I had the opportunity to interview with the school psychologists on our campus. She currently holds a master’s level degree in psychology and has worked for the district for 10 years now with 3 of those years at this location. Discussing what she does on a regular bases she explained how she reaches out to contacts within the community to help parents and children with unresolved issues to help them find answers. She creates activities that help to nurture a better lifestyle for these families. I discussed with her in length about these events and she described them as a social environment conducive to a higher quality in learning, social interaction and family lifestyle. The reason for planning these events in our campus is because of the lower demographics and the campus considered a special class of schools which are known as Title 1 which receives more aid than other campuses.
When asked of her daily routine she explained that when someone notices abnormal behavior she calls students to her office to speak with them to find out what is happening. She then works with the social worker, school resource officer, administration and parents to resolve these issues. This is what the majority of her time is spent on with a small portion going to the community events. As I shadowed her for a couple hours of my day what we were able to do is deal with student issues that ranged from young adolescents that had social issues (boyfriend/girlfriend) to students that had a troubled home life and needed assistance. Another area that she deals with a little is helping the pregnant adolescents prepare themselves for motherhood and the responsibilities that are associated with raising a child. In 2012-2013 school year there were over 8 adolescent females out of 1,800 enrolled students that had children and were under the age of 18 at this particular campus.
Comparing this position to my values it is pretty much split down the middle. One of my aspirations is to help troubled children find the correct path in life and make better decisions for themselves. This position does have that value, but I can see trouble with some of the parents not wanting to cooperate as I have already found that in my current position. Because of the lower demographics some of these parents have given up on raising their children and have let them to raise themselves. This would be one of the biggest challenges of all and that would be to involve parents in their children’s...
