Insights on guidance

INSIGHTS ON GUIDANCE It is said that school is second to home, and teachers act as a child’s parent. The role of a teacher therefore is equated to the role of a parent. One of these roles, and perhaps the most complicated one is the role of giving guidance. First, one cannot guide if he is lost. Meaning, inorder for a person to be able to give out guidance to another person, he must first examine himself very well. Because guidance is all about leading someone to the right path. Therefore, if a student is problematic with his studies and is at risk of failing or dropping out, it is the teacher’s primary role to examine the cause — it could possibly be because the teacher is so strict, or could be because the teacher’s main concern is only imparting the subject matter without giving importance to his/her student’s interest. Because sometimes, it could also be that a teacher is the one who is lost. Guidance takes two to tango. It is not one sided. There must be a giver and a taker. The teacher acts as the giver of help, and the problematic person as the taker of the teacher’s advice. This relationship must be seriously attended to by each side until both parties reach the point of stabilization. If ever one of them breaks from this act while in the middle of the process, then guidance is not given at all, there is only waste of time, and the child remain helpless. Teach a man how to fish, and he will live forever. Guidance must not be spoon-feeding. It should not be about being dependent and giving solutions to a man’s problem. Instead, it is about teaching a person how to be independent and strong enough to find solutions to his own problems. Guidance is given so that a person must learn to make his own decisions, his own insights and realizations. And lastly, united we stand, divided we fall -guidance is collaborative. Inorder for guidance to succeed, it needs everyone’s support-both from the school’s community and the child’s community. It needs constant cooperation between the child’s family and the school’s guidance committee which could be composed of the guidance counselor, principal and the teacher. The center of focus is the problematic child. It is like bayanihan, it demands everyones effort to help for it to be successful.