<p>Hasn’t everyone who has ever had to deal with clients had to bite their lip of what they really would like to say. I have been working for 30 years and have to do it everyday. This is the equivalent of co-workers going out and unwinding over a cocktail. Just because you might have identified yourself or your precious in some of these doesn’t mean these people should lose their jobs. Get over yourselves.</p>
<p>I have no problem with the sentiments expressed, and they may even be funny in admissions circles. However, I don’t know who at the Washington Post found it amusing enough to publish. These comments are inside jokes that not only can’t the public appreciate, many understandably find offensive. </p>
<p>I do not believe anyone has asked for people losing their jobs over these comments. </p>
<p>For people working with teenagers, we gemerally tell kids to be careful with their online presence. Do not overshare, if at some point in the future it might embarass you. Or your grandmother. </p>
<p>Teenagers often range between totally self secure and full of ego to those who are insecure and feeling out of place with their peers. They need our wisdom to help guide their path, not our ridicule. </p>
<p>Some of these comments are not light-hearted. They were meant as a way to let off some steam, especially through a stressful admissions cycle filled with a lot of bumps (thanks,Common App4)! </p>
<p>Kids need reality checks. True. If Johnny got a 3.0, scored in the 500’s for each of his SAT sections, he probably will not get into Harvard. How many of these admissions folks, wherever they sit are showing Johnny another path? Maybe starting at a community college and transferring is the ticket. Or maybe graduate school will be an option after he does work his butt off, elsewhere? </p>
<p>What can we do to show them a way that helps them achieve their dreams without being soul crushers? </p>
<p>Not everyone wants to go to college, and some will never get to the most elite schools in the land. Just graduating from anywhere with a degree may be a kid’s objective. </p>
<p>It is cruel to make these comments about teenagers and share them with a major newspaper. Just as it would be to publish the same article mocking any group. Would the editors have done it with social workers making fun of those mired in poverty or family abuse situations? Special education teachers making fun of special needs children? Clearly, this is my opinion. Your mileage may vary. </p>
<p>Not every kid blooms in high school. Some take a little longer to get there. </p>
<p>I am sure some of you might be saying lighten up, it’s just a joke. Some jokes should be shared only in private with those that get it. Wider audences may take offense. As they have a right to do. </p>
<p>I don’t think it’s a big deal, either. What’s important is what they actually said to the students. One of the examples made that clear–the counselor tried to give the student a list of realistic options, and the kid (or parents) wasn’t ready to accept reality. People in many professions share anecdotes of clueless or obnoxious customers.</p>
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<p>An example that replays itself on these forums frequently.</p>
<p>This is kind of like those “customer tried to use DVD tray as cupholder” lists of comments.</p>
<p>I can only imagine the uproar that will come when people discover that morticians make jokes about dead people 
… </p>
<p>There are some people and situations so over the top, that yes, there are the jokes, comments and stories. We all do that to a degree. But counselors, ministers, priests, pyschologists, psychistrist, are supposed to give a bit of a wider swathe to that. How on earth can you get full help when you read about some of these things? There are a lot of kids, familes out there who fall into these categories and need help. There have been too many of these counselors, IMO, who have crossed the lines and have pretty much substantiated the fears and opinions that many have of them. There was a blog or whatever that somene had that was supposed to be Admissions Officers contributions and collection. Funny, yeah sure, hilarious. But really, part of their jobs is to deal with these issues privately.</p>
<p>I lived next door to a mortician for year. He was a real joker and had stories galore, but not a peep did he ever make about his clientale. I do expect such decorum from professionals.</p>
<p>The disturbing part for me was the suggestion that they could not, in a polite way, tell these students where they would be able to succeed. Isnt that what the guidance in “guidance counselor” is for ? </p>
<p>Some students or parents are resistant to realistic advice. Consider the students who need substantial financial aid to attend college, but have dreams about NYU, BU, and out-of-state publics*, while refusing to run net price calculators on any of the schools they are considering.</p>
<p>*Not the big merit scholarship ones like Alabama.</p>
<p>I actually have a great sense of humor and completely get the things that run through your mind when dealing with a customer. But I’d never write it down and submit it to a major newspaper. </p>
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Some parents would sue the guidance counselor if they told the B student that he had no chance at Harvard. </p>
<p>Those that wrote who are in shock over such musings have never gone out for an adult beverage afetr worked to blow off steam with co-workers and mumbled things whicvh could be overheard by inetersted thrid parties?</p>
<p>Please…</p>
<p>Frankly I thought many of the short tomes were pretty funny, but that’s just me.</p>
<p>No one submitted this to the newspaper. It was shared on a listserv. Then a journalist who is either a member of the listserv, or received it as a forward, asked permission to publish it anonymously. It is not clear who was asked or gave that permission. It is likely that not every listserv user agreed that the comments ought to be published.</p>
<p>Exactly what Hanna said. </p>
<p>“Tumblr link deletd by moderator - not allowed on CC.”</p>
<p>Oops. Didn’t know that. Sorry. </p>
<p>Lesson for all of us: if you’re telling anecdotes, even anonymously on a forum (like this one), make sure that the anecdote doesn’t have enough details for the people involved to recognize themselves (and you) if it ends up published in the newspaper.</p>
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<p>Anyone familiar with the typical listserv that circulate in academic circles will hardly be surprised. Since they are places to “vent” about students, parents, and administrators, they are full of bombastic comments from obnoxious know-it-all egocentrics who seem to have more time on their hand to spread their vitriol than to actually do what they are paid for. The comments reproduced in the article are not much different from what is discussed in the “professors” lounges. </p>
<p>This said, a listserv by parents and students to discuss the role and effectiveness of that group of professionals might be equally nasty. The difference is that mostnegative comments about GCs would be … right on the money as the group remains --sadly-- the weakest link in the entire college admission realm. I wonder how long it will take for colleges to simply eradicate the role of GC in the admission process entirely, and let them do what they should do, namely advise students on how to navigate high school, offer the students emotional and academic support, keep truants in line, and most importantly, stop pretending to know much of anything about tertiary education. </p>
<p>I would just note that it would be easy to mine College Confidential for outrageous comments about teachers, students, professors, administrators, and anybody else you’d care to name.</p>
<p>^^LOL, good point!</p>