Friday, December 18, 2009

Soap Opera

It's that time of the year again, guidance counselors are busy holding court in their office, showing off their pretty new clothes as they hold up the wall, gossipping and decorating offices. Why work? The holiday will be here before anyone knows it.

But wait! Two girls are having a major crisis. They are both in tears. No one bothered to tell them their counselors were in party mode already and they should hold off on whatever is bothering them until next year.

No one told the concerned girls' teacher either. The teacher made sure to stop at guidance before going home to make sure someone spoke to these students about whatever it was that was bothering them. One counselor said "Oh, D..., I don't know her. Do you know where she is now? (Counselor has a computer on her desk with access to every program.) I guess I can send for her but if she won't come, there is nothing I can do." I had to hold my tongue to keep from saying "Get your lazy ass out of this office and up to D's class. No one told you to wear those 6 inch heels that are so hard to walk in." C's counselor was busy helping a colleague decorate her office. She promised to go look for her, and I hope she did but, it was obvious from the look on her face that C was not a priority.

I probably should have waited around to make sure they followed through but it was Friday afternoon and I was tired so I left. I'm sitting here feeling guilty, worried about these two kids. Both are in my difficult algebra class and anyone who has ever taught a class like this one knows some of these kids have more problems imaginable. Involving parents might be the way to go, or it might escalate the whole thing and that is why I wanted guidance involved. Guess I will just have to wait until Monday to see how this saga ends.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Most counselors act like PRE-Madonas in most schools.

Schoolgal said...

Isn't it a bit late to decorate for the holidays with less than a week remaining????

mathman42 said...

I guess I'm lucky being in a school 1/3 or so your size. Although few kids do much work, the counselors, all four or five of them, do the right thing. Since 60 % of the kids in my prep classes rarely show, I can make some progress with the others.

Anonymous said...

You forgot the best part! You can be a counselor now without even having stepped in a classroom. In other words you can use words like"differention of instruction" but never know what they mean or how to use them! You never have to meet your students or know what it is to get a student to learn; motivate them. Nah, the job should be just for decoration!

mathman42 said...

The guidance counselors are like the good cop; we're the bad cop. Just like some teachers, the younger ones give the students more rope.