The official student newspaper of Walter Johnson High School

The Pitch

The official student newspaper of Walter Johnson High School

The Pitch

The official student newspaper of Walter Johnson High School

The Pitch

To The Editor

It was with great disappointment and frustration that I read the editorial “Guidance: Guiding in the Wrong Direction?” in the most recent issue of The Pitch. The opinions inferred by the title, opening paragraph, and closing statement are starkly at odds with the quotes from Mr. Reynolds that allegedly were intended to support the opinion.

In summary, Mr. Reynolds’ first quote describes that a wide array of factors and information is considered as the counselor and student work together to select classes, and his second quote asserts that if a student is getting A’s and B’s in classes with relative ease, then counselors should challenge them to consider moving up to Honors or AP level. These are both appropriate and expected conversations that should take place, what is described in MCPS as “best practices” (and certainly not “Guiding in the Wrong Direction”). The closing statement along with the title of the article imply that counselors at WJ are not doing the things addressed by Mr. Reynolds – helping students consider many factors, and encouraging them to challenge themselves appropriately. In fact, the editorial implies that counselors are “pushing” students to take heavier classloads against their wishes. This is simply not the case.

In our weekly department meetings, we discuss the importance of encouraging our students to be thoughtful and realistic with their class selections. We understand the extreme pressure from parents, peers, and society in general in this area and this era. We strive to ensure that students are really thinking hard about their class choices, and getting information from teachers and fellow students so that they have an accurate expectation of the subject matter that will be covered and the intensity of the workload for each class. We understand that in many cases, students have teachers urging them to take Honors/AP classes. Teachers make these recommendations in the context of how a student has performed in their particular subject/class. Contrary to the article’s premise that counselors coax students to overload themselves, our goal is to provoke students to ask themselves crucial questions: how much time will be necessary to be successful, what are the other commitments and activities on your plate, are you choosing classes that you have a sincere interest in, are you choosing only because a teacher recommended it, are you simply trying to “tally” another Honors/AP class? The counseling department feels that often it is the students who are too ambitious, and it is the counselor saying “Hey, let’s think this through – are you sure you really want to take that heavy a load?”

We have made great efforts to ensure that students weigh these decisions carefully and wisely. We start the course registration process very early in the year to give students ample time. We have a classroom presentation in which schedule cards are distributed, and students are given several weeks to research, talk to teachers, talk to peers, and ideally make sound choices. Rather than simply collecting the schedule cards, we arrange (during class instruction time) for students to sit down with their counselors and ask any further questions they might have.

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Joe Thompson

School Counseling Office

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