The practice of school counseling in rural and small town schools

Professional School Counseling, April, 2002 by John M. Sutton, Jr., Richard Pearson

   We also are probably the main source of information about agencies--not
   just social service or educational agencies, but almost any agency outside
   of the community. So it's not unusual to have someone call and ask "Where
   do I go for, whatever. I need some new boots for my kid, but I can't afford
   them; where can I go for help?" They expect that, somehow, if we didn't
   have that information we would get it, or tell them how to get it.

Quality of Life Issues

It was not uncommon for the informants to report that they had deliberately opted to work and live in rural/small town settings because they valued the lifestyle options available there. One counselor who worked in a school located off the coast of Maine expressed her enthusiasm for her setting by saying, "I love it on the Island. I spend less money and am also getting in touch with who I am. At this point in my life I'm appreciating the solitude and quiet." Often, the counselors interviewed spoke of small towns and open country as good places to raise families; of social contexts in which they could really become a part of a human-scale community; and/or of settings where such valued activities as gardening, hunting, and fishing were readily available.

Our observation is that counselors who viewed a rural/small town lifestyle as a valued facet of their work tended to be persons with established families. Even if they were not "locals," they had come to see the community as their home, as the place where their children attended school. The longer they stayed, the more they became involved in such aspects of the informal and formal life of the community as going to church, becoming a member of the volunteer fire department, or working at the library. Some reported that friendships are easy to form and that many of their friends were their colleagues at work. They believed these friend ships to be personal, close, and supportive. One informant who had moved to a rural district from an urban community noted:

   After I had been here a couple of years, I realized that when I drive down
   the main street I look to see who's in the cars I meet because I probably
   know the driver and want to wave to them. In S (an urban community where he
   previously worked) there were so many cars and so many strangers that it
   never occurred to me to actually look at the people in the cars I was
   encountering.
   I get some support from fellow teachers. Otherwise, I call my friends on
   the phone. I spend lots of money calling out of state to keep in touch with
   friends. There's really nobody here to turn to. I find very little support,
   even after being here for 2 years. Isolation is difficult--it's very
   difficult being a single person in this community.

The impact of isolation has been identified as a contributor to high turnover rates among educational specialists in rural schools (Helge, 1981). Even if young professionals are able to commute to more cosmopolitan communities, they tend to move on quickly if they can find positions in places where out-of-school contacts with other people of their age groups and interests are more available.