Counselors Should Never Discourage

* Congratulations to Nikki Pinkerton on her personal triumph over the public school system (“The Healing Power of Time,” May 21).

The qualifier “insensitive,” applied to her high school guidance counselor, was generous. This person was incompetent, not to mention arrogant, sexist and elitist.

It is the responsibility of the public school system and all its employees to help every student realize and reach his or her potential by always challenging them to think beyond limitations.

Sometimes that means pushing students to achieve at higher levels because they do not have high enough expectations for themselves. Sometimes that means supporting students as they move through the system and run into roadblocks. And sometimes it means painting a realistic picture of what it will take to realize one’s dreams.

In no case does it mean to lower expectations, throw up roadblocks or destroy dreams. To have told any student to dummy-down on a dream would be grounds for dismissal, in my book. But to intimate that a student with a 4.0 average in accelerated classes was getting beyond her station in life is criminal.

People working in education have incredible power to influence children, and guidance counselors are positioned to play a particularly important role.

The saddest part of the story is that there are many more students who, as a result of “insensitivity,” have “dropped out,” thinking that they were failures, when in fact it was the system that failed them.

JULI QUINN

Seal Beach