The Chosen One

Sometimes you come into a situation where you're seen as the golden child. You go to a job interview and people there have read your resume, googled you, looked over your transcripts, read recommendations and have been really impressed with you; the on-paper version. They just hope you match up in person. The disconcerting thing is that while they have already anointed you as the chosen one, you still have to figure out if you really want the job. I had this experience when I went to interview for my internship.

As I waited for the school psychologist, my potential supervisor, to meet with me, I got a quick sense of what the school may be like. For starters, it was nice to walk into a building and be acknowledged. Why can't other schools understand this? I'm a stranger in your school, shouldn't someone address me to find out who I am and why I'm wandering through your building? The receptionist paged the school psychologist for me and I waited for her in the lobby. We met and the first thing she said was, "I was really excited to meet you after I read your resume. I was really impressed. I hope you're as good as you sound on paper." First of all, that was very disarming, the last thing you expect in an interview are accolades from the interviewer, especially ones that are that glowing. Second, I was coming into this interview relaxed. It wasn't for a job, it was for an internship. The important thing was for me to see if it would be a good fit. I would be spending the rest of my academic career in this school, I needed to make sure that I would get what I needed from it to prepare me to be a real school psychologist. To make matters worse, the very next person I met is the prinicipal, and she had more compliments and hoped that I would pick the school. Now I began to feel really paranoid. The last time I was in a similar situation was when I applied to the University of Virgina and was on campus for an interview. Everyone I saw on campus greeted me and said hello. At first I believed that everyone was told to say hello to the candidates, but then I realized that it was just Southern hospitality. But I digress.

We sat and spoke about how the school psychologist does her job in the school on a day-to-day basis. Her job is multi-faceted, which I liked a lot. She does everything, including testing, counseling children, consulting teachers, and working with parents. I was impressed, and I got a chance to see her in action that day.

After we spoke for a few minutes I got a tour of the school. I haven't been in many schools, but I like how this one was set up. The lower grades were all clustered together in pods. It reminded me of the end of an airport terminal. Each grade level had a resource room available for those chidlren with special needs and a planning room for teachers. This set up allowed for easy collaboration among teachers. It was nice to see how the building fostered a sense of community.

During our tour the principal pulled us into a meeting with a couple of cops. Apparently there had been a recent incident involving bullying and group of about 5 students intimidating another student. This gave me an opportunity to see how the school psych. works with the community as well. The cops were called in because parents in the neighborhood were feeling threatened by "roving gangs of youth". It seemed like the worse these "gangs" were doing was loitering, and possibly some vandalism. The concern of the police and the prinicpal was how to stop this before it turns into something serious.

To understand this problem I had to understand the nature of this suburb. For the most part, the town as a whole wants to ignore the problem. Most people want to say that the problem exists across the border into the neighboring city. They don't want to acknowledge the fact that it is happening in their town. This lack of acknowledgement means that there are no programs that can deal with this problem within this particular neighborhood or section of town. The sad thing is that it isn't a problem, yet. It's merely an annoyance that could quickly escalate if nothing is done to stop it. I'll keep my eyes and ears open this summer.

Overall I liked what I saw. I observed the school psychologist teach social sklls to a 4th grade class. It was nice to see the school psychologist do a variety of things throughout the day. I felt like I saw a lot of positive things during my visit and interview. I didn't really see anything negative, but I'm sure I will witness something one the school year begins in the fall. Nonetheless, I am ready to finally be in a school where I can do some good (hopefully). I hope I will be half as good as everyone expects me to be.

BBC