School is the first external environment our students have access to after home. New characters, challenges, and dares start forming their autonomy. Although teachers are and will continue to be our best allies as the closest adults to our children in this process, there are moments in which we need a closer or more periodic interaction, a bridge between us and the school environment. The Counseling team represents this bridge.
What is the role of a school counselor?
A school counselor has a background that provides a different perspective of the students’ difficulties in school. With their role, the counselors identify and integrate different elements to explain our children’s behavior. It’s an observer that stays in the area, whose position allows them to understand situations taking into consideration as many factors as possible: family, academics, social, and personal.
The counselor acts also as an orchestra director, who coordinates the communication among different actors: parents, teachers, and students. Counselors are a key player in academic, social and vocational topics. In many occasions, she represents a safe place and a space for reflection for some children with adaptation difficulties.
How can we beneficiate from this support?
Whenever you identify or suspect that your son/ daughter is having any difficulties at school, do not hesitate to contact the counseling department. Even though their function is not to provide therapy, they do facilitate effective interventions in problem solving processes. It’s very important that you communicate to your children the possibility of approaching the Counselors as a trustable and safe place.
Colegio Interamericano’s Counseling Department is an open team, interested in the children’s well being, and with great abilities to help.
“Education consists in helping a child bring his aptitudes to reality”
Erich Fromm
Written by:
Interamericano’s Counseling Department