Yesterday we had a discussion in my seminar for student teaching class, where our teacher asked us to define success. We thought about how society views the word success:
- Money
- Happiness
- Career
- Job
- Security
But how would I measure success? For me the starting point of success begins with my individual goal and finished once that goal has been accomplished. My definition of success might be different than a neurosurgeons. Because I am not a Doctor does that make me less successful? Because I won’t make as much money as a lawyer does that make me less successful? When I think about the word “success” its an extremely personal definition, molded to the crevices of my life. Yet society demands that teachers are pushing through individuals who will be “successful” in the adult lives.
As a teacher how can we measure success? is it bases solely on marks on paper? I hope, that as an educator I can use success and not just an assessment tool. I want to be able to recognize students individual goals, competencies, and individual needs, and base their successes (however small they might be) on their individual personal goals, not the standard A+ = success.
Is this a futile view? of course I want students to be successful in my class, but should I look only at grades? I truly believe that all students have something to offer, so if measuring success, is having a student complete an assignment or finish 5 out of 20 math questions, those small advances can be seen as successes in my classroom.
By the end of class my head was reeling. How can I be given this huge task of directing students to be a “successful” citizen as so many people put it? And what if they do not meet societies definition of “success”, have I failed as a teacher? One of my peers described her idea of success as “Personal Potential”. If we can engage students in the act of becoming successful based on their personal potential, education can be the foundation of successful citizens.
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