What is success?

Just finished chapter 1 in the Kylene Beers book--Adolescent Literacy and the first thing I have to say is WOW! There is no holding back here. She jumps right in attacking AYP and how schools measure success. From there, she basically states that in order to redefine success, we have to restructure schools.

I love this woman and her courage to go out there, believe what she believes and articulate these beliefs in a way that makes one think so much. I remember when I started teaching and felt the pressure to conform. I fear that if I were to stop learning, I might fall into that conformity--to accept things as they are. That is when I am done--when I succumb to the ideas around me stopping my forward progression.

She challenges the education system's definition of success--"teachers distributing information and then students giving it back." As soon as she has you down, realizing that you are a part of a broken system, she poses a ton of what-ifs--"what if schooling looked different?" This is where she echoes many concepts and thoughts I had as an education student working towards my certificate. Mine were not as articulate as hers (how could they be?)but they had the passion and the fire. They had that, "try and tell me I'm wrong and that this can't be done," attitude. The kind of visions that veteran teachers find laughable because they have seen/heard the passion so many times from new teachers and then watched it fade as those first few years wear on.

She makes you ask, "What IS my definition of a successful education?"