Absolutely! There is not a day that goes by that I am not couseling a student on relationships (professional and personal), talking about financial aid, investing in the needs of the student (our customer) outside of classtime or even trying to keep emotions from getting away from a student.
I agree that mental health should be left up to someone with proper training.However we as instructors have the ability to pick out the students in the class that may have some problems that should be delt with by a expert.I believe its our job to direct them to someone qualified to help.
I most definitely agree with the statement. I know at our school we have many students that come from very challenging backgrounds and face very difficult issues such as drugs, homelessness, gambling, pregnancies, single parent, abusive relationships, etc. And unfortunately those issues come to school and into the classroom with these students and it is up to us to try and help them through this time by trying to find them some sort of resolve. I know in my own program we have a student who is homeless and sleeps in his car in our parking lot just so he has a warm place to sleep. However, to add to this misery he also has a gambling problem which has caused his family to disassociate with him. He has sought help from our program and we have provided him with shelters and churchs that provide assistance. However, to our dismay, he abused help that he was given from a church and took the money that was given to him and gambled it away. He then came back a second time looking for the church's contact information because he claimed he was in need of another hand out and the program director had to run around like crazy trying to get in contact with church to let them know not to give him money. And this is just one of the many "mental health" problems we face on regular basis.
yes we are educators and culinarians and customer servers.
Student Services and Student Hotline number to provide students a resource for problem situations "outside" of the classroom. Each student is assigned a "Mentor" to be role model/contact person during the first quarter.
Stephen,
What are some specific things your campus does to provide that strong foundation?
Jeffrey Schillinger
Yes, educationing and providing a strong foundation for our students is the goal
Edward,
You raise a question that a lot of folks in out sector are raising. All we can do right now is to teach well and provide the kind of student service that inspires success.
Jeffrey Schillinger
We are definitely in more than one business. With the recent Federal Government regulations pertaining to Placement and Payment, I feel that we are leaning heavily towards being Administrators as well as Instructors.
I am personally finding it difficult to determine where all of this changing status is going.
Ned
Dianne,
What are some specific ways that you teach students to self-motivate and reman positive?
Jeffrey Schillinger
Definitely agree that we are in the mental health business as well. Students often do not have a high emotional intelligence due to HABE's. Motivating and staying positive is as important as the academics we teach because the academics will stick better with a student that can be taught ways to self-motivate and remain positive.
Valencia,
It is a good sign when your students bring outside issues to you. It means they trust you. It also means we have a resonsibility to help.
Jeffrey Schillinger
I do agree, but I have had several students come to me with problems outside of their education. Sometimes they have problems that are stopping them for learning the material in class and by just being able to talk it out, they are able to go back to learning.
Yes because we also help students with issues that do not pertain to academics or the school program.
Guy,
Thanks. Confidence is often lacking initially for career college students who may have had difficulty in school prior to joining us. Building confidence is a key. We need to be sure we give them opportunities for success early and often.
Jeffrey Schillinger
Sure we are. The experience with my students compares to most others in this thread. We are everything from financial advisors,day-to-day relationship counselors,and advice on getting jobs (all within reason of course!). The confidence factor in some of these students is very low for many reasons and we try to give them insight into the reality that they CAN do this if they apply themselves.
We wear more than one hat every time we go into the classroom. We are teachers, spiritual advisors, a banking system(at times) and much more. This is the profession we chose
I agree, most students are trying to improve thenselves and & be happier in what they do.
I agree 100%. At my last job, we did not have a councelor on staff, so we were literally in the mental health business. Now that schools are facing budgetary restrictions, including not wanting the liability of having a coucelor on staff, student services deals with these sorts of issues on a daily basis.
David,
Great teachers are great story tellers.
