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Health & Fitness

Defining Success

How do we define success?  Is it the amount of money you make?  The size of your house, your car?  Granite countertops?  New appliances?  An SUV or European or Hybrid car in the garage?  The number of children you have, the attractiveness of your spouse?  Is success measured in "cool"-- the number of people who come when you throw a party or wedding?  Is it defined by fame, or the prestige and cost of the school you and/ or your children attend(ed)?

In the schools we choose for our beloved, precious children and grandchildren, how do we measure success?  Do we measure performance on standardized tests, the comparative statistical rating of a school or district based on said tests?  Do we measure the quality of education by the cost of the school, or by the cost of a mortgage in the school's district?  

In the current, unstable economic climate with a dearth of readily-available jobs even for many university graduates, the measure and opportunity of success is very different than it was in the long-bygone era of single-income households and a university education affordable (without loans) to all seeking opportunity and knowledge.  Students of today need to be prepared to learn new skills quickly, as technology continues to change so swiftly along with the job market. They need to be flexible, and not expect that they will stay in one job, or even a single career, through their adult years, as this once-truism of adult working life has not proven to be the way reality works out over recent decades of changing workforces, changing industries.  Students are best-equipped for success if they know HOW they learn best, know what sort of things they LIKE to learn and master, and have a personal sense of vision and of the work and life path they would most like to forge-- rather than merely being someone who is oriented around meeting others' expectations and plans for them, or rebelling against such external expectations-- which are two likely "types" to emerge from much of today's conventional, top-down educational systems.

How do we prepare our children to achieve their own definition of success, one which leaves them secure, self-sufficient in the adult world-- and happy?  Are standardized tests accurate, dependable measures of this preparation?  Is preordained, state-mandated and teacher-delivered content the best tool to prepare students for mastery of complex skills and subjects?  Who chooses what students "need" to learn and know-- and are they correct, and offering the best means of distributing that knowledge?

I'll posit that success in the school years from elementary through high school is best gauged by the degree of engaged learning occurring.  This may seem obvious on one level, yet to many also irrelevant.  How many remember their years in school, sitting in a classroom, bored stiff and staring out the widow at clouds passing, or the second-hand on a clock if the classroom (intentionally, surely) had no windows to gaze out of?  If that is your idea of what effective, "normal" education looks like, then engagement on the part of the students may seem to play no important role.  "Who cares if they're bored!  They're not at school to have fun!  They're there to LEARN!"

Now, of course, we all know, and most would agree, that a talented, caring teacher can make all the difference in creating an engaging learning experience for students, in even apparently "boring but necessary" subjects.  The teacher's authentic engagement, and their ability to inspire and nurture that engagement in their students, can belie the notion that school is boring-by-default for students.

In an effort to create a most-effective school environment, one where authentic student engagement in their own learning is the foundation, rather than a precious exception, what would a school be like?  If you could start from scratch in creating a school with a core commitment to making student engagement at all times the primary priority of the entire school-- how would it be different from what is considered normal in most students' school experiences today?

This brings up another important question in examining current assumptions about education:  How can we tell when/ if a student is engaged?  Grades and tests purport to measure learning which has occurred-- but can they, and do they currently, in any way measure or reflect whether a student is fully and authentically engaged, enjoying and thoroughly mastering skills or knowledge?  For the most part, grades, tests and other common metrics of systemized education considered normal today portray no more than a shadow-sketch, a blurry reflection, of whether engaged learning is occurring.  The fact is-- and everyone who has been through such schooling knows this well-- that memorization can prove a useful tool in getting A's on tests, even when the information "learned" is forgotten within days or weeks later, and certainly never mastered in any meaningful sense.

The measure of engagement is authentic student interest in what they are learning-- and the fact is, the level of interest and engagement cannot be measured or recorded, the way our metrics-obsessed post-industrial society prefers to deal with and (think that we) "know" all things.  A letter on a report card cannot tell a parent, a university admissions office or a potential employer whether a student was authentically engaged, or whether they know how to pursue a subject or skill to the level of mastery.

A caring, engaged, effective teacher will know whether engaged learning is occurring, and in a parent meeting can describe such things to a parent, and the parent will understand and rightfully feel proud.  But the abstract measurements which define success in almost all systemized education, say very little about the matter, and do less to encourage engaged learning in students who are alienated by current modes of systemized, top-down, content- and measurement-oriented approaches to providing our kids with the best education.

What could possibly be different, better?  Getting back to the notion of creating a "clean slate," starting a school from scratch with student engagement as the central focus and aim-- what would, what could be different, and how could it be more effective than what is now considered "normal" in schooling and systemized education?

Before I continue this theme in a second Post, I invite those readers who have been stimulated by this one-- by agreement with what I'm addressing and proposing, or if you disagree with anything you understand this Post to be saying or implying-- to please Comment on this Post, add your two cents to this important subject.  If you are a parent of school-age kids, a teacher or former teacher, or merely an interested citizen stimulated by this topic: I would love to know your thoughts, and will consider them in crafting the conclusion of this Post's theme.

I thank you in-advance for your contribution to this vital subject, whatever your opinion or "stance" on the matter.

Sincerely,

Zack Lehtinen
Career-Long Teacher, Father of 3, lover of Learning and Creative Expression




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