Beginning Practicum: It Only Hurt Until 1 Laughed!

Is it possible for a beginning counselor to avoid discomfort during counseling sessions? Two primary sources of beginning counselor worries are identified in this article: (a) concern for one's competence as a counselor and a person and (b) worry about the increasing intimacy involved in discussing the emotional life of a client. The effects of trainee discomfort are numerous and often humorous. A catalog of possible humorous responses of beginning counselors is provided, and each response is illustrated with an example. Brief comments on possible ways to deal with counselor discomfort conclude the article.     

What is a Significant Educational Experience?

This article analyses the nature of an educational experience by taking as its starting point Dewey's Art as Experience in order to identify what it is that counts as a significant or worthwhile experience. Dewey suggests that an experience needs to have an integral character in which the different phases of the experience are related and which tends towards a conclusion. Furthermore, an experience also needs to have the character of what Dewey calls an ‘undergoing’, an engagement with content which may be difficult or painful. It is suggested that this kind of experience may be seen in terms of a ‘light’ pedagogy in which content is allowed to unfold. This is contrasted with educational experiences that are ‘teacher‐driven’ or ‘learner‐driven’.     

Ethiopian Children in Israeli Schools: The prospects for successful integration

In this paper I examine the prospects of Ethiopian children integrating successfully into the Israeli school system. My specific concern is that the children will experience in Israel the same sort of difficulties that beset Afro-Caribbean children in Britain when assimilation and later integration were the dominant concerns of educational policy makers. With particular reference to the Rampton and Swann reports, comparisons between the two groups are made chiefly in terms of racism (both intentional and unintentional), self-esteem, innate ability, linguistic difficulties and the ethnocentricity of the curriculum. Other factors referred to include the impact of bussing, the influence of role models and family disintegration. It is concluded that over the longer term, Ethiopian children in Israel will adapt successfully to the educational system.