KINDS OF GUIDANCE
Chapter 27
The Chapter at a Glance
Educational guidance.
Vocational guidance.
Social guidance.
A comprehensive guidance program.
Guidance
is such a comprehensive concept that it covers practically the whole range of
one's life. Perhaps there is no aspect of life in which adequate guidance may
not be of invaluable assistance to the individual.
The main
spheres, however, regarding which guidance is mostly needed by the growing
child are the following:—
(1)
Educational,
(2) Vocational,
and
(3)
Social.
It may be
noted that elaborate research and specialized field work have been and are
being conducted in all the three above-mentioned kinds of guidance all over the
world.
Educational Guidance
Educational
guidance offers all possible kinds of help that a child may need regarding his
academic problems. It enables him to understand his abilities and limitations
and plan his education accordingly.
An
adequate program of educational guidance provides the guidee with immensely
useful assistance in the field of subject selection, and in the methods of
improving achievement in various subjects of study, avoiding scholastic failure
and frustration and deriving maximum possible benefit out of the diversified
academic and non-academic activities of the school.
Vocational Guidance
Successful
vocational guidance is dependent upon knowledge of the following factors:
(a) Job Analysis, or an analytical knowledge of
the various vocations and their
requirements.
(b) Aptitude
Analysis, or an accurate knowledge of the suitability of the guidee for a
particular
vocation.
Guidance
based on the above-mentioned information has every chance to be crowned with
success. A considerable amount of misfits, vocational misplacement and
consequent unhappiness and frustration in a number of professions can be
avoided by guiding the right man to the right job. An adequate vocational
guidance at school level is the right and the timely step in this direction.
Social Guidance
Social
guidance refers to the scientific process of character education and
personality development. Such guidance aims at inculcating into children by
various methods socially desirable habits, traits and attitudes.
The
procedures employed for administering social guidance to children are: group
discussions, organized socio-cultural activities, group-games, group therapy,
etc. Children's social organizations, e.g., Girl Guides and Boy Scouts, can
also be utilized for imparting social education and guidance. Even occasional
oral advice and precepts may be used in social guidance. Practical and concrete
training, however, is far more effective and valuable in this direction than
mere verbal exhortation.
A Comprehensive Guidance Program
A
comprehensive guidance program includes all the three kinds of guidance
mentioned above. It utilizes all available sources and techniques for this
purpose.
Guidance of the Whole Child
Such a
guidance program provides adequate stimuli for better educational achievement.
It aims at increasing the guidee's vocational efficiency and adjustment. And it
also looks after his social health and well-being. In short, an adequate
guidance program caters for the guidance of the whole child by surveying and
meeting the whole range of his needs and problems.
Chapter XXVIII
GUIDANCE NEEDS AND PROBLEMS OF
YOUNG PEOPLE
In order
to succeed in administering guidance to young people one must know their life
and the nature and extent of 1 problem" r/ir which they need
guidance. The main problems which
usually confront children during their everyday life can be classified into the
following three categories:--
(a)
Biological needs and related problems,
(b)
Psychological needs and related problems, and
(c) Social
needs and related problems.
Home Centred Problems
The
various needs and problems of children which centre round their home life are
as follows:—
(a)
Biological
needs and related problems
(b)
Psychological
needs and related problems, and
(c)
Social
needs and related problems.
Biological Needs and Problems:
At birth
the human individual is absolutely helpless. In order to survive and grow up he
needs continued protection and nourishment from his parents. As he grows older
he needs to be guided regarding toilet routines, rest and sleep habits, food
values, avoidance of physical dangers threatening life, etc.
Adequate
guidance regarding these biological needs and the various problems associated
with them is indispensable for survival and healthy growth of a child.
Negligence, or inadequate guidance results in all kinds of complications and
undesirable developments.
Psychological Needs and Problems:
On the
psychological side, the child needs emotional warmth and security at home. A
child who is denied affection at home and made to feel insecure by his parents
due to any adverse factors in the home life has little chance to develop into a
healthy and efficient adult.
Children
need elementary knowledge about sex and appropriate guidance in their sexual
problems.
Parents
also need to guide the child into developing certain desirable mental traits,
e.g., cheerfulness, perseverance, etc. They should safeguard against the
development of undesirable traits in him like temper tantrums, impassiveness
etc. the aim should be to so guide the child as to enable him to develop into a
mentally adjusted and healthy adult.
Social Needs and Problems:
Children
also need guidance in the art of sociability. Human beings ate gregarious by
nature. But if the social instinct is denied proper guidance during childhood,
it is liable to develop in undesirable directions, e.g., the formation of
anti-social and delinquent groups or gangs, etc. Parents should, therefore,
remain vigilant in ensuring that children develop the right attitudes towards
other children and adults around them, during their playful activities and
general social intercourse in and outside the home.
Children
who are deprived of proper early social guidance at home are liable to develop
into unsocial and introverted personalities. They may even grow into being
anti-social, delinquent and criminal adults in later life.
School-Centred Problems
On
entering school, a child's expanded social and cultural horizons open up before
him infinite opportunities of progress and development. But these developmental
opportunities and possibilities can only be exploited to the full if the child
gets adequate and continued guidance from his school teachers.
The
problems regarding which a child needs guidance at school are as follow:-
(a)
Academic
problems.
(b)
Vocational
problems.
(c)
Personal
problems, and
(d)
Social
problems
The Academic Problems:
A child
can learn the three Rs without tears only if the teacher really knows the art
of teaching young children. Efficiency in teaching methods necessitates a
thorough knowledge of the psychology of child learning. Unless the teaching
methods that a teacher employs in the class room are sound, pleasant the
school.
As he
advances in age, a child needs guidance is making the correct selection of the
school subject which are most suited to his natural aptitudes. While offering
guidance, a teacher should also be mindful of the individual differences,
abilities and handicaps of each irrespective of his individual personality is
by means a safe course to follow.
Vocational Problem:
Children’s
vocational aptitudes need to be assed as early as possible in their school
career. Before the school leaving age the teacher must have given them an
appropriate bias and sufficient training
for a specific vocation which
appeals to them most and for which they are most suited.
An
adequate vocational guidance at the school level can avert a lot of misfitism
in professions which can be a source of great unhappiness to the individual in
later life. Early vocational guidance thus prevents tremendous human and
material loss to the nation.
Personal problem:
The main
personal problems of the school child pertain to his:--
(i)
Physical
health and
(ii)
Mental
health
The school
child needs guidance regarding his physical health and development. This need
must be met by providing adequate medical health services at the school campus.
For his
mental health the child needs security and emotional nourishment in school. He
must feel at home in the classroom. The school authorities must take all
appropriate measures to see that every child feels at ease during the course of
all the school activities. Should a child experience some emotional perplexity,
the teacher should endeavour to understand it from the child's point of view.
By providing him with sympathetic guidance, he should enable the child to face
and solve his problems as amicably as possible.
Social Problems:
The social
problems of the school child are manifold. A child needs adequate social
guidance in order to make satisfying adjustments with his class-mates, teachers
and everyone he comes in contact with during his stay at the school. Providing
appropriate guidance to children to enable them to meet their social problems
effectively is as fundamental a duty of the school teacher as imparting
academic instruction.
Community-Centred Problems
Besides
the problems which revolve the home and the school children have certain school
children, have certain problems which spring from the community. In
order to meet
those problems effectively
children need guidance both at home and at school.
Some of
the main problems falling under this group are as follows:—
(a)
Problems of occupational adjustment,
(b)
Problems of material adjustment, and
(c)
Problems of general attitudes and social behaviour.
Problems of Occupational Adjustment:
The health
of a community is largely dependent upon vocationally capable, efficient, and
adjusted individuals. If children ** are
given adequate vocational guidance and training by teachers and parents, they
have abundant chances of choosing for them selves the right occupations.
Developing professional health and efficiency and adjusting to their colleagues
in the profession are the main spheres in which guidance is needed during
adolescence and towards later life. Such a task can be better performed by
specialized vocational guidance agencies.
It is
hardly necessary to re-emphasize that adequate vocational guidance averts a
great deal of professional inefficiency, misplacement and maladjustment.
Occupational maladjustment. is a serious mental and economic drain on the resources
of a nation.
Problems of Martial Adjustment:
In order
grow up to be successful husbands and wives, children need preliminary
orientation and training for marital adjustment at home and school. Parental
education and guidance would save many a child from becoming unsuccessful in
married life and thus having his entire life ruined by marital maladjustments
and failures.
Martially
maladjusted parents are a serious social liability not only to their children
but to the entire community.
Problems of General Attitudes and Social Behaviour:
A child
must be trained to live and let others live peacefully cheerfully and
creatively. For this he needs suitable
guidance’s the development of desirable attitudes and outlooks on life in
general. Early guidance in a healthy and
graceful social behaviour saves the
child, his parent his future family and the whole of the community from
innumerable unpleasant developments.
An Adequate Guidance Programme
An adequate guidance programme whether at home or at
school or at a specialized guidance agency is comprehensive and balanced in
outlook. It endeavors to understand all the manifold needs and problems of
children. It makes a resolute attempt to meet them adequately and
scientifically by offering most appropriate, and balanced guidance programmes
to children,
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