Teachers who feel discouraged have difficulty solving problems and finding alternatives to situations. Discouraged teachers need to develop an awareness of their own sources of encouragement, of the encouragement process itself, and of how to apply the encouragement process to themselves. A study of elementary school teachers revealed that teachers as a group perceived their students as their greatest source of encouragement. They ranked themselves second and other teachers and family third. Birth order influenced teachers' rankings of these three sources of encouragement, and can be used to help counselors design interventions to help teachers in need of encouragement. Youngest and middle ordinal position teachers who tend to be "other oriented" might benefit from the counselor teaching components of encouragement to the teacher and students through classroom discussions, or through the establishment of a peer support group among teachers. Oldest and only ordinal position teachers who tend to be "self oriented" might benefit from learning how to increase their level of self-encouragement through in-service workshops. All teachers can benefit from learning to be self-forgiving, to appreciate oneself, to avoid comparing oneself to others, to focus on the progress of one's own efforts, and to make choices and take responsibility for those choices. (NB)