Pay Attention: Twelve Suggestions on Counseling in an Educational Setting

Two years ago during a discussion of how labels get applied to young people these days, a young student of mine confided that she indeed suffered from one of the top-ten popular labels: "Attention Deficit Disorder." Yes, she admitted, she had this problem because she craved attention; she had never gotten enough of it. She was correct, caring attention is the cornerstone of an effective teacher-counseling program with youth at-risk because, for the most part, there has been a lack of it in their lives.

The twelve suggestions below are drawn from our practice at The Community School over the past 25 years. At the CSchool, our staff is hired as "teacher-counselors" because we consider our work equal parts teaching and counseling. This means we often do more listening than talking—a novel concept for the teaching tradition. Although "Teacher-Counseling" may happen anywhere, anytime: on the playground, after school, in the middle of a class, in a gifted and talented classroom, French class, or in the cafeteria; it should happen regularly.

A brief commentary on each suggestion follows the recommendations.

Program Design

Create a learning environment where a top priority is to develop trusting relationships between all community members.
Make sure each student has at least one adult who is paying particular attention to his/her progress, and meets with him/her on a one-to-one basis regularly, at least once a week.
Allow for informal time between students and teachers.
Wherever possible use more than one counseling modality (individual, group, peer-group, and parent conference) to work on issues.
Allow time for teacher-counselors and others who are doing student advising to consult with one another; give them access to professional case consultation when needed. Establish a confidentiality policy, which discourages teacher/counselors from carrying "loaded secrets."

For the Teacher-Counselor

Allow the needs of the students, as they perceive them, to guide the interaction as much as possible.
Pay close attention to your reactions to your students; do not be afraid of negative emotions!
Pay close attention to your intuition—if it's incorrect about a student it is probably saying something important about you.
Know when you don't know. Get good case consultation from your peers or a social-work/psychologist type when you need it.
Express advice as concern if your student hasn't asked for it but you still want them to know what you are thinking or feeling.
Confidentiality: make it clear at the outset that you are a mandated reporter and cannot hold unreported information about abuse secrets; and, that you will be consulting on problematic issues (which endanger the student or others) with at least one other staff member.
If your work in this area raises personal issues, get consultation for yourself.

Commentary

"Trust"
Effective teacher counseling is dependent on students and staff trusting one another. This can be achieved in part by setting a safe, respectful tone for all interactions in the school-community. At the Community School we have a "respect" rule—anyone, teacher or student, can be "busted" and required to participate in a "consequence meeting" to resolve the situation for treating someone else disrespectfully.

Adults are role models and must always demonstrate themselves to be trustworthy primarily by their actions. Our students must be at least partially convinced that their teacher-counselors genuinely respect and care about them before they are willing to reciprocate with similar behavior. There is much more to setting up a trust-generating learning environment than I can cover in this space. (See the article "Intimacy, Connectedness and Education" in the Holistic Education Review, Winter 1990, which goes into this issue in much greater depth.)
"One To One"
Each student has an advisor who meets with him/her at least once a week to discuss their progress and any issues that may have come up. Advisor-advisee sessions can develop a high degree of intimacy as often many deeply personal issues arise in them. These issues if not dealt with can create blocks to learning in traditional academic areas. A certain amount of self-revelation by staff is required to balance the interaction and prevent it from becoming a clinical counseling session. This is not therapy. Note: In most cases advisors are teacher-counselors, but they don't have to be; a non-teaching staff who has a great relationship with a student can be trained as an advisor and fully participate in the program.
"Informal Time"
This idea was best discussed in the book High Schools as Communities: The Small School Reconsidered, by Gregory and Smith—a great book on the value of small schools. Here are a few reasons why informal time between students and teachers is critical. We are an age-segregated society, and traditional schools with their separation of student by grade and age do much to promote this segregation. Stereotypes arise out of ignorance; separation and segregation create ignorance in this instance. To break down stereotypes that adults and adolescents, teachers and students carry about each other, make sure that you have some regular "informal" time with your students, especially your advisees. This means reviewing your daily schedule and building time for informal encounters.

One teacher last term developed a relationship with her "one to one" by playing a regular game of Uno with her. Something this simple added dimensions and tones to their relationship.
"Multi-Modality Counseling"
One form of "teacher-counseling" is not enough. Although we base our approach around the one to one, this does not always work—some students don't like that kind of intimate relationship. So, we have other regular modalities to facilitate personal and social progress: special classes in topics such as anger management, assertiveness, relapse prevention, sexuality and self-esteem, conflict resolution, parenting; full school community meetings in which issues can be discussed by the whole community; "care meetings" in which anywhere from two to six staff will meet with a student to listen or deliver a message of concern; an open community log book in which both students and teachers write: and a regular student meeting in which rule infractions and house issues are discussed.
"Support Consultation"
Program administrators, leaders, and designers, should devote time and resources to staff development and consultation to implement a teacher-counseling program. Taking on the role of teacher-counselor requires a major transformation particularly for high school teachers, who have been trained primarily to teach subjects not students. Time spent discussing a personal trauma which happened out of school and seems to have no bearing to any curricular objectives, can be the most important investment of time a teacher-counselor can make, and will inevitably lead to academic gains on the part of the student once s/he feels focused enough to return to the curriculum. More non-conventional programming allows teachers to weave compelling non-school incidents into the curriculum for that student.

Supporting teachers once they make the transition requires that you have access to regular consultation with social work professionals and, more importantly, that you make time for teacher-counselors and other student-advisors to meet as a peer supervision group. This group will form the core of staff-supervision and training for the counseling aspect of teacher-counseling.

For the Teacher-Counselor

"Starting Where The Student Is At"
Take cues from your students—as their advisor you put their needs first. This requires a suspension of judgmental processes on your part about what is "important" to talk about. In developing a relationship with an advisee—"all roads lead to Rome"; i.e., no discussion is insignificant.
"Pay Attention To Your Reactions"
Many educators in alternative education and prevention programs have difficulty admitting our negative reactions to students; these feelings conflict with our often untreated "messianic" impulses to "save" students. It is crucial that you honestly admit to yourself and your peer supervision team when you have a negative reaction to a student. Once you do this, your reactions can be reflected on in the direct daylight of awareness and things can get sorted out. It is OK to have negative emotions as long as you understand them, don't feel isolated by them, and can continue to manage a respectful response to your student. Failing to pay attention to your shadow side will make interactions with students inauthentic and less productive. Many of them, who have highly tuned "BS" detectors,will lose trust in you if they sense you are covering something up. Teacher burn-out in our trade is related, in part, to an inability to work with negative emotions.
"Pay Attention To Your Intuition"
Trust your intuition and attend closely to all of your reactions to your advisees. Do you want to rescue them? Avoid them? Keep on their good side? Sabotage them? Your reactions will tell you a lot about the students you are working with and allow you to reflect important information. When your intuition is way off you can learn something new about yourself.
"Knowing Your Limits—Getting Good Case Consultation"
Issues may come up that you feel are beyond your capacity. Pay attention to this feeling and discuss the situation in your peer supervision or consultancy sessions. If appropriate, refer your advisee to someone more experienced in this area, and help them bridge the connection with this professional by introducing the student to them in person. If this is not possible, make sure you get consultation if you decide to go any further with the issue—do not try to tackle issues that are major unresolved issues for yourself!
"How To Give Advice When It Is Not Asked For"
As teachers it's so hard for us to keep our mouths shut and not solve problems for those in our care. Advice given when it has not been asked for has the appeal of four-day-old fish for most people, including teenagers. However, if you are concerned or worried about a particular issue with a student, you can phrase your concern using the following approach: "When I see you doing ______, it makes me feel ______, and I am concerned that _______." Students can pursue this invitation to discussion or not as they are ready or capable. They probably won't. Regardless, two things will have been accomplished—they will know that you are paying attention to them and that you care, and you will feel that you have not colluded with their behavior by being silent.
"Confidentiality"
Students can tell us about shocking and upsetting events. Sometimes they discuss activities which break school or community rules, or talk about situations that may be threatening to the safety of themselves or others.

At the CSchool teacher-counselors cannot grant "amnesty" or confidentiality to their advisees. Broken school or community rules must be referred to our consequence process. Issues involving the safety of anyone in the community need to be dealt with right away. So, at the beginning of our relationships with our "one to one" we let them know that there is limited confidentiality to our discussions. If an advisor hears about rule-breakage or safety issues s/he must report it to another staff. The two staff members then decide whether or not these discussions bear the full staff's attention. Unlike traditional counseling, students are held responsible for actions divulged in an advisory conference.
"Taking Care Of The Caretaker—Getting Self-Consultation When Needed"
Be aware that teacher-counseling is transformative work, and as such it is risky. If you are doing your job properly you will come into contact with unexamined aspects of yourself which you avoided or ignored until a student illuminates them for you by his/her behavior or response to you. Getting in touch with and working with your emotional baggage is the reciprocal product of helping students to confront their behavior. You may want help with this process, and ideally your workplace should support private consultation on personal issues which have been triggered by work. How much more authentic will your referrals to "professional counselors" be if you have made use of these services yourself? How much better a listener and empathizer will you be when you recognize similar issues connect you to your advisee?

Conclusion

Adult society is fragmented and eager to scapegoat adolescents (See Mike Males' excellent book The Scapegoat Generation). Our children are more vulnerable and less stable, more in need of careful, caring, and sustained attention than ever before. Developing and sustaining meaningful, genuine relationships with students is at the core of success at the Community School. Last year over 100 graduates re-contacted the school more than 600 times because they felt, and continue to feel, a sense of trust and belonging. Many other schools do the same with equally impressive results by focusing time, energy, and attention on the relational foundation of their programs. Developing a teacher-counseling program is one way to strengthen that foundation.

Contact Emanuel Pariser at the Community School, Box 555, Camden, ME 04843, 207.236.3000, FAX: 207.236.2505, E-mail: emanuel@cschool.acadia.net.

This article is from the National Dropout Prevention Center Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 4, Fall 1998.