 
|
According to the therapeutic model of public education, the school is the primary caregiver, responsible not only for academics, but for "emotional development" and "building life skills." This philosophy is the basis of a proposed "Comprehensive Guidance Program," presented to the Plano Independent School District Board of Trustees on February 6th. Rather than debate this new power grab, parents must work to roll back the influence that counseling already has.
Traditionally, the guidance offered by school counselors was academic: assistance choosing courses, or selecting a college. By contrast, every child in the PISD is required to attend regular group counseling sessions which are both "personal and academic," beginning in kindergarten. Although the new district proposal lacks detail, it clearly suggests that children need even more counselors, and more counseling, to "develop life coping skills."
Advocates of such government intrusiveness often portray families as inadequate to deal with the complexities of modern life. The PISD goes so far as to assert that "(p)arents...look to counselors to lead the way in responding to social and emotional needs." (Emphasis added.) A good counselor might call that "projection."
Current PISD handbooks do not clearly explain the universal and mandatory nature of counseling, describing it instead as only one of many resources available to children who may need it. And, while the district has always allowed parents to exempt their children from counseling, handbooks do not mention this option, nor do parent information packets include a standard "opt-out" form. As a result, parents uncomfortable with counseling tend to "go along to get along," rather than single their own child out.
Parents' discomfort, though, is warranted. Although there is no standard, districtwide curriculum, Plano's counselors are allowed to use such devices as "Duso the Dolphin" to elicit emotional feedback from children in a manner which school psychologist and author Steven Kossor has called "inappropriate and dangerous." Because of such concerns, Chapter 26 of the Texas Education Code of 1995 explicitly forbids schools to conduct psychological examinations, tests or treatment without parental consent.
Whether or not Plano's counseling programs fit the strict definition of psychological services in the Education Code, it is a very thin line. That is why Plano must abandon universal counseling, and offer it instead only at parents' request, and only to children with real problems. The rest should be presumed healthy. After all, counseling, like Ritalin, is a therapy appropriate to very few, but unnecessary, at best, for the majority.
Parents who have tried to offer suggestions regarding curriculum or teaching methods know that the education establishment greets such "unqualified" opinions with either hostility or indifference. Why then, do so many educators and counselors feel compelled to meddle in the raising of children? Parents are beginning to ask that question more loudly, and to answer it more firmly.
On a national level, a Parental Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution has been introduced in twenty state legislatures, and is expected to be introduced soon in eight more. The amendment would codify parents' unalienable and exclusive right to direct the education and upbringing of their children. Regardless of its intent, Plano's counseling program, in practice, usurps these basic parental rights.
Our schools need to pursue academics, not "emotional development"; encourage real achievement, not phony self-esteem; and set measurable, objective standards, not trendy, subjective goals. There are only so many hours in a day, and each one spent in needless counseling cannot be spent on real learning.
That is why parents must demand an end to Plano's universal counseling, and fully-informed consent agreements for parents who request counseling. This is not a radical notion, only an assertion of the reality that not every child is a patient, not every personality is a pathology, and most lives can be lived without having to "cope."
|
|