In the adult basic education programs, teaching and counseling often overlap. When the classroom becomes a safe and supportive environment, students bring life issues with them, and teachers are pulled to respond to a complex set of needs that extend beyond the scope of language and literacy instruction.

When I first started teaching adults 20 years ago, I hadn't thought through the issue of boundaries, dependence, and independence. My earliest students were Southeast Asian refugees adapting to the effects of trauma, resettlement, and serious life stressors. I soon realized I was not equipped to address all of their needs, despite my naive good intentions and genuine compassion. Bilingual/bicultural counselors provided invaluable support: they visited my classes, they directed me to agencies and resources so I could become better informed about my students. And though I never shied away from addressing the needs and requests students brought to the class, I came to recognize when referrals made more sense. Above all, I tried to follow the advice of former ABE counselor Marsha Watson, who wrote in a past issue of Bright Ideas that "Students must be armed to find their own answers, not remain unarmed and dependent on a counselor (or teacher) to listen and solve their independent problems." (Bright Ideas, Winter 1997).

Another counselor once identified a distinction between being responsive to, but not responsible for, students (or other people who matter in our lives). This distinction has proven useful to me in maintaining the balance and sustaining the energy necessary for teaching well.

This issue of Field Notes offers the reflections of ABE counselors, some useful tools and resources, and a clarification from ACLS about the roles and responsibilities of ABE counselors. Diane Hill and Beverly Hobbs discuss ABE counseling issues specific to young high school dropouts. Holly Gale Jones and Emily Tang Damiano explore the challenges in counseling immigrants. Michelle Forlizzi expresses the need for a "best practices" model for counseling in ABE. Jessica Spohn offers some very useful checklists from the New England ABE-to-College Transition Project.

Though teachers are not counselors, they shoulder some of the same responsibilities and share many of the same goals. In that light, we hope this issue speaks to classroom teachers as well as to counselors.

Lenore Balliro is the editor of Field Notes. She can be reached by phone at 617-482-9485 or by e-mail at: lballiro@worlded.org