Jobs and Guides for Counseling - Essay Example

Counselors fail to discharge their duties to full fruition and satisfaction as the average number of students assigned to them nationwide is about 477 to 1. This has resulted in the increasing number of school drop outs due to lack of proper guidance and care; very often younger children are not provided sufficient care. The duties of the counselor vary from preparing students to "start thinking about careers, build communication skills and develop healthy attitudes about themselves and their peers" at the elementary school level to assisting "students with study habits, financial aid, college recommendations, class schedules, transitions between grades and high-stakes tests".

At times counselors also have to tackle psychological imbalances and disorders associated with teenage pregnancy and love affairs. It is sad to note that the school budgets very often undermine the significance and role of counselors as they give more priority to other areas like "helping children with disabilities and raising achievement in the poorest schools'. The article thus throws light on the fact that the counselors under the present system are unable to establish personal relationships with the students which is the key factor in the counseling process.

The role of counselors can never be undermined as they have the capacity to determine the destiny of the nation by molding the personalities of the prospective citizens. Under favorable conditions, counselors can prove themselves to be reformers who can concentrate on the over all growth of the students and help students to see through peer pressure, family problems and other psychological and mental distractions. For this there should be special funding from the part of the government and there should be ample provisions for counseling in the school budgets.

Besides, counseling to be effective, the proportion of the number of students per counselor should be reduced so that the counselor can have intimate personal contact and relationship with the students. One of the major objectives of counseling in schools is to enable students to choose the best career that suits their innate taste and talents. For this, students need to be trained well to present themselves confidently while attending job interviews. Personal questions that are not strictly job related often make candidates uncomfortable and the article 'Job Hunting These Questions Are Illegal' considers such questions as illegal as they are 'discriminatory'.

According to the author, these illegal questions can vary from family details, sexual preference and marriage status, racial and ethnical origins, health, criminal records to physical disabilities. Students should be guided well to handle these circumstances when they go out of the schools and it is the duty of the counselor to instill a feeling of self esteem in the minds of the learners irrespective of his/her family background, ethnic origin or personal health related limitations. They should be taught that they have equal employment opportunity like all other well to do candidates.

Both the articles are closely related as they deal with the importance of counseling. The second article is a continuation of the first as it develops one of the areas that the counselors and the employers need to pay attention when it comes to job hunting and selection of candidates. The articles