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Monday, February 1st, 1999

Education World® Celebrates National School Counseling Week (February 1-5, 1999)

Last October, during the White House Conference on School Safety, President Clinton joined the U.S Conference of mayors in calling for more counselors in our nation's schools. "[W]e need to let [taxpayers] know that a well-trained counselor dealing with the kind of challenges these children face is a terrific investment."

Everyday, school counselors address the needs -- the personal, social, academic, and career needs -- of students. It's more than appropriate that we take some time out each year to recognize the contributions that counselors make to our schools and our students, so this week -- National School Counseling Week -- Education World dedicates our issue to stories related to school counseling.

In addition, we encourage our readers to visit https://www.schoolcounselor.org/, the Web site of the American School Counselor Association (ASCA), sponsors of National School Counseling Week. ASCA's Web site offers many great resources for this special week, including suggestions from counselors of 40 ways schools might celebrate National School Counseling Week.

This week, start off your school week with a big "thank you" to your school's counselor(s). Then check out a handful of the stories Education World offers in this special issue:

• Career Counseling Resources on the Internet To celebrate National School Counseling Week we provide some of the best free resources related to career counseling on the Internet, courtesy of the American School Counselor Association.

• A Child's Grief Journey When a child loses someone close to them, how can adults help? Author Amy Jay Barry sought answers to that question when she and her young boys faced the death of her husband, their father. Now Barry shares what she learned from that experience, and from years as a bereavement counselor, in a sensitive and educational story, A Child's Grief Journey. Included: An Education World interview with the author.

• Is Character Education the Answer? As incidents of in-school violence become more common, and strict disciplinary techniques and increased security measures fail to control the problem, many parents, educators, politicians, and social leaders are looking for reliable methods of prevention. Is character education the answer?

• One Character Education Program That Works! Many schools, lacking the time and resources required to develop their own character education curricula, are instead turning to established programs that have proven successful in other school districts. Read about one such program ---recently adopted by schools in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania--- in which the whole community is involved.

• Where Everyone Knows Your Name: Special Programs Target At-Risk Students This week, Education World takes a look at some special programs that target at-risk students in grades five and up. In this overview, we examine school programs for students with problems, programs for "average" kids who've gotten lost in the shuffle, and a controversial preventative program. What makes these special programs successful? Can anything be learned from these programs that might be adapted by "mainstream" schools? Included: Additional resources for educators interested in learning about or developing programs that target at-risk students across the grades!