essential information for understanding children.
The cumulative record which the school develops is designed to help teachers function more effectively by grouping the
data collected so that conclusions are more easily drawn. Effective use of pupil records is possible only when the
information covers all the fundamental areas of human development and when it is so organised that developmental
patterns are evident.
Then the record can be analyzed with a reasonable expenditure of time and effort. Cassell offers a plan of organisation for
recording developmental data on a profile which makes it possible to recognise growth in some six areas of physiological,
emotional, psychosexual, intellectual, social, and educational development. This or some similar plan lends continuity to
records.
The teacher works with individuals as well as groups, and there is a kind of counselling which is a legitimate function of
the classroom teacher. Johnston feels that the teacher's relationship with pupils in this class often leads to possibilities for
establishing good counselling rapport. Only in the classroom climate which is really conducive to learning can such a
rapport be established, because it is based on respect for the individual and reflects attitudes and not processes.
Gordon reminds us that "the teacher-counsellor cannot be all things to all students. He must be closely aware of his limits
and use referral processes when the counselling situation seems to be going 'out of his depth.'" Johnston says, "The
teacher's counselling role is not a therapeutic one, but he does aim at offering the student assistance in making more
effective personal and environmental adjustments." When the pupil is unable to
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relate to the classroom teacher, or when the case calls for techniques beyond the ability of the teacher, the child should be
referred to the school counsellor.
Many teachers are including courses in guidance in their graduate programmes, and these teachers often possess skills
which make for effective counselling. If a teacher finds it difficult to accept the basic philosophy of counselling, he cannot
be expected to do counselling, as such, in his work.
Each teacher will have to decide for himself what limits for counselling are imposed by his own personal values and
needs, his professional development, and his group or class responsibilities. He has the responsibility for using all
available counselling resources as they are needed; for example, he may ask for help in recognising the special needs of
individual children.
Counsellors can serve as consultants to teachers, thus providing in service education in the area of referral procedures. The
case conference involving teacher, administrator, nurse, counsellor, visiting teacher, and school psychologist offers an
excellent opportunity to increase the teacher's skill in looking beneath symptoms to problems which need to be referred.
Although the teacher is the key guidance worker in the elementary school, he needs to recognise the guidance roles of
other school personnel. The teacher is a member of a team whose function is to obtain the maximum development of each
child in the school.
Johnston says, "No school is effectively staffed guidance-wise when there isn't someone in the school who can function as
a counsellor and handle the kinds of cases which are referred by the classroom teacher."
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Principal and counsellor working together plan an organised programme of guidance services which include the
following:
An effective programme of guidance services provides in-service education for teachers in the development and
interpretation of pupil records. Since the average teacher will have neither the time nor the training to develop records
which are complete and so organised that an analysis can be made with reasonable expenditure of time and energy, the
counsellor must provide assistance in the collection of data, in the methods of recording, and in the interpretation of the
development record.
The development of a sound test programme is another aspect of the elementary guidance services. Counsellors can
provide inservice education for teachers and can act as consultants in the development of the programme and in the
interpretation of results.
The Counsellor's chief responsibility is to provide counselling for all children with usual interests or needs. Teachers can
be helped to recognise these needs so that the children may be referred to the counsellor. The per cent of time devoted to
counselling for personal adjustment will be greater in the elementary school than in the secondary school, and this is
probably the greatest difference in guidance at the two levels.
Children, whether self-referred or referred by parents or teachers, may need help in many areas of personal development.
The excessively shy child, the socially inept child, the child whose self-concept interferes with learning, the child whose
behaviour interferes with work in the classroom, the child with educational deficiencies, and any child whose progress in
school seems unsatisfactory—all find their way to the counsellor's office.
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room, with toys, books, and manipulative materials readily available to the child. Here a youngster who is overwhelmed
by the experiences he is handling or who has reached "an explosion point" may work off tensions with clay, finger paints,
darts, punching bags and return to class ready to try again.
Toys play an important role in helping children verbalize and communicate. Teacher and child, sitting back to back, may
hold 'conversations' over toy telephones even if the child is too shy to communicate in a face-to-face interview.
Furnished classrooms and doll houses, erector sets, dump trucks, fire engines, and a host of other toys provide
opportunities for a child to play and talk as he works with the counsellor. Dominoes, checkers, and chess offer an
opportunity to help the child learn more about limits, rules, and regulations. Whether the counsellor works with the
individual child or with small groups, his office represents a neutral setting with many aids to help the child evaluate
himself, set goals, and make choices.
Here the counsellor uses every competence he can muster. Training which includes a knowledge of how personality
develops, an understanding of counselling theories and techniques, and some supervised practice in counselling is
essential if the counsellor is to meet the needs of the children who find their way to his office.
Research indicates that many underachieving pupils have emotional problems and that counselling provided on a
systematic long-term basis is essential before the pupil can begin to use his potentialities. Pupils respond more readily if
counselling is available in the early years of school at the onset of underachieving.
Shaw and McCune in a summary of a recent study of achievers and underachievers indicated that male underachievers had
been obtaining grades below their ability level since grade 1. The female underachievers had been performing below their
ability level since grade 9 and had tended to do so since grade 6. This study gave support to the hypothesis that academic
underachievement is not an easily modifiable surface phenomenon.
With the onset of underachieving occurring in the earlier years of school, there is a need to identify and provide
counselling at the earliest possible time. Counselling in the
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The counsellor makes referrals of pupils to other school services and utilizes the resources available in the community. He
helps to provide continuity of the educational experience through articulation services at the time a child leaves the
elementary school to enter junior high school.
Adequate counsellor services should contribute to the curriculum through carefully planned research and follow-up
activities which reveal the needs of children in the school and which provide evidence of the success with which the
school is meeting these needs.
In such case conferences the teacher and the counsellor share with other team members the problems of children which
they have identified by their close contact. Teachers get some support and consultative help in planning for these children.
Referrals for other services which are the result of these case conferences are usually more valid than referrals made
without such conferences. The referral report is more detailed and often more accurate, and therefore the referral services
will be more effective.
Guidance in the elementary school is the responsibility of every member of the school team. Under the leadership of the
principal the team constantly evaluates its objectives and plans for more effective guidance services. Follow-up, research,
and
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evaluation activities are essential aspects of the attempt to provide an educational climate in which each child works
toward a healthy personality capable of achievement commensurate with ability.
4. Explain the role of the counsellor in respect of the pupils and teachers of Elementary Schools in providing effective
guidance.
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If guidance is to play a part in increasing the individual's happiness and effectiveness, it must do so at this time.
Adolescence is the period of choice making, and guidance is the systematic effort to improve the quality of choices;
therefore it is important that the secondary school have a programme of guidance for the adolescents it serves.
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The period represented by students in grades 7 to 12 is that of adolescence, when the transition from childhood to
adulthood takes place. It is a period of profound physical, mental, social, and emotional change and growth, the nature and
significance of which the youth himself does not understand. He is often a stranger to himself as well as to others. It is a
period of rapid growth in height, weight, and physical strength and of a broadening of vision of the physical and social
world.
There is an increasing feeling of personal independence which is mixed with a consciousness of the need—which he
sometimes denies and tries to suppress—for companionship and help. It is so difficult for the adolescent to know himself
that, even when offered help that he needs and knows that he needs, he often rejects it.
Adolescence begins with puberty, which is the stage of development at which the reproductive organs mature and the
secondary sex characteristics develop. The onset of puberty is not uniform for all youth. It begins at different ages and
lasts for different lengths of time.
Another factor making for differences is that 'spurts' of rapid growth—physical, mental, and social—come at different
ages, and there are 'plateaus' that are not uniform in time of beginning or in length of duration.
The problems due to differences among students in extent of maturity are further increased because girls begin and
complete the period of maturation before boys.
Misunderstanding often results from the use of tables showing the ages of maturing boys and girls. In most discussions
the average ages of beginning and ending this period are considered to be key points and the fact that there are great
differences within as well as between the sexes is overlooked.
Nor is there any clear evidence that a student who begins this period earlier or later than the average is 'abnormal' in the
sense that something is wrong with his development. He
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may be 'unnormal' without being 'abnormal.' Because of these differences in development and the fears and
embarrassments associated with them the secondary school student is in special need of guidance.
During adolescence there are changes in mental and social characteristics, in attitudes toward school, toward teachers,
toward parents, toward peers, and toward authority. Interests and attitudes toward literature and society change rapidly,
and individuals in the same grade may not have the same interest or the same comprehension.
Although the change from the six-year elementary school to the junior high school is not so abrupt as that from the eighth
grade of the old elementary school to the first year of high school, there are several very important differences between
the two schools.
Because of the departmental organization usually found in the junior high school, the pupil must adjust himself to a variety
of teachers instead of to only one teacher. Instead of remaining in the same room for all classes, he moves from room to
room. The character of the junior-high-school building itself is often quite different from that of the elementary school.
The student is plunged into a different type of school life and school discipline.
There are various types of clubs and group activities; there is usually some form of student government; the school library
and the school gymnasium provide new experiences. The student is expected to take more responsibility both for his own
activities and for some elements in the life of the school.
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Many of these same problems arise in the transition from the junior high school to the senior high school. Where the
entire six years of the secondary school are housed in one building and considered as a six-year school, there is no
problem of adjustment to a new building, but other more important problems remain.
For example, a student may need help in deciding whether to leave school at the end of the compulsory attendance age or
to remain for graduation. In certain areas it is the custom of some parents to transfer their children from a public to a
private school for the last two years.
When this happens, there is need for some help in preparing the student for the changed life in the private school,
especially if it is a boarding school.
Soon after starting secondary school some children will begin to reach the place where further schooling of the kind
available may not be desirable because each year brings them diminishing returns. How long to remain in school becomes
an important problem for these students.
Research indicates that the 40 per cent of our students who do not graduate from high school are at a disadvantage for the
rest of their lives, particularly with regard to employment. It is essential, then, that every possibility of adapting the school
programme to serve the individuals be explored before the reluctant conclusion is reached that leaving school is the best
available method of "continuing education."
Learning Problems
Although the learning problems encountered in the secondary school are not always new, many now become of increasing
importance. Reading difficulties; rate of reading and comprehension; likes and dislikes of studies, teachers, and types of
literature; differences in aptitude for different school subjects— all are very important factors in the student's adjustment
to the secondary school.
A guidance programme will help diagnose the learning difficulty and plan steps to overcome it. The student may need
remedial reading, help in arithmetic, a different course of study,
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At graduation from the secondary school a decision must be made regarding enrolment in some type of post-high-school
institution, such as business school, technical school, or college. Such a complex and crucial decision should be made with
adequate guidance from teachers and counsellors. At present it seems likely that, with the limited facilities of colleges and
with the great increase in the number applying for admission, the problem of being accepted for college work will be a
very serious one.
This means that the marks earned in the last two or three years of the secondary school and the quality of work done there
will be of extreme importance.
The unprecedented demand for trained men and women in science and mathematics for increased educational facilities
and scholarships place an added responsibility upon the schools for the guidance of students who have the abilities to
succeed in such specialized training and who have the desire and the ambition to enter this specialization.
The choice of a college is one of the very important problems facing parents and high-school students, and it merits far
more consideration than is usually given to it. Colleges are not all alike in entrance requirements, cost, atmosphere, or
opportunities offered. Proximity to the home of the student is often a controlling factor. Some students do need a
continuance of home influence, but others need to get away from home and learn to be independent. Some need a small
college; others, a large one.
Two of the most frequent reasons for the choice of a college are that the father or the mother graduated from that
particular college or that some friend, possibly the teacher or the counsellor, did. These reasons are emphasized by the
propaganda organised by nearly every college and broadcast by the alumni.
Alumni are very likely to want to send the best candidates to their own university, saying, "Let the others go to Podunk
College." Colleges and universities do differ in spirit, offerings, and suitability for certain types of young men and women.
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No choice of a college should be made without a very careful study of the institution and of the student to determine the
suitability of one for the other.
The decision should be made on the basis of the needs of the student and the degree to which the institution meets these
needs. When two institutions are equally suitable and equally good, other reasons may then properly enter into the
decision.
The Question is altogether too vital, and means too much in the life of the young man or woman, to be decided upon any
other basis than the needs of the individual.
Information about college entrance requirements should be known by students and parents long enough in advance of
graduation from high school so that subjects necessary for entrance may be taken.
At present the unprecedented demand for college education and the limited facilities throughout the country have changed
the question for many from "What college shall 1 choose" to "What college will take me?" This condition has made it
necessary to begin making plans several years in advance and to make application to several colleges instead of to only
one. The competition after a student enters college is also so great that much emphasis is placed on meeting the scholastic
demands of the college and on adjustment to college life.
This situation places an added responsibility on the secondary school for considering more carefully the type of college
which is best suited to a student's ability and needs and for preparing him to adjust himself to the scholastic and social life
of the college. The difficulty, importance, and complexity of decisions about college argue strongly for the need for
guidance services in secondary schools.
Emotional disturbances may occur in any stage of a person's development and in any part of the school system. Some
have their origin or at least become more pressing in the secondary school. Physiological development, bringing with it
increased size and strength, sex impulses, responsibilities resulting from
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approaching maturity—all are very important causes of emotional changes and emotional instability.
Such emotional conditions are often the causes of much maladjustment and unhappiness. The student needs help in his
growth toward "emotional maturity," that is, in the ability to direct his strong basic emotions into channels that lead to the
attainment of ends that are socially desirable and individually satisfying.
The physical needs peculiar to secondary-school pupils center around the period of rapid growth and physiological
maturation. Along with these changes we frequently find lowered vitality, fatigue, lethargy (often mistaken for laziness),
impaired coordination and awkwardness due to unequal growth of different parts of the body, and physiological changes
caused by maturing of the sex organs.
Serious maladjustments often result from these conditions. Students undergoing such development need information,
understanding, and guidance to help them adjust to their changing bodies.
The purpose of education is to help young people acquire the knowledge, develop the habits and skills, and attain the
attitudes and ideals that are essential for adjustment to modern life and for its progressive improvement. Although
individual instruction may be more effective than group work in the acquisition of knowledge and in the development of
useful habits and skills, providing such instruction is quite impossible.
Moreover, there are some distinct advantages in class or group organisation in learning to live and work together, to
accept restrictions essential to effective learning, to respect the rights of others, and to cooperate with others in enterprises
that are planned by the group and have value for all. Croup work utilizes the social instinct of human beings.
Guidance has a major responsibility in assisting youth to organise or choose groups that have useful objectives and that arc
suited to the desires, needs, and abilities of the individuals of the group. Assistance to youth in social adjustments is a
function of the entire school.
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The administrator, librarian, teacher, and counsellor all have a definite responsibility for giving such help. Every pupil
should feel that he is accepted by his teacher and by every other member of the school staff who has contact with him.
The entire atmosphere of the school should be permeated with this spirit even though corrections, restrictions, and
punishments may be necessary.
Pupils should always feel free to come to any member of the school staff for help. The desire to be accepted by someone
is universal. We all want to have a feeling of belonging, to be needed and wanted. Nonacceptance or open rejection often
results in reprisals and in destructive activities.
Guidance can also help in assisting in the organisation of such activities as student clubs in the secondary shcool. Very
often the organisation of clubs that are constructive and useful prevents the formation of clandestine groups that have
undesirable objectives.
In many schools certain clubs are purely traditional and, although once useful, do not now meet real needs. Such clubs
should be eliminated or their purposes changed. A pupil who wishes to be chosen for a certain club should be helped to
realise the necessity for developing the qualifications required by the club he hopes to join and of being the kind of person
who will be accepted by the members of the group.
The members of clubs should also be helped to realise their responsibility for the selection of new members. A member
should not be chosen or rejected merely for personal reasons or because he lives on a certain side of the railroad track, nor
even entirely for the contribution he can make to the club The help that the prospective member can get by membership in
the group should also be a factor in a decision about his selection.
It has been suggested that the choice of a new member of any club be based on his mental ability as compared with that
of the members of the group, that is, that a club made up largely of pupils of high mental ability should choose only those
students who have high mental ability.
In some cases where the activities of the club demand high ability, this might be desirable; but in most cases this is not
the case. Studies seem to indicate that the selection of a new
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Student organisations should be helped to realise that they are very important elements in the overall school programme
and should be so organised and administered that they will be of maximum value to the entire student body and not
merely self-perpetuating clubs for certain types of students.
The problems occasioned by organisations and other elements in the school programme designed to increase social
adjustment call for guidance services. The finest programme of clubs, classes, and activities will not help the student who
has not been guided in making best use of his available opportunities.
2. Explain how guidance needs are related to personal development at secondary school level.
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Occupational choice is a major form of decision-making. The time at which an individual makes his final decision and the
kind and extent of his vocational preparation depend on many factors. These include personal interest and capability,
available occupational opportunities and training requirements
Although a few individuals make a permanent vocational decision as children, some young people are graduated from
high school or even college before they decide on their field of occupational activity. Nevertheless, much of the child s
learning on the elementary-school level and the guidance that he receives there affect his future career.
Attitudes, modes of thinking, and behaviour patterns developed throughout his years of schooling have a potent
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influence on his competence as an adult worker. Somewhere along the line, he needs guidance directed at wise vocational
choice, adequate occupational preparation, and satisfying job adjustment.
Family life and social, civic, religious, and recreational aspects cannot be neglected. The life goal—the objective that
provides the center of all activities and gives meaning to life— is very important, but a satisfying and successful life is
often dependent on the wise choice of an occupation and a reasonable success in. it. The job itself is often the aspect that
gives meaning to life just as it is true that a satisfying life goal is frequently what gives meaning to the occupation. The
two cannot be separated.
1. To assist the student to acquire such knowledge of the characteristics and functions, the duties and rewards of the group
of occupations within which his choice will probably lie as he may need for intelligent choice.
2. To enable him to find what general and specific abilities and skills are required for the group of occupations under
consideration and what are the qualifications, such as age, preparation, and sex, for entering them.
3. To give opportunity for experiences in school (tryout courses) and out of school (after-school and vacation jobs) which
will give such information about conditions of work as will assist the individual to discover his own abilities and help him
in the development of wider interests.
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4. To help the individual develop the point of view that all honest labour is worthy and that the most important bases for
choice of an occupation are (a) the service that the individual can render to society, (b) personal satisfaction in the
occupation, and (c) aptitude for the work required.
5. To assist the individual to acquire a technique of analysis of occupational information and to develop the habit of
analyzing such information before making a final choice
6. To assist him to secure such information about himself, his abilities, general and specific, his interests, and his powers
as he may need for wise choice.
7. To assist economically handicapped children who arc above the compulsory attendance age to secure, through public or
private funds, scholarships or other financial assistance so that they may have opportunities for further education in
accordance with their vocational plans.
8. To assist the student to secure a knowledge of the facilities offered by various educational institutions for vocational
training and the requirements for admission to them, the length of training offered, and the cost of attendance.
9. To help the worker to adjust himself to the occupation in which he is engaged; to assist him to understand his
relationship to workers in his own and related occupations and to society as a whole.
10. To enable the students to secure reliable information about the danger of alluring short cuts to fortune through short
training courses and selling propositions, and of such unscientific methods as phrenology, physiognomy, astrology,
numerology, or graphology, and to compare these methods with that of securing really trustworthy information.
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social, and emotional creature. He is tough and, until thoroughly discouraged, eager to grow and move from his present
status—he has basic heterostatic as well as homeostatic drives.
2. Man has few if any instincts, but instead learns his behaviours from those about him—his family, his socio-economic
status, his neighbours, and his wider culture. The school, which is society's designated institution for teaching coping
behaviours, fails to perform its function when some children are denied their right to idiosyncratic growth rates and
patterns.
3. The failure of the schools to provide properly trained teachers, possessing optimistic belief in growth processes for the
Negro, Puerto Rican, Mexican, Indian, Spanish-American is functionally to ignore the existence of socioeconomic class,
the rural and urban disadvantaged, and the existence of an urban culture in which man can and must live. There are build-
in factors of alienation competitive grades, selective curricula, slow learning groups, selective participation in school
activities, and pressure to conform to and adopt middle class behaviours. Such factors deny hope in the prospects for
growth, deny the right of the individual to be and express himself, and deny the democratic ideal of equal opportunity for
development of one's potential.
It is proposed here than an approach to vocational guidance be used that is in accord with the nature of man and the
society in which he lives. But before outlining this suggestion some remarks about the nature of the work world, which
also must be recognized, are in order.
Vocational guidance, to be maximally effective, should recognize many factors, important among which are:
1. The typical worker will, in the coming decades, make six or seven major changes in his work pattern during his
lifetime.
2. Future vocations will require increasing amounts of intellectual applications and will require less and less of a routine
and physical nature.
3. Vocational choice will be limited to, or at least severely restricted, by what society wants, and needs to be done.
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Because many factors influence people in choosing an occupation, various methods may be used in helping them choose
wisely. The factors responsible for the choice of an occupation are many and often complex. Very often people are not
conscious of the influences that were responsible for the choice of their present occupation.
Sometimes occupational heredity—family tradition and pride—may influence the choice. People may drift from one
occupation to another until finally, almost by accident, one occupation, which was the only one available at the time,
becomes permanent.
Great admiration for some person who has been very successful or one who has made some outstanding contribution may
influence the choice, or the individual may respond to what he conceives to be a direct call from God to enter some
service.
There can be no doubt that, in many cases, the occupations chosen on the basis of any of these factors have been quite
suitable to the interests and abilities of the individual, but in other cases it has been disastrous for the individual and for
the service itself. None of the factors listed can be relied on as adequate means of help in the choice of an occupation,
although they may be, in some cases, important auxiliary elements.
Organised vocational guidance assists the individual by providing him with all the data that indicate his interests and
abilities and all that are essential to an understanding of the type of work. He is helped to learn about the duties and
responsibilities of various occupations, the conditions of work, the wages or salaries, and other benefits and to organise all
this information in such a way as to enable him to make choices suited to his abilities and needs.
Of course, it must be freely conceded that the best-organised and best-equipped programme of guidance will sometimes
fail because of the inadequacy of our present methods and techniques and because the individual may refuse to accept the
evidences of his abilities and interests.
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enter any occupation regardless of the social status of his parents. Every year hoys and girls whose parents are desperately
poor obtain the education and training that enable them to attain success in medicine, law, social work, education,
research, government work, and many other high-level occupations.
One of the most startling evidences of freedom of choice has been the great number of women who have entered
occupations previously staffed only by men. Women have now amply demonstrated their ability in many skilled
occupations and in all the professions. This very freedom of choice, however desirable, constitutes one of the major
difficulties in vocational guidance.
Another difficulty arises from the slow, gradual process of an individual's vocational development. Guidance for choice of
an occupation cannot be done in a hurry because it is a process of development which often requires many years.
What is essential is a concerted and planned programme in which parents, counsellors, teachers, and fellow students are
of real help both in facilitating the development of maturation and in choosing the occupation. Furthermore, special
abilities and ambitions may appear throughout the early life of youth and be revealed in various ways to different people
not connected with the school.
Men and women in the community engaged in business and industry or in various professions can be utilized in the
vocational guidance programme. Among citizens in the community who should be of special help in the discovery of
abilities and interests are workers in churches, because of their basic interest in building character and their service to
society.
The approach toward vocational selection should be as scientific as possible. The individual should be helped to make
well-founded judgments about his career on the basis of certain knowledge, including:
3. An appreciation of the extent to which his characteristics fit the requirements of a particular vocation.
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Personality evaluation and job analysis are guidance activities that cannot be achieved quickly or even completely.
Experience as a worker on the job of course, is the practical test of the requirements of the work and of one's fitness for
it. Many individuals do not make their final choice until after they have been graduated from college or have
experimented with various types of occupational activities.
Specific Techniques
Self-evaluation can begin in the elementary school as teachers help the child to appreciate the value of possessing certain
desirable attitudes and behaviour characteristics, to recognise the extent to which he possesses these, and to attempt to
make whatever changes in himself are needed for achieving an improved relationship with his home and school associates.
As the individual continues his education in high school and perhaps college, his teachers and counsellors should
encourage the continuance of his self-appraisal as an individual and as a possible worker in a specific vocation. The
method of self-evaluation includes considering the findings of:
1. An honest self-analysis, preferably with the aid of prepared lists of questions.
2. An objective analysis of the individual by teachers and parents as a result of their observation of his behaviour.
3. A scientific or semi-scientific analysis of the individual by experts through the administration of appropriate tests,
scales, or inventories.
As complete knowledge as possible concerning vocational opportunities and job requirements and conditions is necessary
for an intelligent and satisfactory selection of a vocation. To make this information available, and to stimulate young
people toward the development of interest in vocations for which they are personally fitted and for work in which there is
or will be a need, constitute important phases of guidance in this area.
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the time of the counselling but for which the need may be declining, and
(3) those vocations which in the future may offer increasingly excellent opportunities for the well qualified.
Information about vocations can be presented to young people in many ways, either in group or individual situations.
5. Reference to the Dictionary of Occupational Titles, The United States Census, and other government aids,
8. Participation in out-of-class activities, such as school management and school or community clubs,
9. Career conferences,
Businessmen, industrialists, and other employers claim that hiring, firing, and promoting are based more on the kind of
person a candidate for a job or a worker is than on his skill competence. For example, a group of businessmen who made
a study of the causes of promotion and discharge of office workers found that success in office work usually is the result
of the worker's possession of specific personality characteristics, such as punctuality, industry, neatness, cheerfulness,
responsibility, trustworthiness, and co-operation.
These findings should have definite significance for parents and for teachers, and especially for the members of a
guidance staff. It is misguidance to excuse a child or an adolescent, on the basis of his immaturity, for a display of
undesirable attitudes or personality failings. From a practical point of view, it is the duty of the counsellor to make known
to young people the importance of good behaviour characteristics and to help them to develop them.
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Teachers and counsellors fail in their responsibilities if they allow the future workers of America to be late for school
appointments, to be poorly groomed, to submit written work that is carelessly or hurriedly done, to half-learn lessons, to
cheat in tests or other forms of work, to give vent to temper tantrums or to remain surly or unco-operative members of
their group.
They first must make certain that the fault for the individual's behaviour is not theirs. They should not expect a young
person to take responsibilities or to engage in activities that are beyond his best efforts. Once satisfied on these points,
they owe it to him to see that he gradually acquires the kind of personality which will earn him success and advancement
in his occupational work.
Personal guidance of students in specialized schools is extremely important. In every form of occupational activity, the
possession of certain appropriate personality characteristics is as significant in achieving worker success as are specific
skills and knowledges. Hence the guidance personnel must be thoroughly acquainted with required personality qualities
and must help their students to acquire them.
The staff of the Laboratory Institute of Merchandising, New York City has made a job analysis of the desirable personal
qualities of an individual who plans to enter their field. Among the characteristics included are such general traits as
punctuality in meeting appointments, industry, honesty, cooperativeness, and the like. In addition, these young women
need guidance toward the development of meticulous grooming and appropriateness of dress, poise, dignity, adaptability
to personality and job variations, ability to meet and talk intelligently with buyers and others concerning the quality,
workmanship, and so on of products, and a proper recognition of lines of authority.
The guidance programme of this school includes courses in applied psychology, speech, dress and grooming, and current
events and economics, besides the regular merchandising courses.
Leaders in the field address the students, and visits to wholesale and retail establishments are arranged. Social situations
are planned in which the students can learn how to
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conduct themselves in similar situations when they are working in the field.
The school offers a two-year course. During the first year, the students engage in full-time supervised work projects in
retailing establishments for about four weeks and during the summer vacation. Second-year students also have two such
experiences—one before Christmas, and the other during the month before Easter.
Job Placement
Assuming that an individual has received adequate training for participation in a vocation which he has selected
intelligently, the factors or adjustment on the job include the following:
1. Employment possibilities
4. Supervisor-worker relations
5. Worker-worker relations
At each step of the way, from placement to resignation or retirement, the worker probably can benefit from indirect or
direct guidance from qualified persons.
One of the functions of a school's guidance staff, especially on the secondary or higher level, is to offer guidance toward
job-getting. Whether or not the school maintains a placement office, a young person should receive help in locating a job
and in preparing himself to apply for it.
Unless employment is based on a formal examination system, such as in civil service, the applicant should know what to
do about the following common practices:
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The following list of 50 ways to avoid successful job placement might be interesting to counsellors as they help their
students:
The placement office of New York University lists the 50 reasons that are most frequently given by employers for turning
down job applicants. This information is based on reports from 153 companies. If you're out to land a job as a June
graduate, take inventory of yourself in relation to these facts. If you still have a stretch of schooling ahead of you, it will
give you time to work on any negative traits that may hinder you later in getting a job or being promoted. As you read the
reasons for rejection given below, ask yourself how you would rate in relation to each.
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21. Indecision
34. Cynical
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occupation before he begins a full-time job. Five types of such experience are recognised:
(1) Work that is done in some project undertaken for the benefit of the school, usually without pay, but where actual job
conditions are maintained as far as possible.
Some of these jobs are in connection with work in making or repairing school apparatus, rebinding books, or assisting in
the library. Some are not connected with class activities, such as seeding the lawn, planting trees, or laying out an athletic
field.
(2) Work that is done for the community, performing some public service as a useful citizen, such as mosquito
eradication, clearing waste land, or caterpillar control.
(3) Job experience, with pay, which is done in connection with the school programme, where part of the time is spent in
school and part on an actual job.
(4) Work experience that is done in connection with a school, where articles are produced in quantity, often for sale.
(5) Experience gained in part-time jobs, not connected with the school programme, after school or during vacation.
With the growing recognition that the curriculum of the student must include the total activities of his life in school and
out of school, these work experiences are considered to be an indispensable part of a well-rounded education.
In addition, such experiences can be very useful in revealing or developing interests and in disclosing abilities and
aptitudes that help in choosing a life work.
For some years many schools have been experimenting with types of co-operative plans by which high-school students in
commerical and industrial arts or vocational curriculums could secure practical on-the-job experience while they were still
in school.
This involves cooperation between school and commercial and industrial establishments so that students may, within the
compulsory attendance requirements, be in school part of the time and at work part of the time.
The cooperative plan of systematic school-and-work preparation involves learning activities in organised classes in school
and business establishments in the community.
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assist the student to prepare for, enter upon, and make progress in an occupation." Although the student may have
tentatively chosen his occupation before he signs up for the work, the experience on the job helps him to make a final
decision regarding the particular kind of job he desires to have.
Some form of work experience is now in operation involving many different types of occupations. The details of the
organisation necessarily differ with different occupations and different local conditions.
Worker Orientation
It is being discovered that orientation to a particular field of occupational activity is as important as the specific training
an individual has received for the vocation or profession. His early experiences on a job may affect a worker's usefulness
as an employee during his entire work life.
This is true whether the on-the-job activities are started in the research laboratory, the business office, the classroom, the
shop, the department store, the hospital, the law office, or in any other area of occupational endeavour.
A definite programme of orientation should be launched for all new employees. Care should be taken to delegate definite
responsibilities in this respect to supervisors in a large organisation and then hold them accountable for converting the
newcomer into a useful and efficient worker. What the supervisor does for the beginner during the early weeks on the job
determines in large part the attitudes the worker will develop toward his work, his fellow workers, his supervisor, and the
organisation in general.
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Many companies carry out an intensive training programme for their foremen, so that these supervisors, in turn, can help
guide beginning employees. Included in this programme are detailed suggestions for orienting new employees in such
matters as friendliness of attitude, important rules and regulations, employee service and opportunities for advancement,
pay system, plant facilities, and acquaintance with fellow workers.
When many employees are working together, there is likely to be dissatisfaction shown by some toward the type of work
they are doing, the employer, the other employees, or the immediate supervisor. Each employee should, be treated in an
honest and straightforward manner. Courtesy, objectivity, kindliness, and dignity should characterise the behaviour and
attitude of an employer toward his employees.
The employer has work to be done, and the employee is there to give his time and talent to the end that the activities are
completed satisfactorily. Each is trying to make a living out of the activity. This is stressed in the slogan on the trucks of
a company which hangs doors, window shades, paper, and so on: "We hang to live."
Everyone who has been in business knows that its successful operation depends on good human relations. When
employees have grievances, they should be dealt with promptly and objectively. Supervisors should listen to grievances
without prejudice, learn all the facts in the situation, act fairly and promptly report all grievances to the immediate
superior, and show a sincere interest in the complaint.
Supervisor Attitudes
Those who are placed in any position of authority should be careful not to play favourites. Justice and fairness are the
rights of every employee. Work assignments should be made in terms of degree of successful performance, and
promotions should follow a difinite plan.
The supervisor should be friendly but not too informal. Above all, the supervisor should not resort to any form of gossip
about any of his employees; such action is likely to
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affect worker morale adversely. Ft is his duty to build attitudes of pride in the work and in the organisation.
Basic Factors of Adjustment
If young people achieve satisfactory adjustment in their home experiences, in their school life, and in their other social
relationships they are likely to make satisfactory adjustments on the job. If they were guided during their formative years
toward the development of habits of trustworthiness, industry, responsibility, and social usefulness, they are likely to go to
their job with behaviour patterns which will be powerful aids to success.
(3) placement in a position for which one is personally qualified and well trained, and where one can achieve job
satisfaction and earn gratifying advancement.
The occupational experience of many workers does not follow this ideal pattern, however. For some reason, people lose
their jobs and must find others. Various community, state, and national vocational guidance bureaus have been organised
to meet the needs of the unemployed.
Until the 1930's there was no organised nation-wide system of public employment, no systematic classfication of jobs in
American industry. Today the Dictionary of Occupational Titles lists and describes more than 30,000 classified jobs.
There is also a nation-wide clearing system for the workers who wish to move from place to place and from job to job,
and an information service to furnish the worker with knowledge of the opportunities, wages, hours, and working
conditions in the larger labour market areas of the nation.
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Vocational guidance organisations include the Vocational Advisory Service, begun in 1920 as the Vocational Service for
Juniors; the National Youth Administration, working with the United States Employment Service during the depression
years of the 1930's; the Works Progress Administration, active during the same period; Post War Veterans' Counselling
Services, and the United States Employment Service.
The last-named organisation is doing excellent work as a system of public employment offices, in spite of the fact that
insufficient appropriations have kept it and affiliated state organisations badly understaffed. In 1946, after World War II,
the controls exercised by the United States Employment Service (USES) were returned to the individual states.
Through the United States Employment Service, workers, employers, community groups, and the general public receive
assistance in the implementation of the employment process. There are six major areas of co-ordinated activities through
which the USES extends its service to the public.
(6) working cooperatively with other government agencies to benefit both the workers and the employers.
Employment Problems
Community-sponsored vocational guidance services deal particularly with the employment problems of the nonselective
worker. Many young people have no particular occupational interests, but have sufficient general ability to perform
creditably in jobs that require little special training. Included in this group are the boys and girls who either complete a
general curriculum in the high school or drop out of school as soon as they are old enough to do so.
The aim of the boys is to become economically independent, to marry, and to support a family as best they can. Often
they
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see the kind of work in which they will engage as relatively unimportant. The girls' objective is marriage, to them a job
represents interim gainful activity.
It is estimated that from 25 to 50 per cent of all workers belong in this category. They are the persons who fill the
business, clerical, semiskilled, and unskilled jobs that do not require special training and therefore are not very attractive.
Community employment services are concerned primarily with the placement of workers who constitute a body of
occupational "floaters."
The number and kind of out-of-school vocational counselling units needed by any one community depend on available
job opportunities in the community and the extent of and reasons for unemployment among its citizenry. Public
employment services co-operating with other agencies dealing with adult workers gear their counselling services
(2) to encourage unemployed workers or those seeking advancement to use their services,
(3) through a series of interviews, including the administration of appropriate testing materials, to attempt to place
nonselective workers into jobs for which they appear to be best suited, and
(4) to maintain a follow-up service for the benefit of employers and employees.
Job Counselling
The purpose of job counselling is to help the individual make a practicable occupational choice and to assist him toward
finding employment in that field. Vocational counselling is a much broader task than merely matching any person who
needs a job with any opening that is available. The requirements of the job; the personality, training, and experience of
the candidate; and other family, social, and environmental factors must receive consideration.
Hence the employing counsellor must be a person of wide experience, who is well informed and a keen judge of people.
The counsellor's function is to help the client make his own decision about job selection, not to issue directives.
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The counsellor should know how to work with other counselling organisations, public and private, in schools or in
colleges or in the industrial plants themselves. He also is concerned with the working conditions that prevail in each
position and with the placement of prospective employees in the kind of work for which they are fitted and in which they
are likely to succeed. Whenever it is necessary, he assists in effecting transfers or promotions.
Employees are benefited through these services, and employers who are concerned with getting efficient employees co-
operate with the agencies. The community is willing to finance them because it has come to realise that they are
performing a worthwhile community service. Prompt placement benefits the employee, the employer, and the public.
The inexperienced, the occupationally maladjusted, the physically handicapped, and older workers present special
counselling problems. Fortunately, many industrial organisations are co-operating with established counselling services to
assist-in the placement of those who are efficient enough to handle a particular assignment. Among these, the older worker
is becoming a serious problem because of the increasing number of men and women who are living beyond what once
was considered to be an employable age.
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Adult attitudes toward the care of the body often have their beginnings in attitudes developed during the early years. The
mother, especially, is responsible for guiding her child in such matters as eating the proper food, going to bed according
to a healthful schedule, and developing simple cleanliness habits.
Play Activities
The child's play should be supervised indirectly by adults and appropriate toys provided. These should be simple and
inexpensive. Moreover, only a few toys should be made available to him at any one time, so that he can learn to know
them and
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develop a personal feeling for them. When the child appears to have outgrown interest in some of his toys, others can be
substituted for them. During his young childhood, the child's play activities constitute an important mode of development.
Toys should be chosen carefully so that they are suited to his stage of muscular development.
The young child plays with and throws his toys in what may seem to an aimless fashion. Actually he is investigating and
manipulating, thus developing his larger muscles. Later, he wants to construct, to scribble, and to create. At first he prefers
to play alone; the presence of other children may go unnoticed. Later, he likes to play in the presence of those of his own
age. This attitude gradually changes to that of wanting to play with all other children.
Occasionally an adult may play with the youngster, but this should not be often lest the child become too dependent on
adult motivation of the play activity. By the time a child reaches the age of two, he becomes very much interested in any
objects around the house that are small enough to handle. Nothing is safe from his active little fingers.
Another means of reducing friction is training the child to take care of his toys and other belongings. He is fortunate if a
playroom and a play yard can be provided for him not too far from the center of family activity. If that is not possible, he
should have a bureau drawer or a box into which he is expected to put his toys after he has finished playing with them.
Putting away and taking out toys can become part of the fun of playing with them.
Youngsters like to imitate what they see their elders do. Playing house or playing store either with real or imaginary
playmates is most satisfying to the three- to five-year-olds. This interest can be guided into having the small child take on
simple household chores, to his great delight. Helping mother dust, or dry the silverware or handing small articles to father
as he does repair jobs around the house are thrilling experiences, if the parent is patient and understanding enough to
realize that little fingers sometimes drop things and that young minds cannot always comprehend directions.
Mental Development
increasing interest in and concern about all the new and intriguing aspects of things around him. He needs to be guided
toward a correct appreciation of himself and his environment. Hence adults should treat with respect a young child's urge
to know and to understand. Fortunately, the child often is more interested in asking questions than in receiving answers.
He is exploring and he may have the answer at least partially, but he wants to find out what the adult will do about his
questions. Long detailed answers are not necessary or desirable. A short, simple answer given with an attitude of sincerity
and interest and with a smile usually is quite sufficient and satisfying until a new question pops out. Under patient adult
guidance, the youngster can make his world part of his mental life.
There is one parent attitude that is born of too great pride in child accomplishment. It is easy for parents to believe that
their child is superior to other children. They encourage the exhibition of a particular form of behaviour which to them
seems unusual or 'cute.' The child is taught by patient and ambitious parents to recite a 'piece,' draw a picture, play on the
piano, or master a simple acrobatic stunt or dance step. Then the child's 'wonderful' feat is placed on exhibition for the
acutal or simulated admiration of friends and acquaintances.
The baby experiences emotions, but during the first years they are diffused and do not follow the definite patterns of
emotionalized behaviour displayed later. The baby responds to warmth and loving care. He achieves security in his
mother's arms, in the taking of food, in comfortable sleeping conditions, and in the manipulation of his favourite toys.
Loud noises, sudden changes, or other strange conditions disturb him. He responds emotionally to the facial expressions
of elders. A smile calls forth cooing and smiling. A frown accompanied by sharpness of voice will bring about crying or
other evidences of what might be termed fear. Physical restraint, such as holding a child's hands or feet, will result in
active responses aimed at escaping from the unpleasant situation.
As the child grows older, his emotionalized behaviour takes on a more definite pattern of response. He wants attention and
love. He is not naturally afraid of the dark, of policemen,
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or of the "bogey man" who will jump out of dark closets and grab him. These fears are engendered in the child if parents
use them as threats of punishment for childish misdeeds.
Since a child craves attention, he may experience jealousy if another child receives some of the attention he believes
should be given to him. Parents are faced with this difficulty especially when a new baby is born into the family which
already has a little three-year-old or older child who up to this time has received the complete attention of his parents.
Unless the parents have prepared the child for our new little brother or sister, the older child may display jealousy of the
intruder by a return to a state of babylike dependence. Suddenly, he may need to be fed, to be put to bed, and to have his
clothes put on or taken off by adults—all of which activities he had learned for the most part to do for himself.
Adult example is a great motivator of the child's emotional attitudes. Bickering between parents, quarreling, and
undeserved or unreasonable punishment are extremely disturbing to the youngster and may lay the foundation for future
emotional maladjustment. Calm, reasonable, and emotionally adjusted behaviour and attitudes on the part of parents and
other members of the family are potent factors in the family guidance programme that is aimed at developing emotional
stability in the young child.
A child needs to associate with friendly adults. Relatives and friends must be able to give the youngster the kind of
affection and guidance that will enable him to experience emotional security.
If parents pamper, overprotect, or otherwise deny him many opportunities to achieve emotional growth in these areas, they
need not be surprised if the young child displays emotional instability or becomes emotionally maladjusted. A good
emotional climate set by parents predisposes toward the development of habits of self-reliance and self-control.
A programme of guidance will fail to inculcate desirable permanent attitudes in the individual unless he is guided toward
developing those character traits that will enable him to recognize authority, to co-operate with others, and gradually to
transfer
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complete concern with self and the satisfaction of personal wants characteristic of the very young child to interest in the
welfare of others.
Perhaps one of the weaknesses of the present educational pattern is that some parents and teachers seem to fear that
exacting obedience from a child may result in his experiencing frustration, emotional disturbance, or mental conflict. An
adult attitude of this kind is most unfortunate. Personality traits and social attitudes developed in the home during the early
years of his life exercise a tremendous influence on the habitual pattern of behaviour the individual displays in his later
relations with other people.
A child must learn to obey reasonable commands issued unemotionally by his parents. It should be within a child's power
to conform to expected forms of behaviour. Parent's wishes or orders should be few in number and should be formulated
in simple language which the child can comprehend. The child also should understand the reason for the expected
behaviour. Adults need to be definite in their demands that a certain specific form of conduct be exhibited by the child.
Punishment for child's misdeeds should be specifically related to the misbehaviour, appropriate to the situation, aimed at
the undesirable conduct, not too long delayed, and effective. Yet, it should not cause physical harm or the arousal of
inordinate fear. Sometimes raising an eyebrow when a child gets out of hand can be more conducive to remorse for
uncontrolled behaviour than a severe thrashing or other form of punishment. To a child severe punishment may seem to be
disproportionate to the seriousness of the offense.
The child needs to be taught the value of honesty. The "tall stories" of the imaginative young child should neither be a
source of amusement to adults nor be interpreted by them as a sign that "he is a born liar." The child chould be guided
toward a realization of the truth. Even if one cat in the back yard is making enough noise for a hundred cats, there still is
only one very vocal cat there.
If parents expect a young child to tell the truth and to be sincere and honest in his attitude, they themselves must set the
example. A child learns more from example than he does
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by precept. Moreover, the recognition by a young person that what his elders say often is at variance with what they do
causes him to experience difficulty in knowing just what his own attitude should be. Expediency rather than personal
conviction concerning his own course of action may come to influence his relationships with his associates.
After babyhood days, a child needs the companionship of children of his own age. He must be guided toward an
understanding of his rights and responsibilities in these early social relations. Co-operation with others, as exemplified in
family attitudes, now are carried over into situations that include boys and girls outside the home. Indirect but watchful
parental supervision of play activities, of toy-sharing, and of general aspects of social behaviour aid the child to develop
co-operative social attitudes.
A child can be stimulated to recognize his strengths and his weaknesses. Innate personal qualities predispose some
children to caution, timidity, or fear from the time they become mobile.
Any limitations, such as slow reaction time, low vitality, frequent illness, or poor co-ordination, affect adversely their
attainment of good social adjustment. Other children exhibit greater vitality and seem to display more ability to profit
from new experiences. No matter what his assets or his limitations, each child should be guided toward a gradually
increasing ability to do things for himself and make his own decisions as he associates with his peers.
Ethical and moral concepts such as goodness and badness, obedience and disobedience, or honesty and dishonesty, only
gradually are included in his understanding and in his vocabulary.
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When he is carefully guided, the three-year old is able to recognize the rights of others. He has learned to share his toys
with others; he can comprehend the meaning of good and bad behaviour.
The growing child's overt actions are motivated according to the relative strength of various inherent urges and drives.
Since a child does not achieve acceptable control of the expression of his inner drives without a struggle, he may engage
in behaviour that appears awkward to his elders and may be harmful to himself. Many of his behaviour problems result
from his self-interest, his imitation of undesirable behaviour, or his unawareness of possible consequences.
Parental Guidance
Parents can encourage a child to think through reasons for behaving in one way rather than in another and to achieve inner
satisfaction from engaging in socially accepted behaviour. Then, as the child's habitual activities gradually become
motivated by worthy inner controls rather than stimulated by less desirable forces outside himself, his behaviour reflects
the ideal of self-control or self-discipline.
The behaviour of a well-disciplined child is guided by certain principles which he understands and practices. Fundamental
parental attitudes and practices which help the child achieve intelligent self-discipline include such factors as these:
2. Encouragement of obedience
3. Administration of appropriate punitive measures only when neither the parent nor the child is angry
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7. Avoidance of overindulgence
11. Continuation of supervision until the child has become an independent, self-disciplined individual
The nursery school or the kindergarten is not a place in which a child spends many hours each day doing as he please. If
the functions which the school is supposed to achieve are to be met successfully, the programme of child experiences
must be organized around specific objectives which serve as the basis of whatever transpires during the school day and
year. These aims or objectives should result in the guidance of the child toward:
1. Development of simple health habits and concern for physical needs
2. Improvement of language patterns for the expression of ideas in simple, correct speech
3. Continued development of interest in the enlarging environment and the ability to think independently within the limits
of his degree of maturity
4. Achievement of emotional control and desirable social attitudes in relation to adults and other children
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The success of nursery-school and kindergarten guidance in personality development depends to a great extent on the
personal qualities possessed by the teacher and the amount and kind of co-operation she receives from parents.
At the beginning of the term the teacher in the nursery school or kindergarten should be aware of the needs that a child
has for a parent substitute. Any demonstration of affection on the part of the teacher helps to reveal her emotional
readiness to accept the child's need for dependence on her. From the beginning, emotional growth should be fostered.
However, any attempt to rush a child into becoming self-reliant too soon may be as harmful as attempts at keeping him a
baby too long.
For a child to have one or two friends with whom he can play eases the problem for all concerned, though his periods of
identification with them usually are short. A young child tends to continue at one activity for brief periods of time.
Parents need to know what to expect from a nursery school or kindergarten. Some schools extend a cordial welcome to
parents and their children who are going to school for the first time. Parents should be advised that the experiences
provided and the guidance given are to help their children become self-reliant, adjusted to others, and emotionally secure.
Learning activities of these schools are as follows:
being courteous
learning to be a leader
learning to be a follower
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playing fairly
listening to others
dramatizing stories
singing
following directions
Value to Parents
Many parents still regard nursery schools and kindergartens as substitutes for homes that fail to meet the needs of young
children. These parents feel that sending their child to school before the age of six would be an admission of their inability
to provide in the home the kind of environment and the amount of guidance which are due him.
This is a misconception of the purpose of this early form of education and guidance. As the child begins to develop a
social awareness, he needs to experience associations with a larger and more diverse social group than can be offered even
in a pleasant home environment that includes other children and the children of neighbours.
He needs the guidance of adults who are trained especially to provide him with opportunities to engage in organized social
activities.
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Furthermore, even the most conscientious and understanding of mothers should have a few hours of respite from concern
with the child's welfare. Other home duties and relaxing activities can be engaged in by the mother, with the realization
that she, as well as her child, is benefiting from a short daily period of separation.
Sooner or later, a mother must learn that she cannot continue to be the chief source of satisfaction or a child. The earlier
this weaning process begins, the less painful it will be for the child and the mother, especially the latter.
Another benefit that accrues to parents as the result of their child's attendance in a nursery school or a kindergarten is the
training in child guidance the parents themselves receive. Most of these schools hold weekly parents' discussion meetings
at which problems of child guidance, both general and specific age considered by the teacher and the parents.
2. Write a note on the functions of Nursery and Kindergarten schools in providing proper guidance to its pupils.
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22 Guidance Towards Family Life
Happy family life is essential for the happiness of each family member and proper development of the child. Happy
family life is perfect adjustment between each and every member depends on various factors, therefore, guidance towards
family life to each individual of the family is of vital importance.
Many parents, religious leaders and school people are becoming greatly concerned over the apparently increased incidence
of juvenile delinquency, moral laxness, and maladjusted marital relations.
The acquisition of appropriate information and the development of wholesome attitudes in this area probably should begin
in the home, and much of it should remain in the home, at least through childhood years. Schools share with parents the
responsibility for the development of emotional control and wholesome attitudes. Through courses in physiology, biology,
health education, and home-making, certain physiological facts and matters concerning the care of children can be taught
to young people. Guidance in these areas must be administered objectively and intelligently by adults who in their own
attitude and behaviour display emotional stability and controlled living.
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likely to be incorrect and may even be vicious in its effects on a child. Parents are realizing increasingly that their
children need sane and accurate education concerning matters that deal with sex and family life.
Habit Development
We have gone a long way in our attitudes toward young people since the days when children were supposed to be seen
but not heard. Mothers and fathers as well as other adults have come to realize that in the thoughts, habits, and behaviour
of the young child lie the beginnings of adult thoughts, habits, and behaviour patterns. Whether a child is heard or only
seen, he does think, he does build up good or bad habits, and he certainly does continue to behave in one way or another.
Moreover, the pattern of the child's development is closely tied to parental attitudes and behaviour toward him. These
attitudes operate very subtly and with great force in relation to the responses that the child develops with regard to sex and
sex activities.
The building of a child's sex-stimulated behaviour and attitudes is no more his sole responsibility. He needs guidance if
his sex urges and interests are to be directed toward the achievement of personal health and self-control, and toward social
betterment.
Sex is a powerful factor in the emotional life of every maturing person. Sex education, therefore, includes more than
learning about the biological significance of sex or the physiology and hygiene of sex. The development of habits of
emotional control and self-discipline, the care of one's physical and mental health, satisfactory childhood experiences in
the family, socially desirable associations with members of the same and of the opposite sex, and wholesome attitudes
toward love, marriage, and parent-child relationships—all of these rightfully belong in a programme of sex education as
this programme is undertaken by parents and others who are sincerely interested in the development of wholesome
attitudes and behaviour in matters of sex.
Parents' inability or unwillingness to meet the problem of sex guidance with the same objectivity and frankness that they
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The purpose of this discussion is to give help to parents and other guidance personnel who are concerned with the
development of desirable attitudes among young people toward matters dealing with the relations between the sexes.
The mother is responsible for most of the care of a very young child, though many fathers help feed and bathe the baby
and prepare him for bed. When the mother and father together take care of their child, he is helped to understand that he
belongs to both his parents.
Young children usually ask their questions of their mother, mainly because they spend most of their time with her. If a
child has confidence in both his parents, he is likely to ask questions about sex in the presence of either or both parents.
The mother and the father should be prepared to answer questions and to supplement one another in their answers. No
matter which parent is asked the question, the answer should be so worded that the other parent does not seem to be
excluded from the situation.
Sometimes little children ask questions about sex because they have heard such matters discussed outside the home and
want to find out if their parents agree with what they have heard. In order to discover what a child is thinking, it is
sometimes helpful to begin an answer with a question such as, "What do you think?" or "How do you think it happens?"
Doing this gives parents a starting point for their answer.
When some parents get started, they seem unable to stop talking. Questions should be answered definitely but briefly. The
adult should stop enlarging upon facts as soon as the child seems satisfied, which usually is quite soon.
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Children lose interest or become confused if answers are too detailed. If an answer to his question does not satisfy the
child completely, he will ask another. A good practice is to follow the child's train of thought rather than to impose adult
thinking on him.
An adult and a child should not engage in 'sex' talk merely for the excitement or thrill that may accompany such activity.
The reason for the child's interest should be evaluated, and the answers should be worded accordingly. The attitude
toward sex is as important as the information itself, if not more so.
The elementary-school child should learn to assist in the care of younger members of the family. He should co-operate
with all members of the family in household chores, and he should share in wholesome work and play activities with both
boys and girls. He should be encouraged to seek information about sex from his parents without embarrassment, and
helped to refrain from undesirable sex activities.
Before the age of eight, boys and girls seek the companionship of other children regardless of sex; at about the age of
eight, boys prefer to play with boys and girls with girls. By the time they reach ten or eleven, antagonism between the
sexes is evidenced. It is difficult for a little girl, for example, to be ignored or teased by a boy who a few months earlier
enjoyed playing with her. Parents, teachers, and guidance workers who understand these developmental trends are able to
cope with situations caused by these changes in young people's attitudes.
In the Home. Family attitudes are very important to growing boys and girls. Hence parents should display a friendly and
co-operative attitude toward each other and be in complete agreement about the rearing of their children. Family love and
loyalty should be encouraged among all members of the family.
Parents should guide their children toward respect for and co-operation with one another. Continuing a practice begun
earlier, the mother and father should be willing and able to answer a child's questions about his developing body and boy-
girl relationships. Children should be permitted to have pets and, if possible, some experience with the breeding of pets.
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In the School. The curriculum should include simple material dealing with biology and physiology that will acquaint
children with fundamental life processes. Classroom and out-of-classroom activities should be so planned that boys and
girls can learn to work and play together under the guidance of socially minded and ingenious teachers. In this way
attitudes of wholesome respect and friendliness can be developed among children.
The games in which children participate before the age of puberty have few harmful sex factors. Often parents and
teachers ascribe to certain activities of these children the kind of sex stimulated behaviour that is experienced by
individuals who already have attained puberty.
A kissing game, for example, that may be played by ten or eleven-year-olds does not have the kind of sexual overtones
and emotional implications for them as these same games might have for sexually more mature individuals. The children's
behaviour is in the nature of discovering things for themselves. These activities become unhealthful and even dangerous,
however, if one or two members of the group have matured prematurely or have acquired undesirable attitudes toward
sex, thereby exerting a harmful influence on less mature children.
The Preadolescent
The arrival of puberty may cause serve emotional shock unless the boy or girl is helped to understand the meaning and
form of the physical changes that are taking place at this time. It is primarily the parents' responsibility to provide needed
information and to guide the development of wholesome attitudes toward matters dealing with the physiology and
psychology of sex.
The teacher or the school counsellor can help the young person during this difficult time by providing many interesting
activities for him and by giving him individual counselling when this is sought.
Girls are better able to accept and enjoy their feminity if they are helped to realize that menstruation is a normal phase of
female growth and necessary for their later reproductive role. Although the trend is toward a mother's giving information
concerning menstruation in advance, many girls still reach this milestone in their development with mistaken ideas about
it.
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Boys also should know about menstruation in order that they may develop respect for its significance to women and its
relation to motherhood. If they acquire incorrect information, they may develop unhealthful attitudes toward its life
function. Whether or not the responsibility for encouraging wholesome attitudes toward these life processes is that of the
home or of the school is a matter that has not been fully determined.
(2) be guided to achieve wholesome attitudes toward members of the opposite sex.
Some adolescents attempt to solve their own adjustment problems in this area of experience. Others seek help from adults.
Unless children have developed a close and frank relationship with their parents through their childhood years, they take
their questions about these matters to persons outside the home.
Sympathetic teachers and counsellors often are chosen as the confidants of confused or troubled young people. Hence the
school's guidance programme should include opportunities for adolescents, either in group or individual situations, to
receive whatever assistance they may need.
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culture, and his factual information associated with sex. Sex guidance then becomes not only an individual but a group
matter.
The sexual behaviour of adolescents seems to function on a group-code basis. The greater freedom from adult supervision
recently extended to adolescents forces these young people to establish their own standards of behaviour to which they
adhere in given social situations.
Although this places heavy responsibility on them, it also challenges them to evaluate the ideal that chastity is the
accepted standard. Careful guidance toward correct decision-making in these conflict-arousing situations also is a
challenge to parents, teachers, or counsellors.
Influence of Guidance
If we accept the results of the Kinsey investigation, even in part, we are forced to conclude that education as such does
not prevent all people from engaging in sexual experiences outside marriage. Guidance can be of value in insuring
premarital continence and marital fidelity only when young people are taught also to appreciate spiritual values, to
develop wholesome attitudes toward members of their own and the opposite sex, to want sincerely to experience the joys
of wedded happiness, and to select a mate who also is motivated by true love and high idealism so that there can be no
temptation, to give to
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any other person the love and loyalty that belong rightly to the mate.
Education for well adjusted marriage and family life must be begun in the cradle by parents who themselves are lovers as
well as parents, and must be continued through all the years of growing up.
In some states, especially Oregon and Michigan, education for home and family living is required by law. In other states,
such education and guidance is optional. Eduators and guidance leaders in other states and communities are becoming
alert to the necessity of preparing young people for the achievement of well-adjusted home relations.
Guidance toward healthful marital adjustment has been and is being requested by many adolescents and adults. Today
about one-half of the accredited four-year colleges and universities give courses in marriage and the family. The high
schools lag behind the colleges in the extent and kind of their course offerings in these areas. Through the help and
stimulation of the American Social Hygiene Association, however, plans are being formulated to extend the services
downward into the high schools.
Taking courses, reading books, and listening to lectures do not constitute the only or even the best approach to the matter.
The persons who offer the courses, as well as the content of the courses and the point of view of the writers and lecturers,
are important factors. Most important are the amount and the effectiveness of the guidance which is offered to those
contemplating marriage. Too many high-school teachers and guidance counsellors, like parents, either are afraid to
become involved in counselling activities in this area or do not possess the personal qualities or the knowledge needed for
effective counselling.
GUIDANCE OF THE MARRIED ADULT
The extent and seriousness of existing problems of marital adjustment are attested to by the large numbers of married men
and women, young and older, who find their way into family relations courts and counselling centers, and by our
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high divorce rate. Guidance after marriage appears to be needed as much as guidance before marriage.
Perhaps as premarital education and guidance improve, we can hope for better postmarital adjustment. At present, social
agencies, educators, and other interested persons are devoting an increasing amount of time and energy to the task of
analyzing the bases for marital maladjustment and of discovering ways to prevent it or to remedy situations that already
are fraught with emotion-disturbing elements.
Factors of Adjustment
Factors of adjustment follow the general pattern of adjustment in all human relationships, except that the intimate
associations of married life bring into action all of an individual's habits of thinking and doing. One can get away from an
out-of-the-home situation if it appears to be intolerable. If one regards marriage as a lifelong relationship, however, the
behaviour of a mate may give rise to annoyance, resentment, or conflict from which no release seems possible even
through the breaking of the marriage bond by separation of divorce.
Counsellors in marriage relations report that family relationships often are disrupted by major crises in the lives of family
members. The death of a beloved member, economic insecurity, long and protracted illness of a parent or child, the
removal of a member of the family by service in the armed forces—these are contributing factors to the development in a
home of unhappiness and discord.
That many family units are not affected in their relationships by the occurrence in the home of a critical happening can be
explained by the parents' personality, strength, and adjustive powers. An individual may be strong in meeting a crisis,
however, but give in to petty irritations that are experienced day after day.
Among these experiences can be included 'nagging,' recriminations, jealousies, emotional outbursts, maintaining an air of
silent martyrdom, unwillingness to share in family responsibilities, extravagance or self-centeredness, too much or too
little interest in social activities, and a host of other emotion-disturbing characteristics of patterns formed in premarital
years.
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on marital adjustment of the undesirable personality qualities listed above are the problems arising out of sexual
incompatibility. We hear much about the 'frigid' wife or the sexually uncontrolled husband. The attitudes developed during
the growing-up period are mainly responsible for failure to adjust in the physical aspect of marriage. It is in this area that
parents can help to prepare their children for the life ahead of them. Schools, too, can do much to teach young people the
beauty and wonder of sex.
During the last half-century, various attempts have been made to study sexual behaviour and adjustment. Investigations
conducted through utilization of the questionnaire method have yielded about 800 histories of sex attitudes and behaviours.
Some investigators, notably Dickenson and Landis, employed the interview technique.
Probably the most intensive research study is that engaged in by Alfred C. Kinsey and his associates. His first volume,
Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male, represents a nine-year accumulation of data about men's sex life. A companion
study deals with the sex behaviour and attitudes of women.
The Kinsey reports reveal significant data on sexual practices of males and females at different stages of their
development, including both single and married life. The public became greatly aroused about these revealing findings.
Although sexual behaviour in modern life poses serious aspects of sexual adjustment and indicates the need for
counselling in this area of human activity, recent trends toward early marriage and larger families may counteract
somewhat the dangers of sexual promiscuity.
Marital Counselling
Unfortunately, we cannot wait placidly for marital adjustments to eventualize as a result of greater understanding gained
through research and improved premarital preparation.
Existing problems of marital unhappiness require the immediate attention of trained counsellors and of organizations
having for their purpose the improvement of marriage and family life.
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Increasing numbers of influential groups are engaged in building programmes aimed at the attainment of more satisfactory
marital relations, the improved physical, mental, and emotional development of young people, and the stamping out of
venereal disease.
The applying of remedial measures to the already maladjusted is commendable. However, our responsibilities in this area
must include education through guidance in group and individual situations aimed at the prevention of maladjustment in
marriage and family relations.
Value of Education
The primary purpose of sex education is to establish attitudes, habits, and ideals toward sex that both satisfy the individual
and enable him to act in a socially responsible manner. The home, as well as community agencies, such as the church and
the school, need to share the responsibility for adequate education and guidance in matters pertaining to the sex life of the
individual.
Since the home is responsible for rearing the child during his most formative years, it is in an excellent position to deal
with this phase of education on a day-to-day basis. As the child's environment expands and he experiences numerous
problems rooted in his physical and physiological development, he needs the constructive help of the various persons and
agencies in the community that have to do with problems related to the sex life of the individual.
During the impressionable years of the late childhood and adolescence, the individual constantly is being stimulated by
sex-pointed, one-way mass communication. The 'glamour' of sex and the physical aspect of love are overemphasized in
popular songs, magazine stories, motion picture plots, and entertainment programmes on radio and television. Newspapers
and news commentators advertise in vivid and detailed word pictures the marriages and divorces of motion-picture stars
and other well-known personages.
To immature, glamour-seeking youth, this kind of love theme is much more appealing than any story or news item dealing
with the more prosaic aspects of a successful, enduring marriage between two people who as parents or community
leaders
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Negative forces can be countered by such positive values as good parental example, the guidance of religious leaders, the
counsel of qualified physicians about the biological functioning of the body, and carefully planned school programmes
that stress particularly the value to a young perons of
(2) learning to respect his own body functions as well as those of members of the opposite sex,
(4) seeking a mate to whom he not only is sexually attracted but with whom he can share constructive lifelong interests
and activities.
Of course, young people will "fall in love." The kind of person selected as the object of adoration, the attitudes the two
display toward each other, and the eventual life goals toward which they strive constitute the bases of parent, school, and
community planned programmes of education for marriage and family living.
QUESTIONS FOR ANSWER
1. Write a note on the importance of 'Sex' in family life and the nature of 'Sex guidance of the young child'.
2. Give your views about the 'Guidance for Marriage and Family Life.'
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Scientific and mathematical societies have been organised for the purpose of emphasizing the importance in our economy
of training in these areas as a basis for research and encouraging more men and women of high ability to choose
occupations in these areas. They are also seeking ways by which the basic training in these areas in secondary schools and
colleges may
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Many high schools are now offering special college courses in mathematics, chemistry, and physics for students of high
ability, and colleges are giving advanced credit for those who have taken these courses and admitting them to the
advanced courses in college.
Research on gifted children has a high priority, and much emphasis is being given to the identification of bright children
and the enrichment of their education.
It is easy to understand why the emphasis in seeking talent has been on mathematics and science, but it is unfortunate that
more attention and effort have not been given to seeking out and stimulating unusual ability in other areas where it is just
as necessary, such as in art, music, language, literature, public service, social sciences, and philosophy.
We are beginning to recognise the fundamental values of these areas and are taking steps to remedy what many think to be
an overemphasis upon mathematics and science. We are not willing to adopt the narrow, intensive method of training used
by Russia. It is a growing belief that the engineer, the chemist, the physician is also a citizen and has obligations to
society beyond those of his specialty and that the narrowly trained person is, at best, only half a man. Education should be
broad enough to make every man an effective citizen and a well-rounded member of society.
Although guidance is centered primarily upon the individual and his developing the ability to find a way of life which is
satisfying, it is also concerned with the needs of society.
Guidance workers are concerned with giving every student the best possible opportunity to develop whatever talents he
has. Both society and the individual benefit most when every child has an education suited to his interests and abilities.
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Inadequate knowledge and unwillingness or lack of courage to take the necessary step may also suggest a need for
guidance. Physical, mental, emotional, economic, and soical handicaps may also restrict or prevent free decision-making
regarding an occupation.
A handicapped person may be described as one whose physical, mental, or emotional condition or characteristics or
economic and social surroundings make it difficult or even impossible for him to participate in society up to his potential
capacity and so to live a normal, useful, and satisfying life.
The removal or modification of handicaps may be accomplished by changing the individual or by changing the
occupational and sociological conditions so that his effective participation in society may be realised. One of the greatest
triumphs of medicine, education, and social science in the past half century has been the progress that has been made in
reducing or removing handicaps.
Each disabled person served by the programme receives the combination of the following services which best meets his
needs:
1. Diagnosis and counselling. Physical examinations are conducted to determine the extent of his disabilities and to
establish eligibility for rehabilitation. If he is eligible, counselling is provided to assist in planning a vocational
rehabilitation programme.
2. Medical, surgical, psychiatric, and hospital services. These may be provided if the physical or mental impairment can
be substantially corrected or improved and if the applicant is financially in need.
3. Braces, limbs, hearing aids, or other prosthesis. These are purchased for him if they are considered necessary to
overcome the handicap and if he is in financial need.
4. Vocational training. This is arranged for him if he needs preparation for an occupation at which he can engage within
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the limitations of his handicaps. Normally, vocational training is provided after the completion of the high-school course
and when the individual has demonstrated a need for special training not readily available to him in order to enter
employment.
5. Maintenance and transportation. This is provided during the training programme if it is found necessary to meet the
expenses incurred in the training.
6. Tools, equipment, and occupational licenses. These are provided if found necessary during the training programme or
to aid a person in establishing his own business.
7. Placement on the job. This is the goal for each person undertaking a vocational rehabilitation programme. Every effort
is made by the rehabilitation staff and by cooperating agencies to assist in satisfactory placement.
8. Follow-up on the job. This is provided for serveral months to be certain that the placement is satisfactory both to the
client and to the employer.
Values of the Rehabilitation Programme
It seems that even from a financial standpoint the rehabilitation programme has paid off. The estimated annual earnings of
this group the first year after rehabilitation were nearly eight times their earnings the year before rehabilitation. It is
estimated that in the three years after rehabilitation, the rehabilitants will have paid back to the government in income
taxes much more tahn the entire programme cost.
These figures suggest the great increase in available man power which has been brought about by the rehabilitation
programme. Of much greater basic importance, however, are the values that have come to the rehabilitated person himself.
Before rehabilitation he has a sense of economic worthlessness and feels that he is a burden to others, but after
rehabilitation he begins again to feel the joy of being a producer, of being independent, of being a help rather than a
hindrance. The value to these persons and to society is incalculable.
Once of the most important phases of this programme is the cooperation between the Federal government and the states
and especially the teamwork which exists in some states between
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the rehabilitation agencies and the public schools. At present only a few school systems have developed programmes that
are at all adequate to meet the needs of the older disabled students.
Most schools do not have sufficent financial resources or trained personnel for such services, but it is possible for the
rehabilitation programme to provide help to these pupils when their formal education ends. Schools now generally have
educational programmes for the handicapped child.
These programmes—for the mentally retarded, the crippled, or the child with sensory handicaps—are collectively known
as "special education." The proper cooperation between special education and rehabilitation will result in more effective
educational and guidance programmes for the handicapped of all ages.
Teamwork such as this gives promise of the development of adequate services for all kinds of handicaps. It is not too
much to hope that soon every child and youth with any kind of handicap will have available in his school sources of help
in removing or reducing his handicap. Such an accomplishment would be of far greater significance than all the
spaceships or artificial satellites that man can produce.
UNDERACHIEVERS
Closely related to the handicapped are the 'underachieves.' These are individuals whose achievement is below their proved
ability. The present concern is chiefly with children and youth in schools, although some attention is given to college
students who are underachievers.
It is estimated that 13 to 15 per cent of students in school or college are underachievers. Special attention is given to
underachievers in the upper ability group, but those in the middle group are taken into consideration as well.
Research studies do not as yet determine all the causes of this underachievement. It seems certain, however, that the
family is a very important factor. One study found that higher achievement (less underachievement) was related to the
following:
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4. Parents who were concerned about the achievement of their children and who took positive action regarding their
progress in school.
Other studies seem to indicate that high achievers possess certain personality traits. Among these are the following:
1. They have more positive character traits.
2. They are more reliable and have greater inclination to participate in extracurricular activities.
3. They have greater emotional health, fewer emotional disturbances (in many cases the underachiever had a higher degree
of emotional disturbance than the achiever).
5. In many cases bright children, as they grow older, tend to cover up their high ability because they do not want to be
called "teachers' pets" or to seem brighter than their friends.
7. Unlike underachievers, they do not tend to rationalize errors and underachievements in such a way that they do not feel
responsible and make no effort to improve.
During the years from age five to eleven the school has the best opportunity to give assistance to the underachiever, for
this is when evidence of underachievement first appears.
Teachers, administrators, counsellors, and parents should work together on a cooperative basis to identify the
underachiever and to assist him. One of the best services a counsellor can give is to have faith and belief in the student
and to feel that he can help him.
An imaginative and capable teacher can be of great help in understanding the student and in helping him to realize his
situation and to develop the desire to achieve up to his ability.
Studies show clearly the importance of guidance in assisting youth to achieve the level of accomplishment suited to their
abilities.
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There are, however, some dangers in this process. It is not possible for every individual to attain this goal, nor is it always
desirable. One must also consider other facets of his life than achievement in school alone—health, social obligations and
development, citizenship, membership in a family, etc.
It is by no means unusual for an ambitious student, when the urge is for high achievement, to impair his eyesight and
health or to miss the social and cultural values in college life. Some people believe that unusual ability in music, art,
literature, inventiveness, etc., is "God-given" and that this gift demands all-out effort to attain its full development.
There is no doubt that in the history of civilization there are many instances where this effort for achievement has been of
immeasurable value. But there have been instances where it has been of immeasurable harm. Its value depends upon the
nature of the ability. It may be good, or it may be evil.
There is also a tendency to forgive the evil conduct of a person who has given something of great value, a sort of
bookkeeping of comparing the "good that a man does" with the bad that he does. There are many cases where the great
good that is given to the world has far less of an effect than the evil done.
2. Explain the nature of Rehabilitation Programmes and their relationship with guidance for the Physically Handicapped.
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The wise choice of an occupation is of extreme importance. It should be one that is suited to the abilities of the individual
and that will enable him to fulfil his basic needs, to develop his "self-image". The wise choice of leisure-time activities is
also important not only to refresh and revive mind and body but also to minister to the aesthetic and spiritual side of life.
Life is more than the sum of all its parts. Some unifying principle is needed which will bind together all the aspects and
activities of one's life into one consistent whole. This is found in the concept of the life goal. This being the case, the
choice of a life goal is, perhaps, the most important choice in one's life. The process of selecting a suitable life goal is one
of the most essential and complex experiences in the area of guidance.
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A life goal is one that permeates all the aspects of one's life at any given time. To attain it may involve all the areas in
one's life. It may be reached in a short time or never. The important element is the effort to attain, not the attainment.
A life goal is based upon and determined by a set of values that govern, bind together, and give meaning to all the
activities of a person's life. It provides a center for the gradual integration of all the physical, intellectual, and emotional
factors in life.
A valid life goal must take into consideration the worth of the individual himself and his obligation to society. Such a goal
is a rejection of the idea that a man's job is the most important thing in his life and that all his activities should be
centered around it. A job is not an end in itself but merely a means to a larger and more important goal. This point of
view, while generally accepted as an ideal, is often forgotten in practice.
The implication or this position is that the life of an individual should be considered as an organic whole, not as a mixture
of more or less unrelated and often conflicting elements. Therefore, in considering the usefulness, effectiveness, or
desirability of any job or any aspect of life, the entire pattern of life should be taken into account, not merely one segment
of it.
One should take into consideration how a given job will contribute to the attainment of one's life goal. While there are
other elements of value that must be considered—working conditions, wages, chances for advancement, etc.—the life goal
itself is the crucial element that ties together and serves to complement and give meaning to the job as a part of the life of
the individual.
There is, for most persons, no one best, predetermined avenue through which the life goal may be realized. Any one of a
number of different avenues may be equally effective and satisfactory in getting an individual to his goal. The particular
avenue that we take is influenced by many different elements in our environment.
One does not always need to change jobs in order to make his occupation more useful in achieving his goal. In most
occupations there is some opportunity for a personal adjustment that may make it possible to use the job in such a way
that it will be more helpful in the attainment of the life goal.
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Life is full of illustrations of men and women who have so interpreted their jobs and so governed their activities as to
make them avenues through which they have attained their life goal. The lives of individual we know—carpenters,
plumbers, nurses, lawyers—constantly remind us that any job that is not in itself antisocial may be used in such a way as
to contribute to human welfare when making such a contribution is the worker's life goal.
There are as many life goals possible as there are value systems and different social contexts in which the values can find
expression. Some may devote themselves to working for the equality of opportunity for all Americans. Some may think
that the highest goal is the achievement of peace and good will among nations.
"To make two blades of grass grow where only one grew before" may be a life goal. Others wish to emulate Schweitzer,
Gandhi, or Lincoln. These and other purposes can give meaning to life and help the individual make choices of all kinds as
they are related to this goal.
It is often very difficult to select a life goal that is suited to the abilities, needs, and interests of the individual and that has
a reasonable promise of attainment. After the choice is made, it is sometimes difficult or impossible to reach the goal.
Both choice and attainment often require assistance from others. The process of so clarifying our values that we know
what we stand for is a lifelong task.
Many live confused, shallow lives unable to differentiate the important from the trivial. While we should not expect most
students to have clear and expressible life goals, we should assume some responsibility for helping them to learn the
dimensions of this human problem and to have some acquaintance with the major tools useful in its solution.
A life goal is not a gift from the gods. It is not inherited but learned. Parents, teachers, and associates may do much to
shape
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an individual's life goal as may his general social environment with its war, famine, disease, estrangement of parents, or
death of close friends. A person develops his life goal slowly, often unconsciously, and may revise it from time to time.
Sometimes a religious conversion or a personal tragedy may cause sudden dramatic changes.
Although it is usually not fully developed until maturity and sometimes not even then, the important elements begin to
appear in adolescence. It is clear, then, that the period represented by the secondary school and college is of maximum
importance in the development of a life philosophy—in the formation of a life goal. The guidance needed for this phase of
development lends itself especially well to group discussion, supplemented from time to time by individual counselling.
Here, again, is where teachers can be of great help, especially teachers of English, history, science, music, and art. The
lives of men and women who have made contributions in these fields can be studied and emphasis given to their special
gifts, their purposes, and their motives.
The school will influence the life goals of its students whether it wishes to or not. The only question which remains is
whether the influence is to be unconscious, disorganized, and negative or whether it will be conscious, systematic, and
positive.
The importance of a life goal is forcible demonstrated in the findings of Roe and Super in their investigations of the
factors that are associated with the choice of an occupation. Among these factors is the "self-image," or the "self-concept."
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of such statements as, "I am this sort of a person. These are my strengths and my weaknesses. These are the things I like
to do."
Although a self-concept is far from being a life goal, it is a very important factor in the choice of a life goal. Self-
realization is becoming what one wants to be, and what one wants to be should take into consideration what one is—the
present self-concept.
A life goal, however, is far broader and more comprehensive than the image of what one is now. The selection of an
impelling life goal often serves to eliminate weaknesses and to utilize strengths not apparent to the individual; in short, it
provides motivation.
In the two-way classification of occupations described by Roe, it can easily be seen how a clear life goal might help in the
realistic choice of one of the occupational groups, but it would be of even greater significance in the choice of a level of
work.
The relationship of the self-concept to the life goal is an instrumental one because, while the life goal should underlie and
be basic to any valid occupational choice, the self-concept governs the selection of the best avenue or channel for
attaining it.
There is real danger that the use of the self-concept may be restricted to the selection of an occupation. To be of
maximum value it should include a clarification of factors and traits which may not be closely related to what is called
"success on the job" but which are definitely essential to a successful life. Guidance should help an individual relate his
self-concept to his goals in such a way that he achieves "peace of mind" or "serenity of spirit."
Because a life goal brings together all the forces of the individual upon a single objective, it exerts a tremendous influence
on the accomplishment of the objective chosen. The result may be useful or disastrous to the individual himself or to
society. History is full of examples of both.
Without question the life goal that has had the greatest
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influence for good is that of service to others. Service is the keystone on which any stable and enduring government is
built. In human history civilization after civilization has fallen because it has placed the selfish interest of the rulers above
service to its people. Nearly every world religion is based on the concept of a supreme being and the obligation to serve
one another.
Certain occupations, such as medicine, nursing, law, teaching, social work, and the ministry, are based directly upon
service to others. And all have been of great benefit to society.
There are many organisations like Rotary, Kiwanis, Lions, and optimists which are distinctly service agencies devoted to
high standards of professional, business, and civic life, to good citizenship, and to mutual assistance to fellow members.
Many of these service clubs have direct connections with young people in school and college.
Satisfaction is a state of mind or an emotion that normally results from the successful attempt to reach a goal or satisfy a
felt need. It is an essential element in a successful life and an invaluable asset in learning. It is imperative for every
individual to have satisfaction somewhere in his life.
Satisfaction may also come from the effort to attain the goal even when the goal is not reached or the need satisfied. The
very difficulty of attaining the goal becomes a challenge which may have value. As Ram said, "Keep the quality of effort
alive within you by doing some gratuitous exercises every day."
Satisfacton in itself, however, cannot be a safe guide to the choice of an occupation or any other goal. Unfortunately
satisfaction may also come from the effort to attain a harmful or undesirable goal. Theft, rape, murder, oppression, cruelty
give satisfaction to some people. It is the goal that is important, not the satisfaction in achieving it.
But within the group of useful and desirable occupations that are suited to the needs and abilities of the individual, the
possible satisfactions are very important in determining choice. Some occupations give opportunity for pride and
satisfaction in the quality of. the product and by the contribution that the worker makes to it.
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In some others, however, the worker never sees the finished product but merely feeds an automatic machine that makes
only a small part of it. In such situations whatever satisfaction the worker gets is from the wages received and, possibly,
from his friendly relations with other workers.
The present tendency is to increase the proportion of occupations that involve complicated machinery. Thus the
professions now give the greatest opportunity for satisfaction in work. As already pointed out, although satisfaction alone
is not a safe guide for the choice of an occupation, it may be a real help in such a choice.
The types of activity which give satisfaction vary with different individuals. Some get their satisfaction in the production
of articles made out of cloth, wood, metal, or plastic. Others get satisfaction from gardening, horticulture, farming, or
forestry; and others, from working with people in such occupations as teaching, nursing, medicine, the law, and social
work.
The hope of satisfaction may serve as a guide in choosing an occupation by permitting a comparison of the activities that
give the individual satisfaction with those that are involved in various occupations.
The selection of a life goal is often very difficult for youth. It is hard to choose one which is suited to the abilities, needs,
and interests of the individual and which has a reasonable promise of attainment. Youth's limited experience does not
provide sufficient background for a wise choice. Parents, teachers, and counsellors can help by suggesting types of life
goals for consideration.
Although the school teacher and the counsellor are barred from exerting any influence regarding the religious beliefs and
activities of the youth, the very knowledge that the youth is active in the church may help them to understand his attitudes
and conduct. It might aid the counsellor in his attempt to give guidance toward life goals.
Especially in assistance in the selection of a life goal are the church and the school on common ground. In this country the
basic ideals of character and conduct—honesty, integrity, obedience to authority, sincerity, industry, loyalty, and service
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to others—are evidences of good citizenship and are essential elements in Christian living.
The special contribution of the church is to provide the religious incentive in the selection of a life goal and in the effort
to attain the goal selected. Cooperation between school and church is often very difficult to develop, and great care must
be taken that neither the public school nor the church assume the special rights and privileges of the other.
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Need for further formal education; problems of courtship, and marital and family adjustment; job placement, and job
efficiency and satisfaction; leisure-time and recreational activities—these represent some of the major areas of adjustment
among younger adults.
The young person between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five usually is forward looking and hopeful for the future. If
his educational experiences and the guidance he received during childhood and adolescence were adequate for his
developing needs, he enters adulthood relatively well prepared to take on responsibilities. He feels secure in his ability to
cope with whatever may lie ahead of him.
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Not all young people, however, are ready for the responsibilities that are inherent in adult status. To gain a desirable
degree of confidence in themselves and in their power to achieve success in the various areas of adult experience. As an
adult he wants to gain security, both financially and socially, but he may find himself without a definite plan of action. If
he is unmarried, there is the problem of finding the right mate. If he is married, problems arise in connection with mate
adjustment and the coming of young children into the home.
He may be at loose ends socially, having lost contact with his school friends. He may have neglected to associate himself
with others of his own age through participation in community sponsored social and recreational organisations. It is during
this period that the young adult begins to assume specific citizenship responsibilities as he first exercises his voting rights.
Hence he may become the victim of political ideologies that intrigue his youthful enthusiasm.
No matter how well-prepared vocationally a young man or woman is when ready to start occupational activities, there are
many work adjustments that need to be made. Seeking and finding the right kind of job and becoming accustomed to new
fellow workers, administrators, and work activities are not always easy. These experiences can cause serious emotional
upset.
As the young worker becomes better acquainted with the conditions and activities of the job, he may discover that he is
not satisfied with them and wants to change, or he may become so interested in his work that he is fired with ambition to
improve his efficiency or to advance his position. In either case he is likely to be motivated to continue his education
beyond his formal study activities.
Usually by the time a man or woman reaches the forties, he or she has developed a relatively fixed pattern of life. The
person may have become increasingly engrossed in day-by-day activities and interests that deal chiefly with provision of
the necessities and some luxuries for himself and his family-It is likely that he or she has made certain more or less
satisfying
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adjustments in attitude and behaviour habits to the conditions existent in the home, in social and occupational activities,
and in political conditions.
In some cases, the middle-aged adult becomes restless; he realises that he had allowed some of the good things of life to
pass him by. Youthful dreams of adventure, of success, of participation in many and varied activities have not been
realised. He may come to feel that his life has been an almost complete failure. He sees younger men and women enjoying
those experiences which he has missed.
This is a dangerous age in the life of many men and women. The realisation that they are not getting any younger
stimulates in them the desire to make up for lost time. Old age may seem to be just around the corner. Hence they may
attempt to throw themselves headlong into new experiences with what may seem to be a return of youthful vigor and
enthusiasm. Rarely does such a course of action provide the satisfaction that is expected of it. Habits that have become
relatively fixed cannot be changed suddenly and definitely. Moreover, the physical constitution of the middle-aged or
older person cannot take the 'beatings' that it once took.
This is the age period, however, during which the man and woman who have lived rich and full lives during their earlier
years now may find time for participation in many satisfying and worthwhile activities. There are books to be read, places
to be visited, philanthropic and community projects to be engaged in, and social relationships to be enjoyed for which
little time was available during the 'busy' years.
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Immediacy of Need
Although education and guidance during childhood and adolescence are aimed at helping the young person adjust to his
areas of experience, cognizance also is taken of the fact that the pre-adult needs and should receive help in preparing
himself for the next step in the educational ladder or for participation in future home, social, and vocational activities.
An adult's needs and interests usually are not concerned so much with the future as with the present. What he does now,
of course, may affect what happens in the future, but it is the present that is of primary concern to him. Guidance services
for an adult must take into consideration his existing conditions and their background, and must render assistance that can
be of immediate value to him.
Types of Guidance
Guidance services made available to an adult, as on lower age levels, must enter into every phase of his life pattern. The
adult may need guidance toward the achievement of well-adjusted marital and family relations. His whole pattern of sex-
stimulated thought and behaviour may give rise to serious emotional conflict unless he has been helped from childhood on
to develop wholesome attitudes and forms of conduct.
Satisfactory worker adjustment is important to both the employer and the employee, but sometimes it is difficult to
achieve. Hence many business and industrial organisations maintain a well-organised personnel department for orientation
on the job and for the rendering of adjustive services to those employees who may experience occupational or personal
problems of adjustment.
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Every adult, no matter how interested he is in his occupational pursuits, needs time off for play. Participation in
wholesome social and recreational activities is one of the most effective means of increasing worker efficiency.
If men and women are to exercise their citizenship rights of participating either directly or indirectly in governmental
affairs, they need to be kept informed as to what is happening and what their citizenship responsibilities are. They need
objective fair-minded, and nonpartisan education and guidance. A beginning in this direction has been made but we still
are faced with the task of surmounting party politics.
Last but not least, the physical and mental health of all adults should be the primary concern of the individual himself and
of society as a whole. Our hospitals for the physically or mentally ill are overcrowded. Physical health guidance is
becoming increasingly effective. Medical research, the dissemination of information concerning diseases and the taking of
precautionary measures and the work of health clinics are bringing about a commendable improvement in the physical
health of the citizens.
Mental health is not a static condition; once arrived at, it cannot be effortlessly maintained. Mental health consists of— it
is—a dynamic balance. It is an emotional equilibrium amidst stresses and pressures in relation to which we must
progressively find adjustment.
The following are some of the aspects of life in relation to which each of us continuously seeks to maintain his balance:
On the one hand there are: Which, on the other hand, must be balanced against:
1. One's assets 1. One's liabilities
2. One's assets 2. Others' assets
3. The giving of affection, sympathy, and understanding 3. The receiving of affection, sympathy, and understanding
4. Enjoyment of work 4. Enjoyment of play
5. Enjoyment of activity 5. Enjoyment of rest and quiet
6. Enjoyment of working co-operatively 6 Enjoyment of working alone
7. The enjoyment of success 7. Ability to accept failure
8. Seeing failure as due sometimes to one's own 8. Seeing failure as due sometimes to environmental
limitations difficulties
9. The ability to think 9. The ability to feel
10. The ability to be a leader 10. The ability to be a follower
11. The ability to recognise that there are powers beyond our
11. The ability to use one's abilities to the utmost
control
12. The ability to recognise conscious factors as important 12. The ability to recognise unconscious factors as important
in our motivation in our motivation
13. A respect for the mind 13. A respect for the body
14. One's own sex 14. The opposite sex
15. One's worth simply by virtue of being a person 15. The vastness of the universe
16. The past before one was born and the years that will
16. The importance of the years one lives
follow one's death
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Balance successfully maintained (or re-established), in terms of the stresses suggested above, not only is mental health,
but also insures the future mental health of him who can maintain it.
Every teacher of adults is a counsellor whether or not he devotes all of his time to classroom instruction. An adult is more
likely than a younger person to ask questions of a teacher in whom he has confidence. Since many who teach courses in
adult education are part-time employees and since the courses are given at hours convenient for busy people, the
instructors selected can be those who not only are qualified as teachers but also are interested in others and have some
counselling potential.
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of personal adjustment; orientation to the subject, the class, and the programme; remedial instruction; enrichment of the
course for those who have the background; and class and out-of-class activities.
The classes should be small enough to permit the teacher to give special help to every student. Adult learners usually are
co-operative because they want to gain something other than credit from their participation in learning activities.
Among the types of problems that may be brought to the attention of the teacher by his adult students are these:
2. Is it desirable to center one's social life in people who are in the same business or profession as oneself?
3. Why is it important to have friends of both sexes?
4. In order to be popular, must one always subordinate his personal interests to those of the group?
7. Should married people include their older relatives in their social activities?
8. What are the leisure-time activities in the community in which one could engage with enjoyment?
If the adult is unmarried he may be interested in conferring with the teacher or counsellor on questions like these:
1. Can one discover before marriage whether or not the other person will be a good husband or wife?
2. What should the young man or woman do if the chosen mate receives family disapproval?
4. What should a man or woman tell the other concerning previous romantic experiences?
6. Should a man and woman break old friendships when they marry?
If a couple are in their early years of marriage, they may be interested in answers to questions of this kind:
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2. Should a couple be expected to give up social activities after children are born?
3. To what extent should a wife show interest in her husband's occupational work?
During the middle years of married life one or the other of the mates may want advice concerning these matters:
3. Need the fact that a woman has reached her menopause interfere with marital happiness?
4. What should a person do upon discovering that his mate no longer loves him?
5. To what extent should the middle-aged couple engage in social activities together?
Questions might be asked at any age about the adjustments to older people or of them. Among the questions asked are
these:
2. Should the care of old people be the responsibility of their families or of society?
3. For whom are the problems of old age more difficult— a man or a woman?
4. What forms of recreation are desirable for older men and women?
5. How can a person best prepare himself for his declining years?
When men and women are concerned with their vocational welfare, they may raise questions such as the following with
their teachers or counsellors.
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4. Should a person accept a job away from home if this necessitates leaving his family and friends?
5. If a man has a family to support, should he remain in a steady job which he does not enjoy or should he take a chance
in a new venture?
The type of questions concerning social activities about which adults might seek guidance are:
2. In order to be popular with a group, to what extent should one subordinate his personal interests to those of the group?
5. Should a central community service be established for the social welfare of housewives?
6. Could more publicity be given to community and civic activities, so that more adults may know about them?
Later many of them were separated from established institutions but continued their counselling activities as low-fee,
private agencies. Unfortunately, we still lack a sufficient number of adult counselling centers to serve the many adults and
out-of-school youth who have begun to recognise the practical value of expert assistance in solving their educational,
vocational, and personal problems.
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Most teachers of adults are interested and concerned about the vocational plans of their students. Some are qualified to
give informal but excellent advice in areas of relatively simple decision-making. To meet student demand for adequate
guidance in more serious problem-solving situations, however, school-sponsored adult education programmes must
include organised counselling services conducted by trained personnel.
The Interview
The focal point of adult counselling, as in the guidance of children and adolescents, is the individual conference or
interview. Many of the educational and vocational problems on the adult level are similar. Yet, the social, economic, and
personal factors which enter into the satisfactory solution of a particular individual's problem are numerous and varied.
Hence, to render effective assistance, the counsellor needs to have accumulated a background of information on the
counselee as well as to discover other pertinent facts during the course of the interview or series of conferences.
The counsellor's interview approach must be tactful and cautious. No matter how eager he is for help, the adult counselee
tends to resent actual or imagined probing by the counsellor; he is sensitive about "baring his soul" to another adult,
perhaps younger than he is. Sometimes, the more serious the problem, the more likely is the individual to be unco-
operative. The experienced educational or vocational counsellor then refers the case to an appropriate specialist or
community agency.
About three-fourths of the boys and girls in the United States do not go to college. The educational, social, personal, and
vocational interests of these young men and women should not be neglected. The probably received some help during
their elementary and high-school years, but even more than those who go to college do these young people need continued
guidance.
Trained persons know how to encourage these older adolescents and young adults to further their best interests and
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Not only have many opportunities been provided for continued learning by adults after they supposedly have completed
their formal schooling and have moved into the field of productive activity but also, in increasing numbers, individuals are
taking advantage of those opportunities.
So many are the offerings in programmes of adult-education that, contrary to his earlier school experiences, the adult
student now is able to select a course or courses in light of his immediate interest rather than to fulfill graduation
requirements.
If an adult is taking a course associated directly in a practical way with his existing interests and responsibilities, he
generally experiences no difficulty in giving it his full attention. The parent who is attending a course on child-care
dovetails the content of the course with his or her daily activities as he attempts to apply in parent-child relations some of
the principles or practices discussed in class.
In the same way, a worker whose study activity is aimed at the improvement of the work in which he is engaged during
the day attempts to carry study material into workroom practices.
On the adult level, study difficulties are more likely to accompany attempts to master subject matter that is unrelated to
one's daily activities or one's cultural interests. Systematic studying is not always easy for the adult. Study engaged in for
the purpose of providing for future or anticipated needs, the content of which is unrelated to one's present life pattern or
interest but the mastery of which may be required, is not done without a great deal of effort.
The student may find that he does not know how to tackle the material; he may not follow the instructor's discussion of a
topic; he may permit his attention to wander; and (most serious of all) he may become discouraged and decide that the
results are not worth the effort he is putting forth. In such instances, the encouraging 'prodding' that is given by an
interested counsellor has great guidance possibilities.
The students in even a single course in adult education differ among themselves in many ways: age, occupation,
educational
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background, mental ability, ambition, and attitude. Nevertheless, they have one thing in common; they are eager to
improve their knowledge, skill, or attitudes in a particular area of interest, such as better family living, vocational
advancement, greater cultural understanding, refined appreciation of one of the arts, or improved skill in a sport or other
recreational activity.
These adult students may possess a wealth of background knowledge or "know-how" gained through experience; they are
critical; they are in class to learn quickly and will, not to accumulate credits.
They demand inspiring teachers who are thoroughly grounded in subject matter and whose teaching methods will enable
them to learn with a minimum of effort. They want to obtain new knowledge or skills as a result of class discussion or
activities. They are busy people, so they do not want to be required to engage in difficult study during out-of-class time.
Adults resent, as do most adolescents, an instructor's treating them as if they were children. This is especially noticeable in
classes for non-English speaking adults. Yet, adults will lean heavily on the instructor; a few have a tendency to
monopolise his time and help at the expense of other members of the group. Because of strong motivation toward one or
another form of self-realisation, the instructor becomes the key person in the education and guidance which adults seek.
Adults welcome also the opportunity afforded them by the class situation for making social contacts. In fact, the strongest
motivation for attending adult education classes sometimes is the need for socialising as a relief from routine home or
work experiences.
In order for the group leader to function effectively as a mentor and guide it is imperative that he possess certain
confidence-instilling characteristics. Among other qualities he
(5) has so thorough a mastery of his subject matter that his approach is functional, inspiring the students to
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(6) presents subject matter in such a way that much of it can be learned during the class period,
(7) avoids arousing any feeling of shame, inadequacy, or failure in the mentally slower students,
(9) shows concern for the health and safety of his students,
(11) maintains a high level of student interest and participation throughout the course meetings. To the teacher who brings
to his work these attitudes and behaviour patterns will come the rewards that accompany satisfaction in any line of
endeavour; the payment in appreciation from his students will be immediate, heartwarming, and lasting.
A community gudiance center may be organised for the purpose of giving personal and professional guidance to out-of-
school youth and adults. A number of these were started by the Veterans' Administration and are serving as the nucleus
for services that are being carried on now that veteran needs have been reduced. These centers are becoming integral parts
of the community service programme. They are being made available to all out-of-school citizens in the community.
The services of this type of guidance programme should be articulated with the activities of other community agencies.
Each agency, however, should be allowed to continue its specialized serivce, in co-operation with the others.
In discussing the specific needs that can be met by community guidance services, R.H. Mathewson reports:
Among the specific services which the guidance center may provide in meeting needs expressed by adult clients are the
following:
Useful information about educational, vocational, economic, and other opportunities or services in the community.
Aid to the individual in making maximum use of
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opportunities and services in relation to his own needs. Specialized aid for persons with handicaps and disabilities.
Professional help with problems of emotional disturbance or disorder.
The personnel in charge of the guidance center should be equipped especially to deal with adults and their problems. No
guidance counsellor should find himself in a position similar to that which was reported by a graduate student in a course
dealing with improvement of instruction in colleges and universities. After taking two inadequate courses in guidance, he
had been assigned to assist other adults in meeting their personal problems.
When he interviewed the first counselee, he was frightened because he realised that he could not cope with the adjustment
problem posed and had to be frank about it. To be effective, guidance deserves better counsellor preparation than this
student had. Individuals should not be pleased in responsible positions unless and until they are qualified through training
and experience to deal with the types of problems that arise on the adult level. Specialists should be available in
appropriate agencies, and referrals should be permitted.
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Meaning of Leisure
Although the concept of leisure has varied in some respects from time to time, it has always carried with it the idea of free
time, that is, spare time at one's disposal. It is usually interpreted as time not spent on the activities of making a living,
keeping alive, or maintaining one's efficiency—eating, sleeping, and the ordinary care of the body. Leisure is synonymous
with idleness or with a vocational activities.
Although human needs have a way of increasing with increased power to satisfy them, human ingenuity has developed
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ways of greatly increasing the power to satisfy them. The satisfaction of our needs has been accomplished by increasing
man's ability to produce, by increasing the quality and quantity of products of the land, by the discovery of new sources of
food, and by the invention of tools and machinery that enable one man to do the work of fifty in gathering and processing
food materials.
Many men work hard, taking no time for relaxation, with the avowed purpose of making enough money to retire and enjoy
their leisure. When the time for retirement comes, however, they find themselves either so broken in health that they
cannot enjoy their free time or unable to enjoy it because they never have learned how.
We may have thrust upon us five or six hours a day which cannot be spent in the activities of one's job. The old ideals of
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work and 'busyness' are quite inadequate to deal with such a situation.
As a result of these changed economic and social conditions, we are rapidly developing a leisure class, not like the old
privileged wealthy class, but a class composed of the entire group of unskilled, semiskilled, and skilled workers who
constitute the great majority of the population. We are indeed witnessing the movement of a whole society into a way of
life which has hitherto been reserved for a special privileged class.
Whether the same shortening of the hours of labour will apply to professional workers remains to be seen. The problem of
leisure time is quite possibly the greatest single problem for education today.
Recently Herbert Hoover stated, "This civilization is not going to depend on what we do as we work as much as what we
do in our spare time." This situation is both a challenge and an opportunity.
As increased leisure becomes available for millions, there will be more time available for individuals to develop their
talents to the greatest potential, thereby achieving new dimensions of happiness and satisfaction.
When leisure time is merely a short breathing space between long periods of sustained labour, its function has been to
increase production. This is accomplished by giving the worker a rest from time to time—the "coffee break"—so that he
can recover from fatigue and accomplish more. Sometimes the employer helps his employees to get comfortable homes
and provides better working conditions, rest rooms, or recreation facilities.
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This practice helps his business, for it creates goodwill and increases production. The Roman emperors provided holidays
for the populace, great gladiatorial combats, thrilling spectacles, and sports of all kinds. These activities helped the
common people to be satisfied with their lot and to produce more.
Leisure is also thought of as a means of increasing consumption. The more time an individual has free from work, the
greater is his demand for goods that will help him make his leisure more satisfying. This fact is evidenced by the great
demand for sporting goods of all kinds.
Consumption of this kind also increases production, and so it is good for business. Both these points of view about the
function of leisure are founded on a belief in the sacredness of work and the importance of increasing wealth as an end in
itself.
Crime and delinquency flourish when youth and adults have nothing worthwhile to do, when they have "time on their
hands." It has been shown in many cities that, whenever interesting sports and other useful activities are provided,
delinquency decreases. Productive people are less likely to engage in crime, but few would subscribe to the notion that we
should keep people working simply in an attempt to keep them out of mischief.
The functions of leisure time just mentioned fail to touch the most fundamental and important need of an individual—the
need for his development as a human being. This idea is well expressed by James Truslow Adams:
It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of a social order in which each man and each woman
shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognised by others for what they
are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.
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If we are to meet the problem presented by our enforced leisure, if we are to set up the machinery by which to realise the
development of the individual himself.
The required skills should be within the participant's capabilities. Before taking up a leisure-time activity, we may want to
ask ourselves some questions: "Do I have time for it? Can I afford it? Will it meet my social needs?"
There is a great variety of leisure-time activities and a great overlapping in meaning and purpose. Each activity has within
itself possibilities of different values or objectives. The value of an activity depends largely on the individual who
participates in it. For this reason it is impossible to make any completely satisfactory classification of leisure activities.
Many thousands of youths and adults are using their leisure time to prepare themselves for college, for better positions in
business and industry, and for different types of work. Evening schools, correspondence schools, and radio and television
courses are utilized for these purposes.
Thoreau had this purpose in mind when he wrote, "I went to the woods because 1 wished to live deliberately, to front only
the essential facts of life, and see if 1 could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had
not lived." Davies also felt the same.
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One of the most profitable and satisfying ways of spending leisure time is in quiet meditation. Some of the most valuable
contributions to literature, philosophy, religion, and science have resulted from this practice. What would our world be
today without dreamers? When we think of activity, we too often think of activity of the body only, forgetting that
thinking and feeling are also activities.
Creative Activities
These activities are those where one does not sit passively and enjoy the creation of others but participates in the creation.
The field of such activities is very wide and offers opportunity for everyone.
Under this category would come the composition of music, painting, sculpturing, dressmaking, cooking, working in wood,
metal, or other material, writing, and any other activity in which one is not merely a spectator but actually produces
something. Such activities give us satisfaction and a feeling of accomplishment.
Recreation
As usually understood, recreation may include practically all types of leisure-time activities, especially amateur sports and
games—anything done just for fun. However, its original meaning has great significance. 'Recreation' has the meaning
indicated in 're-creation.' It means to revive, to refresh, to renew. It presupposes that the individual once had something
that he valued and has now lost it or is in danger of losing it because of exhaustion, ill health, neglect, or some other
cause; through recreation he wants to get it back.
'Re-creation' includes the need for rest or for types of exercise which will renew one's strength. It also includes renewal of
happiness, faith, courage, trust in people; the meaning of life, of sorrow, of sickness, of death. It thus includes every type
of human activity which helps in the renewal of human values.
A common type of recreation is a hobby. A hobby may be described as a non-vocational activity that involves more than a
mere passing interest and one to which one turns persistently when opportunity permits.
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Hobbies are recognised as being among the most valuable of the leisure-time activities. Some authorities say that every
person should have some sort of hobby, but this certainly is an exaggeration because not infrequently a number of varied
activities is more valuable to a particular individual. Hobbies may have a great prognostic value for the choice of an
occupation.
Escape
Escape activities are those engaged in as a release from the daily round of labour or from situations that are unpleasant or
disturbing. They are calculated to make one forget unhappiness, at least temporarily. They must, therefore, be absorbing
activities and as different as possible from the experience that caused the unpleasant emotions. A large number of people
employ their spare time in activities that are entirely of this kind. They read detective stories, romantic novels, the sports
page, the comics. "At work man is sublime; at leisure he is ridiculous."
Service Activities
These are the activities that are done to help others. They may take the form of a personal service to a member of the
family or a friend or services to various groups and clubs. Many service activities may also become creative ones.
Women who volunteer to help in hospitals and men who work with youth groups are performing service activities. Leisure
time spent in such activities may give the feeling of satisfaction which comes from being engaged in a socially valuable
task.
Competitive Activities
These are the activities in which one person or group seeks to surpass another person or group in the exercise of certain
skills. In door and outdoor games and sports of all kinds come under this heading. These activities are among the most
popular ways of spending leisure time and may have very great value for the participants.
Some critics say, with a fair amount of truth, that with the great popularity of professional sports we are afflicted with
'spectatoritis' and do not engage enough in sports directly. There
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are, however, some real recreational values in being a spectator with a large social group witnessing the same exercises
and cheering for "our side."
Through the curriculum are developed the fundamental skills in reading, writing, art, music, home economics, and
industrial arts which are essential to effective participation in many of the leisure-time activities. We must rely on class
instruction to develop an interest in such activities and a desire to participate in them. There needs to be a somewhat
radical change in the attitudes of some superintendents, principals, and teachers before the school can become really
effective in its contribution to the leisure-time activities of the students.
Even more important is the change that needs to take place in the patrons of the school. The taxpaying public and school
boards must be persuaded that activities preparing students for the wise use of leisure are not "fads and frills" to be
eliminated when the financial situation becomes acute. More time and attention have to be given to the school's
responsibility for assisting the students to develop the skills for effective leisure-time activities and for making wise
choices among such activities.
Although closely related to the organised classes, the various forms of student clubs and activities and the general school
life contribute much toward preparing for wise choice of leisure-time activities. Student participation in the government of
the
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school affords splendid opportunity for acquiring facts about forms of government and for developing right attitudes
toward service activities, especially those related to citizenship.
The best preparation for civic responsibility in later life is participation in the duties connected with the social group with
which one is now connected. For the student, the most important group is the school. If students feel that the
responsibility for the government of the school rests partly upon them, they will assume a very different attitude toward
the life of the school and toward discipline.
One of the reasons why so-called 'student' government is not more helpful in civic guidance is that it is often student
government in name only. Policies are really decided by the principal, and the officers of the organisation are mere
puppets moving at his be best. To be effective, real responsibility should be placed upon the officers of the student body.
The government of the school should be a cooperative matter, with definite responsibility being delegated to the students
for some matters. Problems that arise in connection with the government of the school afford excellent material for group
discussions, assembly talks, homeroom conferences, and individual conferences between students and principal or teacher.
The student activities programme and the general school life are important factors in the acquisition of facts, in the
development of skills and attitudes that are useful in adjustment to others, and in general social relationships. Such
attainments are vital in appreciation and service activities. Most of one's life is concerned directly with other people, and
individual success and happiness are dependent in large measure upon the way in which one gets along with others.
Individuals differ by nature very greatly in their power to adapt themselves to social situations; for some, it is very easy;
for others, it is extremely difficult; for all, it is largely a matter of training. Everyone needs guidance in social adjustments
no matter what sort of home he may come from or how well he may be endowed by nature.
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It is not altogehter a question of honesty and fair dealing. Apparently it has nothing to do with respectability, for many
respectable people are not popular. It seems to me to be wholly a matter of manners...
Analyzing the various people who seem always to annoy me and "get on my nerves" is not difficult. Some of them are
boastful...
There are others who are flagrantly selfish in little things. They are openly bad mannered...
Another type I don't like is simply malicious. Persons of this class have bitter tongues and cruel minds. Their jests always
carry a sting...
The two-faced man or woman is difficult to endure. This type leaves a trail of broken confidences behind it...
Churlish people are unpopular everywhere. So are people filthy both of person and of speech...
The art of making friends lies in knowing how to avoid these dangers. It seems to me that he who would properly equip
his boy or girl for life in this world should begin early with the teaching of manners...
The man who has many friends has been a friend to many. He has understood the needs of many. He has known, without
being told, that other people like to have attention shown to them, and he has shown that attention graciously and
gracefully.
He has slighted no man needlessly. He has walked the earth with all men as one of them. He has understood the need of
all for laughter. The fellowship of joy and grief has been an open book to him. The chances are he has suffered sorrow,
and he knows how deeply it cuts, and he remembers when another is in trouble.
Manners, then, are of very great importance, and manners can be learned. In our cosmopolitan high schools, students need
special help because there are many social customs of which they are entirely ignorant. Since their homes do not give
help, someone else must. Help is given in classes set apart for this special purpose, by the definite provision for social
occasions in the school, by parliamentary activities in student assemblies,
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Some schools utilize the entire school life for purposes of social guidance. Formal and informal teas are given to accustom
students to such occasions and to train them in conduct proper to the occasion. Parents' receptions are organised with the
help of students. Formal and informal dances and parties are employed where invitations are issued and letters of
acceptance or regret are sent.
These activities are all organised and administered with the definite purpose of giving students the most practical help and
training in methods of social conduct and forms of social usage. Such matters are often considered in homeroom
discussions. Several very helpful manuals on manners have been written and are now being used in the schools.
Student clubs often serve to develop or to deepen interest in desirable activities that develop into hobbies or avocations in
later life and function as leisure-time activities, cultural and appreciative, creative, and service.
The physical education programme is directed partly toward the development of skills in certain games, group and
individual, and partly toward the development of an interest and desire to continue such participation after one's school
life is over.
If this work is to become really effective, studies should be conducted which will show the effect that certain forms of
recreation have upon the physical and mental life of the participants and the forms that are best suited to meet the needs of
different types of people. We need to examine our school programme of athletics and student clubs to determine which
ones will be helpful in after-school life.
We already know, for example, that the great majority of people, after they leave school, will not play football, baseball,
hockey, or basketball. They are far more likely to play golf, tennis, or volleyball, or to swim, go hiking, or dance. Group
play is valuable in many ways and should not be neglected, but directors of physical education are coming to feel that
such games should not crowd out forms of recreation in which most people will engage after they leave school. Definite
provision should be made in school for the development of an interest
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2. What are the social and personal functions of leisure? Discuss them briefly.
4. What are schools' responsibilities to provide guidance to the pupil towards "Leisure-Time Activities"?
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Unfortunately, these are attitudes which have long been held by some of our most eminent scholars and which still prevail
rather widely. Most of the educators perk up when
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they discover a child with a high Intelligence Quotient or a high score on some other traditional measure of intellectual
talent. They are impressed! Most of them are rather impressed if they discover in a child some outstanding talent.
There are very legitimate reasons why educators should be concerned about assessing and guiding the growth of the
creative thinking abilities. I would like to discuss a few of these.
Mental Health
Schools are legitimately concerned about the mental health of children, adolescents, college students, and adults. They
would like to be able to help their students avoid mental breakdowns and achieve healthy personality growth. These are
legitimate concerns of education. But what does all this have to do with creativity?
Actually, it has a great deal to do with creativity. There is little question but that the stifling of creativity cuts at the very
roots of satisfaction in living and ultimately creates overwhelming tension and breakdown (Patrick, 1955). There is also
little doubt that one's creativity is his most valuable resource in coping with life's daily stresses.
Schools are anxious that the children they educate grow into fully functioning persons. This has long been an avowed and
widely approved purpose of education. We say that education in a democracy should help individuals fully develop their
talents. Recently there have been pressures to limit this to intellectual talents. There has been much talk about limiting the
school's concern to the full development of the intellect only.
Even with this limited definition of the goals of education, the abilities involved in creative thinking cannot be ignored.
There has been increasing recognition of the fact that traditional measures of intelligence attempt to assess only a few of
man's thinking abilities. In his early work Binet (1909) recognised clearly this deficiency. It has taken the sustained work
of Guilford (1959a) and his associates to communicate effectively the complexity of man's mental operations.
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Certainly we cannot say that one is fully functioning mentally, if the abilities involved in creative thinking remain
undeveloped or are paralysed. There are the abilities involved in becoming aware of problems, thinking up possible
solutions, and testing them.
Educational Achievement
Almost no one disputes the legitimacy of the school's concern about educational achievement. Teachers and guidance
workers are asked to help under-achievers to make better use of their intellectual resources and to help over-achievers
become better 'rounded' personalities. But, how do you tell who is, an under-or over-achiever?
In my opinion, recent findings concerning the role of the creative thinking abilities in educational achievement call for a
revision of these long-used concepts.
We are finding (Getzels and Jackson, 1958; Torrance, 1960c) that the creative thinking abilities contribute importantly to
the acquisition of information and various educational skills. Of course, we have long known that it is natural for man to
learn creatively, but we have always thought that it was more economical to teach by authority.
Recent experiments (Moore, 1961; Ornstein, 1961) have shown that apparently many things can be learned creatively
more economically than they can by authority, and that some people strongly prefer to learn creatively.
Traditional tests of intelligence are heavily loaded with tasks requiring cognition, memory, and convergent thinking. Such
tests have worked rather well in predicting school achievement. When children are taught by authority these are the
abilities required.
Recent and ongoing studies, however, show that even traditional subject matter and educational skills can be taught in
such a way that the creative thinking abilities are important for their acquisition.
It is of special interest that the children with high IQ's were rated by their teachers as more desirable, better known or
understood, more ambitious, and more hardworking or studious. In other words, the highly creative child appears to learn
as much as the highly intelligent one, at least in some schools, without appearing to work as hard.
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Our guess is that these highly creative children are learning and thinking when they appear to be "playing around." Their
tendency is to learn creatively more effectively than by authority. They may engage in manipulative and/or exploratory
activities, many of which are discouraged or even forbidden. They enjoy learning and thinking, and this looks like play
rather than work.
Vocational Success
Guidance workers (school personnel doing guidance functions) have traditionally been interested in the vocational success
of their clients. Indeed, the guidance movement got much of its impetus form this concern. Of course, it has long been
recognized that creativity is a distinguishing characteristic of outstanding individuals in almost every field.
It has been generally conceded that the possession of high intelligence, special talent, and technical skills is not enough
for outstanding success. It has also been recognised that creativity is important in scientific discovery, invention, and the
arts.
Social Importance
Finally, educators are legitimately concerned that their students make useful contributions to our society. Such a concern
runs deep in the code of ethics of the profession. It takes little imagination to recognise that the future of our civilization
— our very survival—depends upon the quality of the creative imagination of our next generation.
Democracies collapse only when they fail to use intelligent, imaginative methods for solving their problems. Greece failed
to heed such a warning by Socrates and gradually collapsed.
What is called for is a far cry from the model of the quiz-programme champion of a few years ago. Instead of trying to
cram a lot of facts into the minds of children and make them scientific encyclopedias, we must ask what kind of children
they are becoming.
What kind of thinking do they do? How resourceful are they? Are they becoming more responsible? Are they learning to
give thoughtful explanations of the things they do and see? Do they believe their own ideas to be of value? Can they share
ideas and opinions with others? Do they relate similar experiences together in order to draw conclusions? Do they
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We also need more than well-rounded individuals. We ordinarily respect these well-rounded individuals, broad scholars,
and men of many talents. Dael Wolfle (1960) has made a case for those who develop some of their talents so highly that
they cannot be well-rounded. He argues that it is advantageous to a society to see the greatest achievable diversity of
talent among those who constitute the society.
GUIDANCE ROLES
Many will say, "Surely, schools have a right to be concerned about mental health, full mental functioning, educational
achievement, and vocational success. They ought to be concerned that coming generations contribute productively to our
society. But how can school guidance workers contribute to the creative growth necessary for these things?"
This is a legitimate question. Parents and peers play such important roles in the encouragement or discouragement of
creative expression and growth, what can school guidance workers do? There are at least six special roles which school
guidance workers can play in helping highly creative children maintain their creativity and continue to grow.
Each of these is a role which others can rarely fulfill. Our social expectations frequently prevent even teachers and
administrators from effectively fulfilling these roles. Thus, in some cases, only counsellors, school psychologists, and
similar workers will be able to fulfill these roles. In many cases, however, teachers and administrators can supply these
needs, if they differentiate their guidance roles from other socially expected roles.
(6) helping parents and others understand him. We shall now discuss each of these roles briefly.
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Provide a 'Refuge'
Society in general is downright savage towards creative thinkers, especially when they are young. To some extent, the
educational system must be coercive and emphasize the establishment of behaviour norms. Teachers and administrators
can rarely escape this coercive role.
Counsellors and other guidance workers are in a much better position to free themselves of it. Nevertheless, there are
ways teachers and administrators can free themselves of this role long enough to provide refuge, if they are sensitive to
the need.
From the studies of Getzels and Jackson (1958), we know that highly creative adolescents are estranged from their
teachers and peers. Minnesota studies indicate that the same holds true for children in the elementary school. The reasons
are easy to understand.
Who can blame teachers for being irritated when a pupil presents an original answer which differs from what is expected?
It does not fit in with the rest of the grading scheme. They don't know how the unusual answer should be treated. They
have to stop and think themselves. Peers have the same difficulty and label the creative child's unusual questions and
answers as 'crazy' or 'silly.'
Thus, the highly creative child, adolescent, or adult needs encouragement. He needs help in becoming reconciled and, as
Hughes Mearns (1941) once wrote, in being "made cheerful over the world's stubborn satisfaction in its own follies." The
guidance worker must recognise, however, that the estrangement exists and that he will have to create a relationship in
which the creative individual feels safe.
Be a Sponsor or Patron
Someone has observed that almost always wherever independence and creativity occur and persist, there is some other
individual or agent who plays the role of 'sponsor' or 'patron.' This role is played by someone who is not a member of the
peer group, but who possesses prestige and power in the same social system. He does several things.
Regardless of his own views, the sponsor encourages and supports the other in expressing and testing his ideas and in
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thinking through things for himself. He protects the individual from the reactions of his peers long enough for him to try
out some of his ideas and modify them. He can keep the structure of the situation open enough so that originality can
occur.
It is true contention that the school counsellor or guidance worker is in a better position than anyone else in the social
system to play this role, especially if such a role for him is sanctioned by the teachers and principal.
Since few elementary schools have counsellors or guidance workers, this role is usually assumed by principals. It is a
difficult role for a principal, however. Think of the role conflicts which must be involved in the following case of a
principal whose school participated in a research project on this subject.
In an experiment conducted on a Monday, one had observed the exceptional creative talent of Tom, a fourth grader.
Before leaving the school, the researcher asked the teacher about Tom. She volunteered the information that he had had a
struggle with most of his teachers, but that he had had a very successful experience in the third grade.
On Friday, the researcher returned to the school to conduct the experiment in some other classes. In the meantime, the
principal had observed this boy's class for an hour. During the mathematics class, Tom questioned one of the rules in the
textbook. Instead of having Tom try to prove his rule and perhaps modify it or explain the textbook rule, the teacher
became irate, even in the presence of the principal. She fumed, "So! You think you know more than this book!"
Tom replied meekly, "No, I don't think I know more than the book, but I'm not satisfied about this rule."
To get on safer ground, the teacher then had the class solve problems in their workbook. Tom solved the problems easily
and about as rapidly as he could read them. This too was upsetting to the teacher. She couldn't understand how he was
getting the correct answer and demanded that he write down all of the steps he had gone through in solving each problem.
Afterwards, the teacher asked the principal to talk to Tom. The principal explained to Tom that many things came easy to
him, such as solving problems, and perhaps he really didn't need to write out all of the steps. The principal also explained
that there are some other things like handwriting which came
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easier to others than to him and that he might have to work harder than some of the others on these things.
Apparently, this principal had been able to provide enough of the 'patron' role to permit him to keep alive his creativity up
to this time. Soon afterwards, Tom's family moved to a nearby suburb and he was duly enroled in a new school.
On Tom's very first day in the new school, the principal of the new school called the principal of the school from which
Tom had transferred. He wanted to know immediately if Tom is the kind of boy who has to be squelched rather roughly.
His former 'patron' explained that Tom was really a very wholesome, promising lad who needed understanding and
encouragement. The new principal exclaimed rather brusquely, "Well, he's already said too much right here in my office!"
We can certainly sympathize with the new principal. He must support his teachers and maintain good discipline in the
school. It is frequently difficult for a principal to play the 'sponsor' or 'patron' role. It is far more harmonious with the
position of the school counsellor. Nevertheless, it is a role which administrators and teachers may have to play.
Otherwise, promising creative talent may be sacrificed.
A high degree of sensitivity, a capacity to be disturbed, and divergent thinking are essentials of the creative personality.
Frequently, creative children are puzzled by their own behaviour. They desperately need help in understanding themselves,
particularly their divergence.
There are crucial times in the lives of creative children when being understood is all that is needed to help them cope with
the crisis and maintain their creativity.
The highly creative child has an unusually strong urge to explore and to create. When he thinks up ideas, or tests them,
and modifies them, he has an unusually strong urge to communicate his ideas and the result of his tests. Yet both peers
and teachers named some of the most creative children in our studies as ones who "do not speak out their ideas."
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ideas," there is little wonder that they are reluctant to communicate their ideas. Frequently, their ideas are so far ahead of
those of their classmates and even their teachers that they have given up hope of communicating.
All school guidance workers need to learn to perform this function more effectively. They must genuinely respect the
questions and ideas of children to sustain the highly creative child so that he will continue to think.
Information from many sources indicates that much creative talent goes unrecognised. In studies at all educational levels
(Torrance, 1960c), you will recall that over 70 per cent of those in the upper 20 per cent on tests of creative thinking
would be eliminated if only an intelligence or scholastic aptitude test had been used. Therefore, the teacher/guidance
worker must recognise the creative talent of the child at the earliest.
Guidance workers need to help parents and teachers recognise that everyone possesses to some degree the ability involved
in being creative, that these abilities can be increased or decreased by the way children are treated, and that it is a
legitimate function of the home and the school to provide the experiences and guidance which will free them to develop
and function fully.
Of course, these abilities are inherited, in the broad sense, that one inherits sense organs, a peripheral nervous system, and
a brain. The type of pursuit of these abilities and the general tendency to persist in their search is largely a matter of the
way parents and teachers treat children's creative needs.
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Guidance workers can, as I see it, help parents to guide highly creative children in two major ways. The first concerns the
parent's handling of the child's unusual ideas and questions, and the other involves helping such a child become less
obnoxious without sacrificing his creativity.
The school should help parents recognise that criticism-making fun of the child's ideas or laughing at his conclusions—
can prevent his expression of ideas. The parents experienced eyes and ears can help the child learn to look for and to listen
to important sights and sounds. The parent should stimulate the child to explore, ask questions, and try to find answers.
Many parents attempt too early to eliminate fantasy from the thinking of the child. Fantasy is regarded as something
unhealthy and to be eliminated. Fantasies such as imaginative role playing, fantastic stories, unusual drawings, and the like
are normal aspects of a child's thinking.
Many parents are greatly relieved to learn this and out of this understanding grows a better parent-child relationship.
Certainly we are interested in developing a sound type of creativity, but this type of fantasy, it seems to us, must be kept
alive until the child's intellectual development is such that he can engage in sound creative thinking.
Counsellors and administrators can be sympathetic with teachers and parents who are irritated by the unending curiosity
and manipulativeness of highly creative children. Endless questioning and experimenting can be inconvenient. Parents
may not appreciate the child's passion for first-hand observation. Persistent questioning can be very annoying. A mother of
a three-year old complained. "He wears me out just asking questions. He won't give up either, until he gets an answer; it's
just awful when he gets started on something!"
Counsellors, teachers, and administrators can help parents recognise the fact that there is value in such curiosity and
manipulativeness and that there can be no substitute for it. Parents should be encouraged to help the child learn to ask
good questions, how to make good guesses at the answers, and how to test the answers against reality.
Most parents find it extremely difficult to permit their children to learn on their own—even to do their school work on
their own. Parents want to protect their children from the
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hurt of failing. Individual administration of problems involving possible solutions to frustrating situations has shown that
the imagination of many children is inhibited by the tremendous emphasis which has been placed on prevention.
Certainly teaching of all kinds of failure is important, but overemphasis may deter children from coping imaginatively and
realistically with frustration and failure, which cannot be prevented. It may rob the child of his initiative and
resourcefulness.
All children learn by trial and error. They must try, fail, try another method, and if necessary, try even again. Of course,
they need guidance, but they also need to find success by their own efforts. Each child strives for independence from the
time he learns to crawl, and independence is a necessary characteristic of the creative personality.
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There has long been general agreement that personality factors are important in creative achievement. Even in the matter
of measuring the creative thinking abilities, there have been persistent and recurrent indications that personality factors are
important even in test performance. For example, Hargreaves (1927) hypothesized that the 'unknown' common factor
found in his measures of imagination is conative in nature. Guilford and his associates (Guilford, Christensen, Frick and
Merrifield, 1957) have also been interested in determining what relationships might exist between measures of traits of
temperament and motivation to measures of factors of ability within the areas of creative performance.
They found a large number of significant correlations between the non-aptitude traits and the measures of ideational
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fluency and originality. Ideational fluency appears to be related to impulsiveness, self-confidence, ascendance, greater
appreciation of originality, and inclination away from neuroticism. Those having higher originality scores tend to be more
interested in aesthetic expression, in meditative or reflective thinking, and appear to be more tolerant of ambiguity, and to
feel less need for discipline and orderliness.
1. Accepts disorder
2. Adventurous
3. Strong affection
4. Altruistic
5. Awareness of others
7. Attracted to disorder
8. Attracted to mysterious
12. Courageous
17. Determination
19. Discontented
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22. Emotional
24. Energetic
25. A fault-finder
33. Individualistic
34. Intuitive
35. Industrious
36. Introversive
41. Nonconforming
45. Persistent
46. Becomes preoccupied with problem
48. Questioning
49. Radical
55. Reserved
56. Resolute
57. Self-assertive
58. Self-starter
59. Self-aware
60. Self-confident
61. Self-sufficient
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66. Sincere
68. Speculative
71. Stubborn
72. Temperamental
73. Tenacious
75. Timid
76. Thorough
81. Visionary
82. Versatile
Creativity research has yielded results which provide counsellors with some very useful guides for maximizing the
usefulness of existing instruments such as the Strong Vocational
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Interest Blank, the Allport-Vernon-Lindzey Study of Values, and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory.
Some of the most useful research findings involving these instruments come from the studies of MacKinnon (1960) and
his associates at the University of California Institute for Personality Assessment and Research. A finding obtained in their
first study of graduate students and repeatedly confirmed in investigations of other groups is that individuals who rated
high on originality reveal a characteristic pattern of scores on the Strong Vocational Interest Blank.
The more original subjects, with slight variations from sample to sample, rate high on such scales as architect,
psychologist, author-journalist, and specialization level; and low scores on such scales as purchasing agent, office man,
banker, farmer, carpenter, veterinarian, policeman, and mortician.
Mac-Kinnon interprets these findings as indicating that creative individuals are less interested in small details and the
practical and concreate aspects of life, and more concerned with meanings, implications, and symbolic equivalents of
things and ideas.
A consistent finding from the use of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory occurs in the realm of sexual
identification and interests. All of MacKinnon's highly creative male groups show unusually high peaks on the
Masculinity-Feminity Scale. For example, he found a mean standard score of 72 for his group of creative architects. These
creative men were not characterised by markedly effeminate manner or appearance.
MacKinnon reports that in applying an adjective check list to describe these men, his staff frequently checked both
'masculine' and 'feminine.' They showed an openness to their feelings and emotions, a sensitive awareness of self and
others, and wide-ranging interests, many of which are regarded as feminine in our culture.
In one of Minnesota studies (Torrance, 1959c) involving the 1959 Summer Guidance Institute, an interesting
supplementary result was obtained. Beginning with the male counsellors having standard scores of 55 or above on the
Masculinity-Feminity Scale, the researcher identified two patterns: an independent pattern involving low social
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introversion, high manic and high psychopathic deviate, and a dependent pattern involving high scores on the neurotic
triad and psychasthenia.
Although the researcher drew items from many sources and constructed some of our own, we relied most heavily upon the
earlier work of the Runners (Runner Associates, 1954; Runner, 1954). Early in their work with the Runner Studies of
Attitude Patterns, they devised a scale which they originally labelled "Creative Attitude." Later they incorporated it into
their Individualist scale.
Although they have accumulated a wealth of evidence of validity in industrial and educational situations, they have not yet
published any of these interesting data. Kenyon Runner (1954) has, however, characterised the individualist pattern in a
way that is interesting. He lists the following as being the more common and observable attributes of the individualist:
1. Seeks change and adventure. Any system he follows will be his own system.
2. Inclined to sloppiness and disorganisation. May give meticulous attention to things important to him personally.
3. Tendency not to plan activities, inclined to wait for developments, and changes plans quickly. Doesn't expect to be able
to predict in detail and probably won't try.
5. Inclined to be chummy with strangers, not confining social activity to any certain groups. May talk too much or refuse
to talk if he is interested in something else.
6. Thinks of people as individuals; is tolerant and open-minded and has faith in goodness of people as individuals.
8. Disciplines himself to accomplishment of specific results; acts impulsively and fails to stick to any one course of action.
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Following leads from the Runners and from the theoretical formulation of Tumin (1953), the researchers assembled a 189-
item inventory entitled Personal-Social Motivation Inventory.
Tumin (1953), researchers hypothesized five motivations inimical to creative productivity: an excessive quest for
certainty, power, meaning, and social relations, and pathological rejection of social relations.
The items in this Inventory require 'True' or 'False' responses in terms of the subject's present attitudes and motivations.
The following are examples of items in the Creative Attitude Scale:
I feel that it is always wiser to stick to the tried and true way of doing things.
A variety of studies are underway with adults and the items are being adapted for use with children and adolescents.
Already teachers ranking in the upper half on the Creative Attitude Scale have their pupils engage in a larger number of
creative activities in grades three through six than their colleagues, and that their pupils show high scores on this scale.
Counsellors have for a long time sought to improve the usefulness of measures of capacity by combining with them
measures of motivation—interests, needs, wants. Some have sought assistance from various indicators of mental health,
attempting to correct the crippling effects of maladjustment. The researcher proposes another concept for increasing ability
to predict what individuals will do and in helping them achieve what they can do—the concept of risk-taking or testing the
limits.
McClelland (1956) explored a similar idea in his paper at the 1955 Utah conference on the identification of creative
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scientific talent. He attempted to make a case for the hypothesis that the successful scientist, like the successful salesman
or business entrepreneur, has a higher need for achievement, in part because high achievement motivation will predispose
him to take moderate calculated risks in which the success or failure of the enterprise will depend upon his own efforts.
Holland (1961) in his studies for the National Merit Scholarship Corporation developed some similar ideas and is
experimenting with a revision of the Torrance-Ziller measure of risk-taking tendencies in predicting the performance of
scholarship winners.
Holland takes some of his leads from research findings which suggest that creative performance at the high school level
occurs more frequently among students who are independent, intellectual, expressive, asocial, consciously original, and
who aspire for future achievement.
On the basis of the negligible relationship he found between academic aptitude and creative performance at a high aptitude
level, Holland concluded that we must use non-intellectual criteria in the selection of students for scholarships and
fellowships. He feels that further efforts to improve existing intellectual measures are likely to be unproductive.
In fact, I know that many of the children who stand out as highly creative in the second and third grades, especially boys,
will not be highly creative as fourth graders. Some of them will never again show a high degree of creativity. Thus, I am
interested in studying the personalities of children to see
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if I can find in them the trends, elements, or characteristics which lead to the eventual abandonment of this talent.
Two studies (Weisberg and Springer, 1961; Torrance, 1959) provide a wealth of leads concerning the personality of the
highly creative child and his problems. The most thoroughgoing of the two is the one by Weisberg and Springer (1961) of
thirty-two gifted fourth graders and their families. The criterion tests used included the Ask-and-Guess Test, Tin Can
Uses, and Circles from the Minnesota battery. Their personalities were studied through psychiatric interviews, Rorschachs,
and the Draw-a-Family technique. Judgments of the children and their parents by the psychiatrists on the basis of the
interviews were made on six-point scales. Various studies express the following:
From the statistical analysis of the comparative data, three personality characteristics stand out as differentiating the highly
creative children from less creative but equally intelligent children. First, the highly creative children have a reputation for
having wild or silly ideas, especially the boys. Their teachers and peers agree on this point. Second, their work is
characterised by the production of ideas "off the beaten track, outside the mold."
This comes out as a highly differentiating characteristic both when we use the number of non-essential details in the
drawings, and when we use the number of unique or unusual details.
Third, their work is characterised by humour, playfulness, relative lack of rigidity, and relaxation. This provides an
interesting confirmation of the findings described above by Weisberg and Springer (1961) on the basis of psychiatric
interviews and by Getzels and Jackson (1959).
The three characteristics which emerge strongly would appear to be of considerable importance to teachers and
counsellors in their efforts to understand and guide the highly creative youngster. In spite of the fact that these children
have many excellent ideas, they readily achieve a reputation for having silly, wild, or naughty ideas. It is difficult to
determine what effect this derogation of their ideas has on their personality development, as well as upon the future
development of their creative talents.
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problem, because there are no standards, as in answer books and manuals. Although their humour and playfulness may
win some friends for them, it does not always make them "easier to live with."
In fact, it may make their behaviour even more unpredictable than otherwise and this probably makes their presence in a
group upsetting. Recognizing and understanding these three characteristics are important because each apparently has an
important role in making an individual 'creative.'
It will be recalled that in the Getzels-Jackson study the school achievement of the highly creative and the highly
intelligent groups was equally superior to the total school population from which they were drawn. This was in spite of
the fact that there was a 23-point difference in average IQ between them.
The high IQ student was rated as a more desirable student than the average student but the highly creative was not. On
their fantasy productions, the more creative made significantly greater use of stimulus-free themes, unexpected endings,
humour, and playfulness. On the basis of these findings, Getzels and Jackson have suggested that an essential difference
between the two groups is the creative adolescent's ability to produce new forms and to risk joining together elements
usually seen as independent and dissimilar.
They also suggested that the creative adolescent seems to enjoy the risk and uncertainty of the unknown. The high IQ
adolescent prefers the anxieties and delights of 'safety' to the anxieties and delights of growth. These differences are
reflected in the occupational choices of the two groups.
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Sixty-two per cent of the creatives chose unconventional occupations, such as adventurer, inventor, writer, and the like.
Only 16 per cent of the highly intelligent subjects chose such occupations; 84 per cent of them chose 'conventional'
occupations, such as doctor, lawyer, engineer.
Getzels and Jackson (1961) also interviewed rather intensively the parents of their two groups of subjects. The parents of
the high IQ students tended to recall greater financial difficulties during their childhoods and at the present expressed
greater real or imagined personal insecurity than those of the highly creatives.
The parents of the high IQ adolescents also seemed to be more 'vigilant' with respect to their children's behaviour and
their academic success. They are more critical of both their children and the school than are the parents of the highly
creative adolescents.
The high IQ parents focus their concern on immediately visible virtues such as cleanliness, good manners, and
studiousness. The parents of the creatives focus theirs on less visible qualities such as the child's openness to experience,
his values, and his interests and enthusiasm.
In the second study by Hammer (1961) of the personalities of gifted adolescent artists, an attempt was made to contrast
the genuinely creative with the merely facile personality. In an intensive study of eighteen high school artists in a
workshop, five were identified as "truly creative" and five as "merely facile."
On the basis of elaborate psychological studies, Hammer found that the "truly creatives" differed from the "merely faciles"
in that they exhibited deeper feelings, greater original responsiveness, preference for the observer role over the participant
role, stronger determination and ambition, integration of feminine and masculine components, greater independence,
rebelliousness, and self-awareness, stronger needs for self-expression, greater tolerance for discomfort, and a fuller range
of emotional expression.
Teachers, counsellors, and administrators should recognise that highly creative adolescents may exhibit vastly different
personalities in school and in the rest of their world, as exemplified in the biographies of some of our most creative
scientists and inventors.
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It is heart-breakingly apparent in the stories of many of the highly creative adolescents about whom parents and teachers
write and/or tell me. For example, the mother of one rather obviously creative boy of thirteen years has described to me in
beautiful contrast her son as he is at school and as he is in the rest of his world.
After a steadily declining academic record, he was retained in the seventh grade "to teach him a lesson." His teachers,
counsellors, and principals have described the boy to his parents as extremely bright, very bored, lazy, daydreaming, and
very withdrawn but not rebellious. One teacher declared to the mother, "I'll make him work, if I have to break his spirit to
do it—and ridiculing and shaming him is the only way with children like him."
He is not permitted to participate in science clubs because he doesn't have a 'B' average. Instead, the principal insists that
he play football and be "better rounded." The boy whom the parents and others outside of school sees "never daydreams;
loves to learn and is always getting books from the library; works hard, many times almost collapsing from trying to work
out an experiment late into the night."
In the world outside of school, "he has energy enough for ten people" and has an outgoing, bubbling personality and a
keen sense of humour. He talks of quitting school when he is sixteen and his parents wonder if this might possibly be his
best chance to get out of the trap in which he finds himself.
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Creative behaviour may be interpreted as aggressive or even hostile, and certainly it soon becomes just that, if ideas and
questions are rejected. Thus, one of the problems becomes that of helping the creative child maintain his aggressiveness
without being hostile, as Roarer had become.
This tale brings out another problem concerning the parents' expectation of counsellors and school psycholgists—the
expectation that they will use some kind of magic. Frequently, counsellors, psychologists, and teachers are expected to
play an aversive role. Such a role is frequently expected of the mental hygiene clinic. Guidance workers must be alert to
these expectations and prepared to play more positive roles.
About two-thirds of the stories about flying monkeys tell similar tales of conformity or of destruction. Some cultures,
however, are more indulgent of divergency than others. Stories written by gifted children in special classes are far more
hopeful in outlook than those of gifted children in regular classes.
In about seventy per cent of the stories of pupils in classes for high achieving children, the flying monkey is in some way
able to persist in his flying. The stories written by children in a small Oklahoma town composed of Indians, whites, and a
few Negroes also reflect this tolerance of divergency. In seventy-four per cent of their stories, the flying monkey succeeds.
The following story by a gifted Long Island boy illustrates some of the dynamics of the plight of the gifted child who
lacks some quality regarded as highly important by his society. It especially communicates the depth of the anxiety of the
parents under such conditions.
Freddy was born in a cave in Rocky Mountains. He lived there with his mother and father and his ten brothers and sisters.
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The first thing a lion is supposed to learn is how to roar. His ten brothers and sisters learned how to roar very well, but
Freddy wouldn't roar because he was a friendly lion. First, his mother tried to teach him. She tried and tried for ten days,
after which she fainted. Then his father tried to teach him for eight months, but still Freddy wouldn't roar. So finally they
gave up and ordered Freddy to go and find another place to live...
When freddy walked into the jungle all of the animals ran and hid in the bushes. Freddy was very sad. He tried to make
friends with the monkeys but they ran up the trees. He tried to make friends with the zebras but they ran away as fast as
possible. All of a sudden there was complete silence as all of the animals waited for Freddy to roar. When he didn't roar,
the animals were very surprised. Slowly one by one the animals came out from behind the bushes and down from the
trees and started to form a circle around Freddy. Then one of the animals brought up enough courage to go over and touch
him. When Freddy didn't do anything, the animals went over to Freddy and started to play with him. Freddy and the
animals became good friends. Until this day, Freddy hasn't roared.
This story may possibly reflect the childlike optimism that it is possible to escape the rejection of divergency.
One sunny day, the king of the jungle and his wife were blessed with a cub. The king was so happy that he even gave
cigars to his enemy, the monkey. Many animals came to see the cub.
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The cub was growing and his parents were getting worried. He was five and he hadn't roared once. His father decided that
he was old enough to go to school and then maybe he would roar. The king hired a teacher to teach his son, John, who
would soon rule the jungle. John did fine in arithmetic, spelling, and other subjects. But in roaring class he refused to
roar! His teacher was startled; his mother fainted; and his father was amazed.
That night John and his father went into the study to talk. John's father asked, "Why won't you roar, son?"
John replied, "it scares all of the animals." John then told of his adventure when he was two years old. He had roared his
loudest. He saw the monkeys and the other animals he had wanted to be his friends with run away. His father understood
and told him that he should learn to roar louder to scare the bad animals. John said that he would make the bad good
without roaring. A creative talent child may behave like this.
Perhaps the most inventive and imaginative child we have tested is a boy who has had unusual difficulty in learning to
read, yet his store of information and his ability to use it imaginatively in solving problems and developing ideas is
fantastic.
Because verbal skills are highly valued in our society, tremendous pressures are placed on children to be "well-rounded"
in this area. The relentlessness of these pressures is symbolized in many of the stories about lions that won't roar, ducks
that won't quack, and dogs that won't bark. Some of the authors of the stories deplored the relentless pressures exerted by
adults.
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One referred to those who exert such pressures as "chasers and quackers." Some children resist pressures to become well-
rounded because they feel that they can win and maintain respect in more acceptable ways than the commonly approved
and expected ways of the society.
Over emphasis or misplaced emphasis on sex roles, however, does exact its toll on the creativity of both sexes and does
create serious problems of adjustment for highly creative individuals of both sexes.
Creativity, by its very nature, requires both sensitivity and independence. In our culture, sensitivity is definitely a feminine
virtue, while independence is a masculine value. Thus, we the researcher may expect the highly creative boy to appear to
be more effeminate than his peers and the highly creative girl to appear more masculine than here.
Roe (1959), Barren (1957), and I (1959b), have all cited evidence in support of this phenomenon. In our longitudinal
studies we are finding interesting examples of children who sacrifice their creativity in order to maintain their 'masculinity'
or their 'femininity,' as the case may be.
We (researcher) first observed it in our Product Improvement Test in which children are asked to think of all the ideas
they can for improving common toys so that they will be more fun to play with.
In the first grade, boys excelled girls on the fire truck, but girls excelled boys on the nurse's kit. Many of the boys refused
to think of anything to make the nurse's kit more fun, protesting, "I'm a boy! I don't play with things like that!"
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it into a doctor's kit and as such were quite free to think of improvements. By the third grade, however, boys excelled girls
even on the nurse's kit, probably because girls have been conditioned by this time to accept toys as they are and not to
manipulate or change them.
The inhibiting effects of sex-role conditioning also showed up in our experiments involving small groups working with
science toys (Torrance, 1960b). Girls were quite reluctant to work with these science toys and frequently protested, "I'm a
girl; I'm not supposed to know anything about things like that!"
Boys demonstrated and explained about twice as many ideas as girls in experiments involving these materials. We know
already, however, that this situation can be modified significantly (Torrance, 1960b). In 1959, we found these phenomena
operating quite strongly in one school. Later I had the opportunity to report these and other results to both the teachers and
parents in this school. In 1960, we conducted some experiments in this same school in which we used a different but
similar set of science toys.
This time, we found none of this reluctance on the part of girls; there was no difference in the expressed enjoyment of the
activity of boys and girls; the mean performance of girls and boys was almost identical. In one way, however, the situation
remained unchanged. The contributions of boys was more highly valued by peers than those of girls.
Apparently, the school climate has helped to make it more acceptable for girls to
Another problem may be seen in the negative identification which apparently exists between Roarless and his father.
Because of early, unpleasant relationships with the father, Roarless identifies himself as being play around with science
things, but boys' ideas about science things are still supposed to be better than those of girls.
The social consequences of failure to achieve the behavioural norms associated with sex and social roles are well
understood by children by the time they reach the fourth grade, if not before.
Thus, if roaring makes him like his father, Roarless is motivated to avoid roaring.
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Only in spelling was there significantly less growth among the split-shift children (seventh graders). In still another, we
found that children in a split-shift school engaged in a larger number of learning activities on their own.
Since we have generally assumed that children do not learn on their own, we have seldon provided them with
opportunities to do so, learning situations left 'open' become quite excited about what would happen, if we should do so
more frequently.
"Don't Turn Grade Schools into High Schools, Educators Warn at Parley"
Some of the panic may have been eased by a recent report of the Educational Policies Commission of the National
Education Association and the American Association of School Administrators (Contemporary Issues in Elementary
Education, 1960).
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give educators some very useful guidance in working out this problem. Along with revisions about readiness, Brunei"
develops the concept of "structure of knowledge" and offers interesting ideas about intuition and motivation.
About readiness, he says, "Experience over the past decade points to the fact that our schools may be wasting precious
years by postponing the teaching of many subjects on the grounds that they are too difficult... The essential point often
overlooked in the planning of curricula... [is that] the basic ideas that lie at the heart of all science and mathematics and
the basic schemes that give form to life and literature are powerful." For this purpose, Bruner suggests "the spiral
curriculum," one that turns back on itself at higher and higher levels of complexity.
A common experience in the lives of many highly outstanding individuals has been their ability to cope with failure and
frustration. Certainly, almost all highly creative scientists, inventors, artists, and writers attempt tasks which are too
difficult for them. Had they not attempted such tasks, it is quite unlikely that their great ideas would have been born.
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Perhaps this has some implications not only concerning the need for helping children discover their potentialities but for
helping them achieve their self-concepts creatively rather than by authority.
We also need to help highly creative individuals accept themselves, remembering that they may even despise an
outstanding 'gift,' if their giftedness makes them different from others. This makes far too many gifted children willing to
emasculate themselves and consciously or unconsciously hide or destroy their talents.
Some of these differences have been highlighted in the Getzels and Jackson (1959) study. They found that for the high IQ
group, the rank-order correlation between the qualities making for adult success was .81 (showing great similarity); for the
high creativity group it was .10 (indicating little or no similarity).
Among the highly intelligent, the correlation between the qualities they desired and the qualities they believed teachers
favour was .67 (moderately similar); for the highly creative group, it was minus 0.25 (actually somewhat dissimilar). In
other words, the highly creative adolescent desires personal qualities having little relationship to those he believes make
for adult success and are in some way opposite those he believes his teachers favour.
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desire to emulate the teacher is absent or weak among creative students. The desire to emulate peers is also weak.
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from his peers and teachers. It will be no news to counsellors that peer groups exercise rather severe pressure against their
most creative members.
In no group thus far studied have we failed to find relatively clear evidence of the operation of these pressures, though
they are far more severe in some classrooms than in others.
When we select the most creative members of each sex in each classroom and match them for sex and Intelligence
Quotient with other children in the same classroom, as already described in Chapter 4, three characteristics stand out as
differentiating the highly creative children from the less creative ones.
First, there is a tendency for them to gain a reputation for having wild or silly ideas. Second, their work is characterised by
its productivity of ideas "off the beaten track." Third, they are characterised by humour and playfulness. All of these
characteristics help explain both the estrangement and the creativity.
2. Write short notes on the following: (a) Creative children and Values
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It should be recognised, however, that the goal of guidance is not to promote just individuality and creativity but to
encourage healthy kinds of individuality, creativity, and conformity.
Many creative individuals, however, need guidance in achieving the balance between creativity and conformity so that
they enhance one another. This is a guidance task for teachers and counsellors at all levels of education, because the
creative personality does not emerge suddenly and dramatically. It must be nurtured through many crises.
Kris (1951), Maslow (1954), Rogers (1954), Stein (1956), Barron (1958), Kubie (1958), MacKinnon (1960), and others
have discussed the essentials of the creative personality from various viewpoints. Before suggesting some specific goals in
counselling
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and guiding creative individuals, please review briefly some of the personality requirements which have been outlined in
chapter 28 of this book.
By synthesizing the findings of various investigators, we might list the following as necessary conditions for the healthy
functioning of the preconscious mental processes which produce creativity:
4. Both openness to the ideas of others and confidence in one's own perceptions of reality or one's own ideas.
5. Mutuality in interpersonal relations—balance between excessive quest for social relations and pathological rejection of
them.
Another general goal in guiding the highly creative individual of course is to help him counteract some of the many
pressures which push him towards the mean. Evidences of the existence of these pressures and of the power of their
influence are widespread.
Pressures from parents are especially difficult to deal with and the research evidence on this count is rather strong. Getzels
and Jackson (1960b) found that the parents of both the highly intelligent and highly creative children are not interested in
nurturing giftedness in their children. Parents prefer that their children be "well adjusted."
SPECIFIC GOALS
Rewarding Diverse Contributions
Research has repeatedly shown that people will develop along whatever lines they find rewarding. Whenever only two or
three types of talent are rewarded or receive a major share of the rewards, the conditions for creativity cannot be met.
Teachers and counsellors must acknowledge spontaneously and respectfully the questions, ideas, and other requests or
contributions of creative individuals rather than respond with shock, withdrawal, or arbitrary rejection.
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Vocational counsellors have, of course, long accepted the goal of helping individuals find the niche where their unique
talents will be rewarded. Schools, through their emphasis on developing well-rounded personalities and because of their
remoteness from vocational placement, many neglect this goal. Tt is natural for the counsellor to want to help a pupil
consider as many opportunities as possible and discourage a vocational goal in which there are few employment
opportunities.
This poses a difficult problem in guiding creative adolescents, since many of their vocational choices are likely to fall in
the category of rare or unusual occupations.
Many pieces of evidence spell out the failure of educational institutions to find ways of rewarding divergent kinds of
achievement. One of the more recent of these is a study by Elizabeth Drews (1961b) of three types of gifted high school
students: the studious, the social leaders, and the creative intellectuals.
The poorest teacher-grades were made by the creative intellectuals. In competitive examinations sampling a wide range of
information, however, they performed better than either of the other two groups.
Many creative individuals desperately need help in recognizing the value of their own talents. Otherwise, they will
continue to despise what could be their most valuable assets.
This guidance goal is not an easily achieved one. It is indeed difficult to believe that a talent is of value when almost
everyone ridicules its display. This is true even though the individual may receive very rich intrinsic rewards from the
exercise of the talent.
It might seem to some that teachers and counsellors could accomplish this goal easily the administering tests to discover
giftedness and then simply telling the individual the results. In some cases this may be helpful, but inevitably the locus of
evaluation will be the individual, not the teacher, counsellor, or psychologist. There are numerous other techniques
whereby counsellors and teachers can help the creative individual recognise the value of his talents.
404
Avoiding Exploitation
Since highly creative individuals frequently do not recognise the value of their talents, especially when these talents are
ridiculed, they are especially susceptible to exploitation of various types. This may result in the ill-use of the talent, loss
or debilitation of the talent, or unrewarded talents. Children recognise this possibility in their stories of divergent talent.
The psychological needs of exploited individuals are usually such, however, that they need guidance in recognising that
they are being exploited. In the case of children, teachers and counsellors may have to intervene actively to prevent undue
exploitation.
Accepting Limitations
Inevitably there will be limitations both within the environment and the individual. Parents, schools, and communities will
be unable to provide all of the resources which creative children need to develop and test their ideas. The children will
lack some of the abilities and skills they need to fulfill their dreams.
Both kinds of limitations must be accepted, not cynically or with resignation, but creatively. In an early study of the
psychology of inventors, Rossman (1931) found that this characteristic differentiates inventors from non-inventors.
Non-inventors only curse the defects of their environment and of themselves. Inventors, however, take a more constructive
approach, saying, "This is the way to do it."
In the case of the school counsellor and the creative individual, the "record player" may be a hearing aid, a pair of eye
glasses, a prosthetic device, a wheel chair, or a similar aid or help may be needed in accepting creatively such limitations
as tallness or shortness, a long nose, stuttering, or other differences.
Quite obviously the psychological conditions described in the introduction cannot be maintained, if the individual does
not possess the minimum skills necessary for survival and for entry into situations where creativity can be expressed.
Many possible causes might be cited for the failure of highly creative individuals
405
to develop some of the fundamental skills essential to any kind of achievement. Perhaps one of the most frequent,
however, is the popular fallacy that gifted children do not need guidance and good instruction.
Buhl (1961) in his study of creative engineering students found that members of this group were encouraged as children to
make decisions regarding clothes, friends, and activities. They were also given guidance and encouragement and plans and
goals to work toward achieving. I also found these characteristics to a far greater degree in the backgrounds of the jet aces
than in those of their less successful colleagues of the same rank and similar training and experience.
Utilising Opportunities
Frequently questions are asked concerning the role of chance in scientific discovery (Taton, 1957). Certainly many great
discoveries have resulted from the exploitation of a chance occurrence or unexpected incident. Because of their problems
of adjustment, creative individuals may be blinded and fail to see such opportunities. It should be the teacher the
counsellor's goal to help free such individuals from this blindness.
When learning and thinking are made to be "tremendously important and worthwhile," schools will become exciting
places. Even gifted children may achieve more than we thought possible.
Since the values of creative individuals as different from those of their teachers, it may be that the school counsellor is the
only person in some schools who can assist them in finding and holding to their purpose.
Holding to Purposes
If pressures continue unabated over too long a period, even the strongest personality is likely to 'break'. In the case of the
406
highly creative individual, this 'break' may include the sacrificing of his creativity or his purpose.
One of the problems of the teacher and the counsellor is to help creative individuals to accept the necessity for tolerating
discomfort for long-range goals and purposes. This is an especially difficult feat to accomplish in guiding highly creative
children from the lower socio-economic classes where immediacy and inability to delay gratification are strong.
In studies of talent, commitment to a purpose or a creative career seems to be tremendously important in success. In
guiding creative talent, teachers and counsellors may have to help such individuals develop a commitment to some
purpose or career which they regard as important.
In general, it is not necessary for teachers and counsellors to push talented children, although some may need help in
finding ways of self-discipline. Commitment to a purpose or goal frequently helps them achieve this discipline and stick to
a line of development until they have achieved something worthwhile.
Many highly creative children need help in recognising that divergency should not be equated with mental illness or
delinquency. Since our culture does generally equate them, the counsellor may have to explain away their misconceptions
and attitudes. The widespread existence of this misconception is reflected in the stories of children. Flying monkeys in our
stories are frequently thought to be crazy or devils or under the spell of witches. Lions that won't roar and cats that won't
scratch are thought to be mentally ill.
In our studies of highly creative children, we find many evidences that they feel that their parents and teachers do not
understand them. Their teachers themselves admit that they do not know these children as well as they know highly
intelligent (IQ) pupils (Torrance, 1959a). For some creative individuals only a school counsellor may be able to provide
this understanding.
407
on sex roles was discussed earlier. It is mentioned again since this overemphasis interferes so strongly with the
achievement of the general goals outlined at the beginning of the chapter. The primary creativeness described by Maslow,
McPherson, and others requires that the individual be able to accept his softness and lenuninity as well as his intellectual
autonomy. For "regression in the service of the ego," one must have a sense of being in touch with his feelings and being
free to have subjective experiences which imply how it was to have been a child and to have felt feminine, receptive, and
helpless. He must also have the intellectual independence to be able to maintain his "anchors in reality," as he regresses.
Both our experimental and logitudinal studies (Torrance, 1960b) and studies of outstanding creative persons reveal that
highly creative individuals do in fact possess characteristics generally considered somewhat obnoxious. They do, in fact,
create problems for their parents, siblings, peers, teachers, and supervisors. Many of our elementary school authors
recognize this problem.
We also need to help children recognise that outstanding talents may threaten others and make them uncomfortable and
afraid. Our young authors recognise this and offer some interesting philosophies.
The perofrmance of important services and courageous deeds on behalf of the larger social group is seen by our juvenile
authors as one way of reducing the social pressures on divergent individuals.
In the terms employed by Pepinsky (1959) Roger had built up a "credit rating" with his peers through his service to them,
and they had accepted his divergency.
In conserving creative talent, the problem resolves itself into one of helping the child maintain those characteristics which
are essential to his creativity and at the same time help him acquire skills for avoiding or reducing to a tolerable level the
social sanctions against him.
Stein (1958) on the basis of his study of research chemists, has offered a set of helpful principles whereby creative
research chemists can become less obnoxious without sacrificing their creativity.
408
This model probably asks too much of the gifted child, but at least it provides a model which may be useful in guiding
him in becoming less obnoxious without sacrificing his creativity.
Reducing Isolation
Considerable attention has been given in professional literature to the problems stemming from the isolation of gifted
children. Isolation has been a favourite technique for handling individuals having almost any kind of divergent
characteristic.
As already reported, research has shown that highly creative children are especially estranged from teachers and peers.
This must be especially difficult for the highly creative individual because of his unusually intense need to communicate.
Teachers and counsellors must help the creative child learn to tolerate his separateness or they must help him in his search
for someone with whom he can communicate. In some cases, the counsellor may become the person to whom the creative
child communicates. In others, it may be a teacher or principal.
Several current streams of research (Drews, 1961; Torrance and Arsan, 1961) suggest that various kinds of homogeneous
groups may provide means by which the isolation of highly creative children may be reduced and communication
increased.
Neither gifted children (Torrance, 1959c) nor creative scientists (Roe, 1959) are free of handicapping anxieties and fears.
Many creative children desperately need help in coping with their anxieties and irrational fears. Otherwise they may fail to
be fully functioning mentally; they will be afraid to break away from the safest, most frequently travelled paths.
An unusually frequent theme in the stories of animals and persons with divergent characteristics is the fear that one's own
talent will bring injury or destruction.
409
and in an earlier study by Anne Roe (1952). On the basis of these and other studies, some workers advocate that we
deliberately and calculatedly subject gifted children to hardships.
It is my own opinion that gifted children should learn how to cope with hardship and failure, but they should not be
forced to do so deliberately. Gifted children are resistant to and are embittered by hardships which seem to them unfair,
wasteful of their energies, and unnecessary.
If they are encouraged and permitted to explore, experiment, test ideas, initiate projects on their own, and assume
responsibility, they will encounter enough hardships and failures in the natural course of events. This is especially true if
freedom to try out ideas without penalty is permitted against a background of high standards.
The importance of skills in coping with hardships is reflected in Anne Roe's (1952) finding concerning the
disproportionate number of her eminent subjects whose fathers had died during the subject's childhood. It is also reflected
in one of Peter Freuchen's (1954) stories of his first year with the Thule, Greenland, Eskimos.
On one occasion Freuchen was deploring the plight of certain orphan children in the tribe who had to fight for survival.
The chiefs of the tribe scolded Freuchen, telling him not to feel sorry for these orphan children because they would be the
future leaders of the tribe.
They pointed out to him that each of the present leaders had been an orphan. They also explained that they realised that
they should permit their own children to experience more difficulties and hardships but that they had grown soft and
would not permit their children to expose themselves to cold, danger, or similar hardships.
In most societies it takes some kind of accident or adverse circumstance to force adults to permit their children to attempt
to master the skills of coping with difficulties.
410
Glossary
Anomie. The feeling about oneself that he is faceless, rootless, meaningless. A state in which one is without name or
purpose.
Authoritarian, democratic, laissez faire. Systems for the control of individual or group behaviour which range from total
outside force (authoritarian) to complete direction from within (laissez faire).
Automation. In manufacturing, a system or method in which many or all of the processes of production, movement, and
inspection of parts and materials are automatically performed or controlled by self-operating machinery, electronic
devices, etc.
Caste. The separation of persons, by birth and social-educational heritage, into rigid categories of lower, middle, upper or
other classifications and maintaining the forces should be used to keep them where they belong or indeed, want to be.
Child-development specialist. Psychologists, psychiatrists, counsellors, and special teachers, who have emphasized as a
major part of their professional activity, working with individuals below the age of about twelve years.
Client-centered therapy. An orientation in counselling in which the counsellor reflects the feelings, attitudes, and the
words of the counselee presumably without reflecting himself
411
as a directional force. The resources of growth and change reside within the individual.
Clinical psychology. Typically the concern with diagnosing the nature and extent of psychopathology. (See Counselling
psychology.)
Coefficient of correlation. A statistical indication of the degree of relationship between two traits, factors, or events. It is
not a per cent of expressing accuracy of prediction. Typically coefficients run from a +1.00 through 0.0 to -1.00. 1.00
means perfect positive correlation. 0.0 probably indicates that there is no relationship of one factor with the other, and a
negative 1.0 correlation indicates that the more of one thing you have, the less of another. Typically in psychological
literature, coefficients rarely if ever reach either positive or negative 1.0.
Confirmation. The experience of alignment between expectation and perceived behaviour within one's life situation. The
act of having a meaning sustained.
Congruence. A quality of being real, keeping the display of a facade to a minimum. Meeting the counselee as one human
being with another.
Consultant. A professional who brings to bear special knowledge and perspectives in the revaluation of a problem so that
one in the situation uses his own knowledge and strength to resolve a dilemma. It is cooperative rather than a directive
relationship.
Consultation. The process of helping another person impose a structure upon the ambiguity perceived in a given situation.
Application of the process has included most of the educational and counselling fields.
Counselling. Being with a person during, and helping him to resolve or live with, varying degrees of ambiguity.
Counselling psychology. Concern with the study of the normal individual, aimed at achieving better integration and more
adequate approaches to a complex world.
Culture. The structure within which the life-support systems operate. The way of life maintained by people in order to
survive.
Cybernetics. A science dealing with the comparative study of complex electronic calculating machines and the human
412
nervous system in an attempt to explain the nature of the brain. That phase of automation in which the computer renders
the making of choices possible.
Disadvantaged. A term used to condescend benevolently in describing members of an 'unfortunate' accident of being born
poor, black, brown, red, or non-participating.
Dropout. Anyone who has achieved a status of nonproductive participation in his life-space.
Empathy. The ability to feel and accept the frustrations, hostility, indifference, timidity of the other person. The 'other'
person knows that he is so accepted and respected.
Extended family. The family which consists not only of parents and children but also of grandparents, grandchildren, and
assorted cousins, aunts, uncles, and in-law persons.
Extremism. Left or right, the position may be extreme as opposed to moderate or conservative and middle-of-the-road.
The dissident phalanx should be separately defined from legitimate dissent.
Frustration tolerance threshold. The point at which obstacles, burdens and pressures are just bearable. Beyond this point
disorganisation is likely.
Functional autonomy. A condition in which an act is carried on because of its own motivating power—outside incentives
are no longer needed, e.g., smoking may be started to satisfy the need to be one of the crowd, to be a grownup, but later
smoking becomes a need in and of itself.
Gross national product. The total or aggregate monetary value of goods and services produced annually.
Group. Two or more persons sharing a commonality of purpose for a period of time during which each participant gets
some help from the other members.
Guidance. Rendering the pupil personnel services which include such things as orientation, individual analysis (testing),
information giving, counselling, placement, and follow-up.
Heterostasis. The urge on the part of a healthy organism to grow, expand, explore, and to seek new knowledge and
adventure.
Hidden agenda. A condition resulting from the presence of two or more sets of objectives for the same behaviour.
413
Homeostasis. The tendency to preserve a stable or constant internal state, despite fluctuations of bodily conditions and
external stimulations.
Identity. The state of being one with—in which a person is congruent with or part of another person, thing or transaction.
Interpersonal transaction. The dynamics (feeling and thoughts) involved in person-to-person relationships.
Intervention. The direct involvement within the life space of another person or family by a counsellor or teacher
constitutes an intervention.
Learning how to learn. The culture prescribes how learning will occur.
Level of aspiration. Persons have concepts of long-range and idealistic goals and perceptions of immediate and realistic
goals. Level of aspiration refers to the degree to which one strives toward the long-range ideal goal.
Margin of comfort. The area in which in individual perceives his environment to be non-threatening.
Narcissistic pact. The condition resulting from two or more persons' relationship when each person expresses only
complimentary (instead of complementary) messages one to the other. It is an interpersonal contract between the
individuals.
Nuclear family. The family unit which consists of mother, father, and children (see Extended family).
Parameter. The limits appropriate to a given life situation. The limits are usually culturally determined.
Participant-observer. An anthropological approach to the study of a cultural phenomenon in which the individual lives
through (as a 'native' but without going native). A situation with the idea in mind of objectively assessing the dynamics of
that situation.
Participating class and values. Refers to the middle-class in the United States; the group characterised by the middle-class
which is actively engaged in the promulgation of the majority culture. Middle-class values include the work ethic, respect
for law and order, love of God and country.
414
Personal disorganisation. The process in which an individual's repertoire of behaviour is limited by fear-producing anxiety.
Potential. Unknown quantity or quality which theoretically represents what one might be. The biological or physiological
limits (whatever they might be) for development.
Process. The dynamics of interpersonal relations, change the activity and pursuit of learning and education. Emphasis is
on the activity of growth, learning, and interaction rather than achieving a fait accompli. It is the means of achieving
comprehension.
Protocols (test). The write-up of a test or case study describing an individual's behaviour during a given experience.
Pseudomutuality. A condition that results when two persons, usually parents, decide to pretend to support the common
concerns of their life space. The mother-son symbiotic relationship usually contains a pseudomutuality theme.
Psychoanalytic. Relating to the psychologies of Freud, Jung, and Adler which emphasized unconscious drives and
motives.
Q-Sort. The arranging of a set of statements or descriptive words in a hierarchial order to provide the basis for an
evaluation.
Reference groups. The groups which affect in substantial measure the individual's personal goals and behaviour. The
groups to which he belongs and wants to belong.
Repertoire. The complete set of alternatives of behaviour an individual may exercise in response to any given stimulus in
a life situation.
Self-actualizing. Describing the process by which an individual becomes more open to his experience, living fully in each
moment, and trusting one's own experiencing. (See Self-fulfilment.)
Self-concept. The inclusive value judgment each person makes of himself. It is his evaluation of his worth, likeableness
and potentialities. Presumably a substantial part of the self-concept is a reflection of how others view the person.
Self-defeating behaviour. The behaviour is without the power to overcome the condition in which it is applied. The person
is left in conflict without growth. It results from
415
what persons do not know, or what are sometimes called knowledge voids.
Self-definition. The process of testing one's self in relation to the reality he perceives.
Self-fulfillment. The act of being the best kind of person one can be. It does not mean being the best but that one has
realised the goals or characteristics of which he is capable.
Self-radius. The self is the center of living experiences with the radius representing the distance, depth, and quality of
involvement with 'others.'
Social engineering. The conception, design, and implementation of a structure for society to help regulate human
behaviour.
Social institution. The institutions designed to carry on the responsibilities and some tasks required to maintain the cultural
heritage may be included in what we call "social institutions".
Social literacy. The ability to perceive and respond appropriately to the social environment. Being able to understand the
signals as the person moves in a novel (new) or familiar life situation.
Style of life. The way a person behaves when by himself or with others, how he does his "finding out," and what he looks
for in interpersonal relationships and encounters, establishes the life style of the individual and /or family.
Symbiosis. The term describes an interpersonal relationship in which one person feeds (emotionally) on the other person,
most commonly a mother-son. A relationship when each person is extremely dependent upon the other person.
Tolerance limits. The limits within which conscious and rational behaviour is possible—for institution and/or individuals.
Beyond these limits, disorganisation begins.
Validation. The experience, over time, when a sequence of two or more similar events bring realisation of consistent
confirmation.
Ventilate. Freely and emotionally to discuss one's accumulated feelings and hopefully reduce the pressures of pent-up
emotions by giving them verbal expression.
Work-study programme. A plan by which high school pupils go to school part of the day and work at a paid job for the
rest of the day. Usually this involves a school supervisor, and school credit is given for the work experience.
416
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422
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425
Index
Achievement Tests in a Guidance Programme 116-18
Adelson 137
Allen 73-74
Asch 390
Ayres 79
Bagley 79
Berdie 67
Bloomfield, Meyer 33
Buhl 405
Carmichael 15
Cassell 269
Combs 164
426
Cox 15
Davis, Jesse 33
Dewey 132-33
Fritz 396
Froebel 132
Garrett, Wiley S. 45
Guilford 368
Guilford et al 378
Gustad 65
Hammer 388
Hargreaves 378
Healy 4
Hemphre 66
Holland 385
ILO 16
427
Johnston 270
Jones 15
Kitson 15
Kocher 17
Kris 401
Labh Singh 16
Leuba 82
McClelland 384
McCully 197
Mort 7
Multiple Counselling 75
Newsletter 6
Ohlsen 267
Olsen 265
Ornstein 369
Pachauri, A.R. 65
Patterson 2
Pendleton 197
Pepinsky 407
Pestalozzi 131-32
Pierson 229
Proctor 15
Rafferty 135
Rassman 404
428
Rousseau 131-32
Runner 383
School Counsellor 6
Sheperd, B.L. 48
Sites, Walter G. 45
Snygg 164
Sociograms 107
SPATE Journal 6
Stanford 122
Stein 401, 407
Taneja, B.B. 16
Taton 405
Tumin 384
Udai Shankar 66
Underachievers 330-32