A Reaction to Mark Pope's (2000) "A Brief History of Career Counseling in the United States"

Reader Reactions The author acknowledges the significance of the 6 steps presented by M. Pope (2000) in his article "A Brief History of Career Counseling in the United States." It is proposed that the historical stages for each kind of career counselor are most appropriately organized around federal legislation that affects it. Alternative "stages," which the author believes are appropriate in tracing the history of the school counselor movement, are presented as an example of this approach. Pope (2000) has made a valuable contribution to the literature with his recent article "A Brief History of Career Counseling in the United States." By providing a document that covers persons in all age categories at all educational levels in both educational and noneducational settings, he has provided readers with a very broad perspective. This breadth of coverage, however, is almost sure to cause difficulties for many practicing career counselors in various settings who try to draw personal meaning from Pope's article. An underlying theme evident throughout Pope's (2000) article is the importance and influence of federal legislation on career counselors and career counseling. I believe that "stages" in career counseling for any kind of counselor become most meaningful if viewed from the contents of the federal legislation that created it and is currently supporting it. Thus, the historical stages for one kind of counselor will be different from those for another. In the case of career counseling, Pope's Stages 1 and 2 can be viewed as common to all kinds of counselors because they did not involve any specific federal career counseling legislation. On the other hand, Pope's Stages 3-6 are all connected to a wide variety of federal laws, each of which applies to counselors in some settings but not in others. As one who has been identified with the school counselor movement since 1947, I have a strong need to share with today's school counselors stages of career counseling for them as I experienced them during the last 50 years. It is unfortunate that the historical events that are associated with each school counselor stage during this time have not yet become a common part of most of the literature. Thus, about all that can be done here is to provide only some personal recollections with reference to the four stages of development of the school counselor movement that have grown out of specific federal legislation during the last 50 years. That is the purpose of this article. Stage 1: Occupational Information and Guidance Branch, Bureau of Vocational Education, U.S. Office of Education (USOE; 1938-1946) Prior to 1938, school guidance programs were introduced in many, but not nearly all, K-12 school districts. Student personnel services were also introduced in many 4-year colleges and universities. In 1938, enactment by the Congress of the George-Dean Vocational Education Act provided a significant step forward by establishing the Occupational Information and Guidance Branch in the Bureau of Vocational Education in the USOE. Under provisions of this legislation, state departments of education were provided funds for use in employing state supervisors of guidance. Almost all states did so. The prime mission of these new state supervisors was to encourage local K-12 systems to introduce and operate school guidance programs at the K-12 (but primarily at the secondary school) level. Some of the state supervisors seemed to be competent in the counseling and guidance field. Others did not. For example, I was on a program in 1951 with a state supervisor of guidance whose business card said, on the back, "Guidance Is AVery Good Thing"! That seemed to be most of what he knew about it. During the late 1940s, the 50 state guidance supervisors formed the National Association of Guidance Supervisors (NAGS). During the 1950s, NAGS became "NAGSCT" by adding "Counselor Trainers" to its title and, between 1960 and 1961, it became the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision. …