Wise and experienced leadership in guidance is extremely important. It is often said that “As the principal is, so is the school”.
This statement holds equally for organised guidance programmes. Completeness of organisation; elaborateness of equipment; multiplicity of records, guidance forms, and reports; and specialisation among guidance personnel—these do not constitute the whole of a programme of effective guidance.
Necessary as these adjuncts may be, the core of guidance lies in the spirit in which the services are rendered—the cooperativeness of effort and the earnestness of purpose that motivate the attitudes and behaviour of all who are participants in the guidance activity.
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These include administrators, teachers, and specialists, as well as the recipients of personal help and counsel.
Intelligent application of the basic principles to the operation of a school programme of guidance services has value not only for the young or older pupils for whose benefit the programme has been organised but also for their parents, the members of the school staff, and the community at large.
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This fact is not always recognised by the government leaders who provide money for educational purposes or the school administrators who allocate budgetary allowances.
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Yet, because so many other aspects of education demand financial support, available guidance services often are inadequate.
Fundamental propositions:
The general organisation and implementation of guidance services and the special procedures employed on the various school levels are discussed in succeeding chapters. At this point attention is directed to certain fundamental assumptions.
Attitudes toward Guidance Programme:
A school guidance programme consists of the co-ordinate services of the school faculty, including administrators, teachers, professional guidance workers, and other school personnel in cooperation with appropriate community agencies. All of the services are aimed at encouraging individual and group welfare.
The relative effectiveness of a school guidance programme depends, in part, on:
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1. Understanding and acceptance by administrators of its functions and goals,
2. Well-trained, experienced and personally qualified guidance workers,
3. Recognition of pupils’ guidance needs, and
4. Parent and community cooperation.
An adequately functioning programme of guidance services can be established in any school if the staff members are sufficiently interested to develop it. A programme that is superimposed by the administration however, is rarely successful.
Implications of a Guidance Programme:
If one is convinced of the value to individuals on any age level of help received through an intelligently conceived and appropriately conducted guidance programme, the formulation of basic principles of guidance procedures is relatively easy.
A more difficult task is that of organising and implementing the programme in such way that everyone concerned will receive maximum benefit.
A school guidance programme is concerned in a broad sense with the mental and physical health and personality development of each child with whom the school comes in contact. Guidance inherent in the total process of education.
One of the ultimate goal; of guidance is a well-integrated personality. The guidance programme should concern itself with the problems of all youth.
Every teacher on the school staff has a responsibility for aiding in the guidance of boys and girls. Every person who accepts responsibility for a share in the guidance programme must aid in discovering the needs and problems of each child and help the child in resolving his problems.
The guidance programme includes both the helping of each child [to] adjust to an established or required pattern, and the adjusting of the pattern to better meet the needs of the individual child.