Indispensability: The Holy Grail.

N

6

Activism; Counselor Teacher Cooperation; Counselor Training; Educational History; Elementary Secondary Education; Lobbying; Pupil Personnel Services; Pupil Personnel Workers; School Counseling; School Psychologists

In this volatile era of economic retrenchment, corporate downsizing, and government budget crises, school psychologists' major defense must be short-term political action and grassroots support, but their long-term strategy must be to build a position of importance for school psychologists in the school. In the long run this will not be accomplished by legal mandates for services, but must lie in the eyes of the beholders whose voices will matter--the teachers and the parents psychologists should be serving in the best interest of children. While state and national leadership strive to convince legislators of school psychology's value, the ultimate importance of school psychologists in the educational enterprise will be determined by the activities, or lack of activity, of each school psychologist in the field. Ultimately, the responsibility for empowering the profession and making school psychologists more important may lie with training programs, which must assume the responsibility for producing a generation of young school psychologists able to deliver a wide range of useful services, but also ready to play an activist role. (JBJ)

1997

ED406593