A Point of ViewThe approach to any problem inevitably governs its solution. So it is in thefield of guidance. The concept of guidance and its function in the total schoolprogram will condition classroom procedures, plans of organization, andpersonnel employed. The authors who introduce this issue give points ofview from which those instituting or reorganizing guidance programs mayproceed. The authors point to guidance as an integral and essential aspectof the school program; they focus attention on the learner; all point to thevaried responsibilities of school personnel. The first treats generally theguidance program; the second treats the organization of a guidance programfor the modern secondary school; and the third looks at the specific role ofthe classroom teacher.

W eat 9 S4uidane itn tMM Yfc t AAPhoq4m?

ETHEL KAWIN

This guidance discussion is by Ethel Kawin, guidance consultant in thepublic schools of Glencoe and Evergreen Park, Illinois, and lecturer ineducation at the University of Chicago.

Courtesy Bloomfield (N. J.) Junior High School

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WHAT DO YOU THINK is guid-ance in the school program? At firstglance it may seem that this question isone that can be simply and briefly an-swered. Constant and varied contactswith teachers, administrators, super-visors, graduate students, and specialistsin various phases of education, however,soon reveal the confusion and the dif-ferences of opinion prevalent concern-ing this question.

For some years many of the advocatesof guidance have been divided into twocamps. There are those who wouldmake guidance synonymous with edu-cation, holding that all guidance is edu-cation and all education is guidance.Opposing this viewpoint are those whofeel that such dilution of the term"guidance" destroys its meaning. Theyinsist that guidance is a very specializedaspect of education to be carried ononly by highly trained specialists whodeal with the personal needs and ad-justments of individual boys and girlswhen there are guidance problems tobe solved.

It is possible to hold a third view-point which harmonizes these two posi-tions and seems to meet the realities ofschool programs better than either ofthe more extreme views. Those whohold this third position recognize thateducation can be good only when it ispermeated with a guidance viewpoint,yet they do not make education andguidance identical. They recognize thatkey persons in the guidance programof the school are classroom teachersand that guidance specialists are re-source persons available to teachers andparents to help them in the guidanceof boys and girls.

In an article published in EDUCATIONAL

May 1948

LEADERSHIP two years ago (May, 1946),

this author suggested that guidancemay be broadly defined as any plannedexperience or contact with individualsfor the purpose of helping them to de-velop in certain directions. Under thisdefinition the specific function of theguidance program of a school is the sat-isfactory mutual adjustment of theschool and the individual child. Whilespecialists have important contributionsto make to this process, its success restsultimately upon the shoulders of eachindividual classroom teacher.

LOOKING AT OUR TERMIINOLOGY

Guidance and EducationGuidance is always addressed to the

individual and is based upon recognitionof individual differences. The term"education" is a more inclusive term. Itis possible to have group instruction andeven group learning without guidance.This is, in fact, all too common a prac-tice in schools at all levels, and perhapsat the college level especially. In soundeducational practice, however, guidanceand instruction become inseparablefunctions. This viewpoint was stateda decade ago by Arthur J. Jones andHarold C. Hand.'

Guidance is coming to be regarded asthat inseparable aspect of the educationalprocess that is peculiarly concerned withhelping individuals to discover theirneeds, assess their potentialities, developtheir life purposes, formulate plans of ac-tion in the services of these purposes, andproceed to their realization. The totalteaching process involves both guidanceand instruction as these terms have com-monly been emploved in the past and asinseparable functions. Neither can be

1 National Society for the Study of Education.Guidance in Educationa Insittions. Thirty-seventhYearbook, Part I. Bloomington, Illinois: PublicSchool Publishing Co., 1938.

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delegated in any discrete manner toseparate functionaries.

This assertion does not mean, however,that specialists such as counselors, schoolpsychologists, mental hygienists, voca-tional specialists, and other workers men-tioned elsewhere should be done awaywith. On the contrary, we shall see thatmore, not less, help of a specialized na-ture than we now have will be necessaryif the functional needs of students areadequately to be met. It distinctly doesmean, however, that the tasks of guidingand instructing cannot legitimately bemade the respective responsibilities ofseparate groups of educational workers.

Guidance and Curriculum

Increasingly, guidance has become anintegral part of the whole school sys-tem inseparable from any other im-portant aspect of the school's educa-tional program. Its inter-relationshipwith that program has become increas-ingly apparent as concepts of the cur-riculum have deepened and broadened.

Broadly conceived, the modern cur-riculum consists of those planned op-portunities and guided experiences ofpupils over which the school exercisesmajor control. The curriculum is pri-marily based upon the needs, interests,and abilities which a group of childrenhave in common. If one starts out todevelop a curriculum for a third gradegroup of children, one bases it, in gen-eral, upon characteristics which arecommon to eight-year-old boys andgirls. No two children, however, areexactly alike; each is a unique person-ality. In any average group of eight-year-old children, developmental levelswill vary from that of six-year-olds tolevels not usually achieved before theage of ten or over. Furthermore, thisfour- or five-year range may be foundin an individual child. For example, achild may be eight years old chrono-

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logically, physically as small as most six-year-olds, with a mental age of ten, andsocial-emotional levels of maturity rang-ing anywhere from six to ten. More-over, such a youngster may be consid-ered a "normal" boy or girl.

As soon as a teacher begins to im-plement a curriculum in a classroom,the individual differences among chil-dren begin to be revealed. To function,the curriculum must be adjusted tomeet these differences. Thus the guid-ance program, based upon recognitionof individual differences, begins tofunction. Every good classroom teacherinevitably guides children, as she recog-nizes the individual needs, capacities,abilities, and interests of each learnerand strives for a mutual adjustment ofchild and curriculum.

IDENTIFYING GOOD GUIDANCE PROGRAMS

A good guidance program has twomajor aspects. The first is: integratingmental hygiene principles and practicesinto the entire school program. Thefunction of the school cannot be sepa-rated from mental hygiene. The pri-mary purpose of education is to helpindividuals become able to meet and tosolve problems of living. Every individ-ual must be able to adjust an ever-changing self to an ever-changing en-vironment. Education is the basic dis-cipline which society has set up for thetraining of individuals. It should re-ceive all the assistance it can from psy-chology, psychiatry, and other dis-ciplines.

The schools, however, remain themajor institutions which society hasestablished to prepare young people tocope successfully with the problems oflife. Specialists whose fundamental

Educational Leadership

training is in the field of mental hy-giene, whether they be called psychol-ogists, psychiatrists, guidance workers,or by other professional designations,can be very helpful in guiding theschool staff to insure that practices andprocedures are conducive to mental

health. But, in the last analysis, the men-tal hygiene program of any school de-pends primarily upon the mental healthof each classroom teacher and the men-tal healthfulness of the climate whichthe teacher is able to establish for hisown pupils.

The second major aspect of a good

guidance program is: the study of theindividual child, vaith adjustment of thechild to school and school to child. Thisphase of the guidance program is al-

most unlimited in scope and potentiali-ties. It involves thoughtful observationof each child, home contacts for everychild, many and varied tests and meas-urements, and the careful recording ofall such significant data in a cumulativeindividual record for each pupil. Limi-tations of space preclude the possibilityof an adequate discussion of thesepotentialities here. The piinciples andgeneral methods of this phase of guid-ance apply to all levels of education,from pre-school through college, butthe procedures and practices used will,of necessity, vary for age levels and forspecific school and community situa-tions.

CLARIFYING THE VARIED ROLES

It is clear that a guidance programsuch as we have envisaged in this articleinvolves the cooperation of school,home, and community--of administra-tors, supervisors, teachers, guidancespecialists, and parents. What are the

May 1948

respective roles of these groups in the

guidance program of the school?The first step in building a guidance

program should be taken by the admin-istrator. It consists of educating thecommunity, the Board of Education,and the school staff to understand andwant guidance. An in-service training

program for teachers, either for thewhole staff or for selected teachers whoare especially interested in and qualifiedfor guidance responsibilities, should beprovided. For these purposes the serv-ices of the specialist are usually helpful.No school can build any program be-yond community readiness to supportthat program.

Every good teacher guides children;every good school has guidance goingon within it, whether so-called or not.Each school should build upon what italready has--integrating, extending, andenriching its guidance functions asrapidly as teachers and parents are pre-pared to carry the program forward.As the program develops, it is well todifferentiate the functions of variousgroups in the program. The followingsuggestions may serve as guiding prin-ciples, although actual application ofthem may vary from place to place.

Administrators and Supervisors Open Doors

The guidance responsibilities of ad-ministrative and supervisory staff are:

· To provide an enlightened and coopera-tive teaching staff

* To select trained guidance personneland provide in-service training whenneeded

* To cooperate with the guidance special-ists or with those primarily responsiblefor guidance in outlining the total guid-ance program, including items such astesting and record system

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* To secure cooperation of the staff forthe guidance program

* To secure contacts with and coopera-tion of parents in the program

* To provide adequate physical space andequipment for carrying on guidanceservices

* To hold teacher loads down to levelswhich make it possible for teachers toperform their guidance functions

* To encourage continuous revision of thecurriculum in the light of what theguidance program reveals

* To make school adjustments possiblefor the individual child.

Teachers Contact the Children

Teachers may contribute to the de-velopment of their pupils through fourprincipal avenues-their own personali-ties, their attitudes toward and theirrelationships with their students, whatthey actually teach, and the adjustmentsthey are able to help their pupils make.Their contributions will be facilitatedif their guidance functions include re-sponsibility for:

* Observation and study of children, forthe purpose of understanding each childas an individual

* Record keeping-a cumulative folderfor each pupil

* Individualization of instruction andtreatment of the child (based upon thetwo above)

* Understanding of his own (the teach-er's) and the pupil's mental health

• Cooperating fully with the organizedguidance program

* Contacts and cooperation with parents* Guiding the child toward recognized

goals.

The Guidance Specialist-a Resource Person

As pointed out earlier, the guidancecounselor is a resource person availableto parents and teachers to help them in

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guidance of children. The primary re-sponsibilities of such specialists are:

To help plan and supervise the gather-ing of such facts as are essential to theunderstanding and guidance of each in-dividual pupil in the school system-facts about his home and family back-ground, developmental history, physicalhealth, capacities, needs, interests, andachievement.

To help teachers use these facts (as-sembled in individual cumulative rec-ords), in solving their problems in theguidance of children, rather than torelieve teachers of these problems. Indoing so, classroom observations, con-ferences with teachers, and the inter-viewing of parents jointly with teachersbecome an important part of the guid-ance counselor's work.

To assume direct responsibilities inthe guidance of a child only when prin-cipals and teachers are unable to solvethe child's problems. Intensive workwith parents and with children them-selves and cooperation with outsidespecialists or agencies carrying on specialtreatment of some such children con-stitute a major responsibility of theguidance counselor.

To interpret the mental hygiene andguidance program of the school to teach-ers and parents and to carry on, a con-tinuous program of education in thesefields.

To analyze systematically, from timeto time, the facts gathered and the re-sults obtained in the adjustment ofpupils, so that the mutual adjustment ofschool to pupil and pupil to school mayimprove as a continuously evolvingprocess.

Parents Look to the Schools

Parents and teachers are the majorguides of children, and it is essentialthat they have mutual understandingand cooperation if the needs of eachchild are to be met. The rapid growthof friendly parent-teacher conferences

Educational Landership

as part of the school's guidance pro-gram evidences the growing recogni-tion of the parent's role in the schoolguidance program. The school mustknow parents in order really to knowits children.

Parents, too, are dependent upon theschool for a full understanding of theirchildren. They turn to the school forinformation as to their children's de-velopment in scholastic achievement,but that is only one area in which theschool should serve as a source of guid-ance to parents. Fathers and mothersmust look to the school as a majorsource of information concerning theirchild's reactions as a member of a groupother than the family. From the schoolthey should get considerable informa-tion about the child's physical and men-tal health, special interests and abilities,handicaps, and disabilities. To theschool, also, they must look for muchinformation on the child's developingcharacter traits and habits of work.

Many parents do not have any realknowledge of child development ortraining; few parents have any agencyother than the school to which they cannaturally turn for help in these fields.The school should make every effort tomeet parental needs for guidance as itdevelops trained personnel for its ownguidance program.2

2 Kawin, Ethel. Early Childhood Education. Na-tional Society for the Study of Education, Forty-sixth Yearbook, Part If, Chapter X. Chicago: Uni-versity of Chicago Press. 1947.

Pupils Develop Self-Guidance SkillsThe role of the pupil himself in guid-

ance obviously varies greatly accordingto his age. So great would be the dif-ferences between the role of a youngchild, that of a college student, and ofall the developmental levels in between,that this topic cannot be dealt with insuch an article as this. We can onlypoint out that the ultimate purpose ofall wise guidance is to develop an in-dividual capable of guiding himself. Weassume some capacity for self-under-standing and self-direction in even theyoung child. We expect that his pow-ers of self-understanding and self-direc-tion will increase as he grows older andas we help him to discover his ownneeds, desires, and capacities and tolearn to decide what he wants to doand how best to accomplish his pur-poses. A sound guidance program isorganized to help each individual de-velop abilities to make choices and ad-justments, taking on ever-increasing re-sponsibilities for himself.

YOUTH LOOKS FOR GUIDANCE

Such a description of guidance in theschool program cannot give a pictureof what guidance means in the life ofthe individual young person, whetherit be child or student at college level,for whom understanding and wiseguidance are available from home andschool. Education without guidance, it isgenerally accepted, is a futile procedurefor children and young people.

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Copyright © 1948 by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. All rights reserved.