180 Days

Yesterday, I started watching the documentary 180 School Days: A Year Inside an American High School.  Currently it's available in its full length both on PBS and on the documentary's website.  The documentary made me think about the role of a school counselor in an alternative school like DC Metro, with a population of students who have been suspended out of other schools, live in dangerous and unstable home environments and statistically have almost no chance of graduating.

At the beginning of the school year, the principal tells her incoming freshman class that 1 out of 3 of them is not going to make it through high school.  That's a terrible statistic!  1 out of 3 students will not graduate! They will give up and will end up on the streets without any means of supporting themselves and their families.  But the principal speaks to them about choices and values and how it is up to them to defy the statistics.  She also states several times that all the adults in the building are on their side.  They are here, in the school, for the sole purpose of supporting and educating the students.  Reminding students of that every day is incredibly powerful.  Showing students that it is important to the teacher on  a personal level that the student succeeds gives way for a more a trusting and emotionally laden relationship.

The counselor in a school like that has the challenge of meeting the needs of all the students but it is a challenge that can either be seen as an unsurmountable obstacle or as a opportunity to grow as an educator and an individual while helping and supporting the growth of students.  Lots of thoughts came out of watching this for me--and I think it would be a perfectly appropriate video to show to students one day as well.  It can help teach the notion that once the student has the "why" for succeeding  they will find the "how" for making it happen.  And with a supportive adult at their side that they know they can count on no matter what, the odds of achieving that goal are much greater.