Accidental Counselor

As I was prepping an entry on one of my other blogs (Don’t Get Berndt), I examined the role serendipity has played in my life. My becoming Hancock High School’s guidance counselor fits perfectly into that pattern; needless to say, I didn’t follow the typical path to, well, anything, but especially not to manning a school guidance office. My my feeling for most of my career was that most guidance counselors had usually tried to escape the classroom at their first opportunity. Like all stereotypes, what truth lies at the base is potentially unfair to any individual.

Because I generally did not have a high opinion of the denizens of those offices (based primarily on my experience with those from Hancock in my early years, as well as anecdotes from teachers around the county), occupying a guidance chair was the least likely trail on my education career path I could imagine. All that changed in late October, 1990.

At the time, I had what some might have considered an ideal teaching schedule, five World History classes and one Advanced Credit (UMSL) class in political science, all taught in a corner room with a view of both Ripa and Clyde (Mr. Keel had just retired). Even though my buddy MaryAnn McGrane taught next door and we could keep each other amused, the truth was I was bored. A lesson that took me a full period to teach in the morning lasted barely half that long by the end of the day. 

I was about to head out for the day (it was right around Halloween) when Principal Jerry Schloss told me to make sure I watched the local news on TV, with a cryptic hint about a Hancock guidance counselor. My mind immediately leaped to a former occupant of that office who had recently moved up to Pattonville. With shock and disbelief I learned of the arrest of our own Junior High (Middle School having not yet been invented in Hancock) counselor, charged with, well, let’s just say a crime that made continuing in his role impossible. (I’ve heard that the boys who made that accusation recanted years later, only after a career was ruined.)

In any case, Jerry came to me the next morning, telling me that Curt Baker (junior high principal) needed a guidance counselor and there were two choices, of which I was one. I had earned my coaching chops under Curt and we were friends; I’m sure that played into the equation. 

I asked for the evening to think if over, knowing that if I declined there was a second option, but I’d have to pick up a couple French classes. So my schedule was going to change, no matter what. I had had a good student teacher (Dan Easton) the year before who was certified in both English and social studies (like me) and had not scored a job yet, so I was pretty sure he was immediately available. 

The stars aligned: bored with my schedule, the less than attractive option of returning to teach French, working with a(nother) principal I liked and respected, the district’s needs (you know, team player, which I sort of am, if I get to pick what team I’m on), the availability of a replacement I knew and liked, well, it didn’t take lots of margarita therapy at Hacienda with my wife for me to okay the change the next morning, with the proviso that I kept my college class (who had to trek over to the junior high – I think we met in the teacher’s lounge, I remember couches).

Thus began what I referred to as my “Year of Penance.” I think I did an okay job, even enjoyed parts of it, all things considered, to the point that when we began discussing the 91-92 year, I briefly considered going back to school and getting certified. Still, my assessment really was, “It’s a dumb job, but somebody’s got to do it, just not me.” Plus I had the opportunity to return to journalism at the high school and a more varied schedule (AmHist, Gifted 8^th Grade English (I had gotten to know and like that crew {Class of 96} during the year, even if not all of them had really unwrapped their presents yet), journalism (newspaper & yearbook), UMSL Intro to Politics; I can’t quite remember if Psychology was part of that picture yet, or came later, replacing the English class, plus softball, of course. #lowthreshholdforboredom 

“Wait,” you’re saying. You still ended up as a counselor? More serendipity.

Several years later I was out at the UMSL campus for a meeting about the political science class. Waiting for the meeting to start, I started reading a bulletin board (Readers gotta read). “UMSL in your own backyard,” it said, advertising classes at Lindbergh High School. One was a class in school counseling. Never mind that it had started a week earlier and required a pre-requisite that I didn’t have. I called the number, eventually talked to the professor who said she didn’t mind if I didn’t (adjunct faculty are not picky, just sayin’) and thus began my journey toward counseling certification.

Why? Well, I had been using the phrase, “I’m so old I teach history from memory.” Unfortunately, it was starting to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. I wasn’t there yet, but I could feel staleness starting to creep in and I wasn’t feeling inspired to invent new classes, at least not then. I could see the need to reinvent myself. (I also used to joke that I changed departments every five years or 5000 miles.) I also knew that Barb Klocke would be retiring, not imminently, but down the road and that there would be an opening.

With some twists and turns (other stories for other times) and a transfer to Lindenwood’s school counseling program, I eventually was close to being certified, needing only a course or two and a practicum (“Student Counseling”). The timing was perfect as Sherry Rischbeiter, the Middle School Counselor, was pregnant and ready for a maternity leave that would essentially end her school year. (Although she returned with a week or two left in the semester, Superintendent Bourisaw allowed me to finish the year, working side by side with her.) Mike Wersching had been my student teacher and was available to finish out my classes, giving him some experience to build his resumé. So I joined Paul Huff and the HMS. 

To be honest, I don’t know if it was the next year or the one after that that Barb retired and I became the only internal candidate-applicant for the HHS counseling job. (The superintendent let me know that I wasn’t his choice for the job; not that I wasn’t his first choice, just not his choice at all, but Jerry Schloss was the principal and I was his choice.)

Thus began my 6-year career as a high school guidance counselor, more by luck than by design. I brought some things to the party, thought I did a good job in general, if far differently than my predecessor. No one really knows what a guidance counselor does, so the job allows for creative definition of its roles, with the plusses and minuses that entails. I know Barb Klocke had strengths that I could never replicate, benefitting kids that I probably couldn’t have helped; what strengths I had were very different and the dynamic in the office changed, probably for better and worse. Just as no teacher is the best fit for every student, the same must be said of a guidance counselor. And in what was essentially a one-person shop, that can be problematical for some kids. But, as the saying goes (actually the following was not a saying then), “It [was] what it [was].”

There you go, your word of the day: “Serendipity!” 

End Game

I thought I had recounted this before, but I cannot find it anywhere on either blog; apologies if the story of how I came to leave Hancock High School and the School District of Hancock Place is a repeat. Incidentally, this is not the end of the HP-HP blog, just another random story generated by a news hook.

An article in the newspaper (yes, this dino still reads one) talks about how about 2/3 of Missouri schools offer no AP or ACP classes to their students. 

There are many pride points to my career, but one of the most important is the role I played in starting Hancock High School’s AP program (and, prior to that, its Advanced Credit Program, years earlier, as well as distance learning through the Junior College District). For my second year of retirement I proposed starting AP-US History (APUSH) at the high school. This earned support from both the district and building administration, so I headed up to Illinois Wesleyan for a summer institute on teaching APUSH and began developing the course.

It was a success and, like any franchiser, I began planning expansion. I proposed bringing a new teacher on board as a trainee for the future. I was, after all, at least officially retired, albeit teaching two college level classes, Pysch 10 through UMSL, as well as APUSH, and I didn’t want the AP program to wither away or be passed on to someone not ready or able to continue it at a high level once I finally decided to put away my chalk, retire my dry-erase markers, walk away from my smartboard, although I admit I didn’t anticipate leaving the Place for at least another year or two.

Little did I realize at the time I had planted the seeds of the demise of my career at Hancock; I just thought I was being proactive in building a strong program. I’ve always been a little naïve. However, Dr. Ed Stewart, who told me I could work at Hancock for as long as he was superintendent, retired and an outsider came in. He (apparently, I learned later) wanted to dump me his first year but was convinced, grudgingly, to keep me on for the additional year (with a 25% pay cut). I took my mentee/successor up to Northwestern with me for another AP institute; we talked about vertical integration to the middle school, other courses we could add to the curriculum, etc.

My mentee, as it turned out, knew my days were numbered long before I did, but had been sworn to awkward silence and secrecy, forced to wordlessly watch as I dangled, investing time in doomed proposals to a principal (Jeff Buscher) who, while acting as though he was my advocate and friend, had, unbeknownst to me, already not just thrown me under the bus, but chained my feet to the pavement. Had I known of his betrayal, I would have pursued a different strategy in my futile attempt to stay on. However, to be fair, which is more than I can say for him, I doubt anything would have mattered. The new super’s mind was made up.

In any case, I went out in, if not a blaze of glory, at least incendiary indignation, with a speech to the Board of Education, which, not surprisingly, backed the superintendent, buying his lie of “I have people who can do what you do [and don't let door hit you in the butt on your way out]” (Hancock still doesn’t offer Intro to Psych, the closest thing to a universal graduation requirement elective out there, or even AP Psych), plus a district-wide “farewell (e)ulogy” (the closest I can get to an FU) letter. I still have a copy. That superintendent? Long gone and unlamented, as near as I can tell.

And that was that. My 37 years at the place were over, before I was ready, my institutional memory and contributions discarded like detritus from the old building. However, please do not assume that I continue to harbor any bitterness or resentment, although I confess that was a process, not an immediate reaction; rest assured that not only am I at peace, but grateful, living a life that “is for the best in the best of all possible worlds.” 

Because after a year off, spending priceless hours and days with my newly born granddaughter, I found the perfect landing spot for my career with the four incredible years I spent at Solomon Schechter Day/Saul Mirowitz Jewish Community School. I became fulfilled again, learned a ton, met many wonderful people, taught a bunch of great kids, and made lifelong friendships. And, thanks to the lessons I learned during my first (and subsequent) Yom Kippur(s), and long before Frozen, I was able to “Let It Go.” When I retired again, it was on my terms and my timetable, because it was time and I was ready. So it turns out that the lack of loyalty was actually a blessing, one for which I will be eternally grateful, as I will also always be for my 37 years at the Place.