Good Advice makes a Difference

Abstract: Choosing a profession can be the toughest decision a young adult can make but listening out for good advice can make all the difference says High School Counsellor Hamilton Gregg. He talks to Daragh Moller about making good in education.

Making decisions is a tough business at any time of life, but deciding on a career in the final years of high school, which course to take, which college to go to, what area to specialise in, can be among the toughest.

But, as with other significant moments in life, getting good advice is can make all the difference.

At senior schooling this now comes in the form of "school counselling" a widespread practice in the United States and in Europe and a model that international schools across the globe, and in Beijing, also follow.

"The world is definitely a busier place," said Hamilton Gregg, a high school counsellor at the International School of Beijing (ISB) in Shunyi. "Parents, often overloaded with their own decision-making, find help available to their children invaluable."

And this is not all students need help with.

 "School counselling helps with making the decision-making process easier; in some cases, it simply helps get the decision made."

In international schools providing educations from kindergarten or "K" to the college jump-off point at 12th grade or K12, like ISB, students need help all the way.

"Its amazing to me that from the time I had the opportunity to be involved in education I saw just how important it is to be nurtured through the educational process," Gregg said.

Gregg, 44, a US national, spent his formative years training at the prestigious Thatcher School in Ojai, California, a boarding school where every freshman learned to ride and take care of their own horse. He went on to the Oregon Episcopal School where he arrived as director of residence and left as dean of studies.

"I took time out to get further qualified. I spent a year at Harvard in their MA programme in education and counselling processes, where I focused on at-risk children. That proved invaluable to my career."

Entering the profession on the good advice of his father and listening to further advice on which direction to take in his career, by a mentor, a former headmaster at the Thatcher School, Gregg said he experienced, first-hand, the value of informed decision-making.  This was, he admits, not something he had paid so much attention to in his own early schooling, but it formed part of the reasoning he used to decide to return to work in education later on.

"I really didn't like school. I just wasn't a very good student," he said. Boarding school was to change all that. "I loved boarding school; I had a blast."

Having been involved in what he calls a "good sound educational process" in schools in Japan, Korea, Switzerland, the United States and now in China, Gregg has notched up considerable experience in the educational field since those early days.

"The international school environment is a fast-paced, exciting place to work. The students are, for the most part, hard-working, respectful, kind and intelligent. It's really a pleasure to help them."

Describing them as future "world citizens," Gregg values his role in their future and admits, had it not been for his own disregard for the educational process when he was their age, he may not be here today giving advice where he feels it is most needed.

View ISB on the Web at: http://www.isb.bj.edu.cn/index.html