Succeed is an interesting word.  By definition to succeed is achieving the desired aim or result.  The definition insinuates that there was a goal to begin with.  I recently heard an author say that her definition of success was “giving it your all”.  But what defines “all”?  Is “all” all I can do at that moment or is it something beyond that?

Do we ever really achieve our goals?  I’m not talking about those things that are measurable, like the goal of getting a college degree, perhaps, but even in that there can be levels of “success”.  My husband has a saying that even the person at the bottom of their med school glass is stilled called “Dr.”.  Are they as successful as the person who graduated at the top of their class?  Pretty subjective, huh?  It depends on the perception of the person looking at it.

It’s interesting to me that if you ask most people who are considered successful if they feel successful, they will say no.  They usually consider themselves a work in progress, someone who is still working to make things and themselves better.  A person may at some point become satisfied with what they’ve accomplished but that doesn’t necessarily define itself as successful.

So who sets the goal for success?  In the Every Child Succeeds Act, someone besides the child, their family and sometimes even their educators is deciding what it means to succeed.  It’s the state department of education who doesn’t know this child from Adam or legislators who know nothing about education.  And can every child actually succeed?  As a teacher, I believe a child can certainly succeed to a degree, but that degree of “success” depends on whether or not someone or something can motivate the child to WANT to succeed.

Does success mean as a whole person or in particular aspects of that person?  I know for a fact that I am not a success when it comes to things like technology.  Part of it is that I don’t care about learning enough to be successful.  Technology has very little meaning for me, it is only a tool to get to other goals, like communication.  In one of his books, Sir Ken Robinson talks about a young girl who was having so much trouble succeeding in school that she was referred to a counselor or therapist.  After a time with the child, he turned on some music and asked the mother to step outside of the office with him, telling the child they would be back in a minute.  While they were gone, they observed the girl get up and begin dancing to the music.  The counselor told the mom she didn’t have a problem, she had a dancer.  The little girl eventually became a renowned dancer and choreographer, but she was considered unsuccessful by her teachers due to her classroom behavior.

I look at my kids in my classroom and nothing much has changed since I was a kid.  There are the quiet, compliant kids who do whatever you ask, the go-getters wanting to prove themselves and get your attention, the kids who want to be cool and pretend they don’t want to do what you’re asking.  Then there are those kids who just don’t fit in any box, they think differently, they’re interested in completely different things and they are about as compliant as a brand new puppy.  These are the kids considered to be “unsuccessful” in class, the ones who are always in trouble, the ones that, quite frankly, can make even this teacher a bit crazy.  And yet, deep down, I know that school, the way it is now, is not a place for this kid to be successful, at least in the conventional sense.  So if we’re going to be following this Every Child Succeeds Act, we better be finding those things within education that kids can succeed at.

So, if we’re going to ask people to give their all, as the first author suggested, we need to  get them excited and motivated to aim high and help themselves achieve their desired results.  Perhaps then they’ll be perceived as successful, in whatever area or field or art form they choose.  And as educators, despite the fact that others are telling us what the desired result is for all children, we need to remember that not all kids are successful at things like math and reading.  Some of those kids are hands on kids and will succeed at making or fixing things.  Some of them are creative and will be entrepreneurs or artists.  Hopefully they will have been successful enough to utilize the basics, but then as adults and teachers, we need to let them fly towards their own goals, achieving their own results under their own power.  Then perhaps, every child will truly succeed.