Counselling and School Guidance (US): History in brief

By S Adeeb Mujtaba Ali

While the foundations of therapy and instruction concepts can be traced back to ancient Greece and Rome with Plato and Aristotle's philosophical teachings, the tradition of school counseling officially began at the turn of the twentieth century. Also, there is evidence suggesting that some of the methods and skills used by modern-day guidance counselors were used by Catholic priests in the Middle Ages, as shown by the commitment to confessional confidentiality. The Universal Plaza of All the Professions of the World (1626), written by Tomaso Garzoni, was one of the first texts on career opportunities published near the end of the sixteenth century. Formal guidance programs using advanced textbooks, on the other hand, did not begin until the turn of the century.

In the United States, the social reform movement paved the way for the establishment of advice and therapy in the 1890s. Many people were angered by the struggles of inhabitants living in slums and the systematic use of child labor. One of the outcomes was the compulsory education movement, which was followed by the vocational guidance movement, which was originally concerned with leading people into the workforce so that they could become active members of society.

Frank Parsons, a social and political reformer, is widely regarded as the founder of the vocational guidance movement. The Boston Vocation Bureau was established as a result of his work with the Civic Service House.

The Boston Vocation Bureau aided in the creation of a vocational guidance system in Boston public schools in 1909. The bureau's work influenced the need for and use of vocational advice in the United States and abroad.

 The bureau's presence was known as far away as Uruguay and China by 1918. Initially, guidance and therapy were thought to be mostly vocational, but as the practice progressed, more personal interests became part of the school counselor's agenda.  

With the United States' entry into World War I (WWI), large numbers of draftees needed to be assessed, in part to choose suitable people for leadership roles. These early psychological tests on a large number of people were soon established as useful educational resources, kicking off the standardized testing movement, which is still a strong part of American public education in the early twenty-first century. At the same time, vocational guidance was becoming more widespread across the country, with over 900 high schools having some form of vocational guidance by 1918. The National Vocational Guidance Association was established in 1913, and it was instrumental in legitimizing and increasing the number of guidance counselors. Early vocational guidance counselors were frequently teachers who were assigned to the role because of the additional responsibilities it entailed in addition to their daily teaching duties.

Counseling positions were expanded in the 1920s and 1930s, and they were no longer limited to dealing with vocational issues. A student's social, medical, and educational needs all needed to be addressed. Funding for therapy services was restricted during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Guidance counselors did not see an improvement in funding for their practice until 1938, following a presidential committee's recommendation and the passage of the George Dean Act, which allocated funds specifically for the purpose of vocational guidance counseling.

Following WWII, there was a noticeable shift away from research. Carl Rogers, an American psychologist, was one of the key people who indirectly influenced this transition. His focus on "nondirective" (later known as "client-centered") therapy was embraced by those in the counseling industry. Counseling and Psychotherapy were published in 1942, and Client-Centered Therapy was published in 1951, by Rogers. In stark contrast to previous psychological and therapy theories, these two works established a modern counseling theory. This new theory emphasized the development of circumstances that put the client in control of the therapy material, rather than the counselor providing advice.

The National Defense Education Act (NDEA) was passed in 1958, and it provided funding for education in the United States at all levels, public and private. NDEA was created to promote science, mathematics, and modern foreign languages education, but it also helped with technical education, area studies, geography, English as a second language, therapy and instruction, school libraries, and educational media centers. The Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik and concerns that other countries were outperforming the US in mathematics and science fueled yet further support for school therapy. As a result, it was anticipated that by having adequate funding for education, including instruction and therapy, more students would pursue careers in science. The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) was established in the 1950s, furthering the school counselor's professional identity.

C. Gilbert Wrenn's writing, including his 1962 book The Counselor in a Changing World, highlighted the need for school counselors to be more culturally sensitive. Many more counseling ideas, such as Frederick Perl's gestalt therapy, William Glasser's truth therapy, Abraham Maslow and Rollo May's existential approach, and John Krumboltz's behavioral counseling approach, were introduced in the 1960s. During this time, legislative funding and an amendment to the NDEA provided funds for the training and employment of elementary school counselors.

In the 1970s, the school counselor began to be identified as a component of a larger program rather than as the entire program. There was a focus on the accountability of school counselor programs and the advantages of standardized assessments. The special education movement arose during this decade. The Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 addressed the educational and counseling needs of students with disabilities.

Training requirements and qualifications for school therapy were established in the 1980s. This was also a period when schooling in general, and therapy services, in particular, were subjected to more rigorous scrutiny. School counselors were qualified to adapt the educational atmosphere to student needs in order for schools to provide equal educational resources for individuals with disabilities. Many counselors' responsibilities and functions evolved significantly. Counselors began serving as gatekeepers for Individualized Education Programs (IEP) and Student Study Teams (SST), as well as advisors to special education teachers, after the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) 1990 was passed.

School therapy was neglected as an important part of a student's educational growth during the development of national educational standards and the school reform movement of the 1990s. With the adoption of national guidelines for school therapy services, the ASCA paid in part. These standards outlined the roles and obligations of school counseling services and demonstrated the importance of school counseling for each student's overall educational success.

Excerpt from: 

 Guidance and School Counseling - A Brief History of School Guidance and Counseling in the United States - Counselors, Students, Counselor, and Education - StateUniversity.com