Comprehensive School Counseling Program Philosophy
The Columbia Public School District believes that the school counseling program is an essential and integral part of the overall educational process. Since emotional, social, and intellectual development is an ongoing integrated process, the school counseling program must address the issue of total development from pre-school to young adulthood. Growth and learning are developmental with students’ needs varying at progressive states; therefore, an effective school counseling program must provide structured sequential activities to address those needs.
A developmental school counseling program focuses on all students. While the counselor continues to respond to the unique needs of the individual, all students benefit from experiential activities that enhance their knowledge and skills in career planning and exploration, in self-awareness and interpersonal relationships, and in educational/vocational development. Proficiency in these areas serves to improve students’ self-concept, fosters better peer and adult interactions, and lends students a sense of purpose and direction in more effectively planning and controlling their own lives. Such enhanced competencies result in students who are prepared to cope with life’s decisions and to manage human relationships. Thus, the comprehensive school counseling program is preventative as well as remedial in nature.
A developmental school counseling program focuses on all students. While the counselor continues to respond to the unique needs of the individual, all students benefit from experiential activities that enhance their knowledge and skills in career planning and exploration, in self-awareness and interpersonal relationships, and in educational/vocational development. Proficiency in these areas serves to improve students’ self-concept, fosters better peer and adult interactions, and lends students a sense of purpose and direction in more effectively planning and controlling their own lives. Such enhanced competencies result in students who are prepared to cope with life’s decisions and to manage human relationships. Thus, the comprehensive school counseling program is preventative as well as remedial in nature.
