Measuring Success: It's Complicated

How DO we measure success? This question is timely for me as we are about to embark upon our final faculty book club book of the year, The End of Average by Todd Rosen. His book discusses how we succeed in a world that values sameness. As a result, I've been thinking about this question a lot, both as a parent and as an educator. 

To simplify the answer, I would say that I measure success in a multitude of ways. As an educator, I feel success when my students choose to work on an in-class project at home for the sole reason that they love the project so much and can't wait to spend more time on it. Their personal investment in the process to create the project translates into a successful level of engagement, regardless of the outcome of the product itself. I am at a point where I am trying to inspire students to become interested in less than traditional subjects, such as coding. As a result, I measure success based on the amount of conversations that carry on into the hallways after the bell rings. Are students wanting to discuss coding during lunch, are they entering into the tech fair on their own time, are they asking to enroll in coding camps over the summer? I also measure success through participation. How engaged are the students in what we are doing? Are they enthusiastic and energized in the classroom or are they bored and listless? Body language speaks volumes.

As a parent, I measure success in similar ways but I try to think more big picture. For example, instead of thinking so much about the individual grades that are being brought home, I try to focus on whether or not my child is learning the value of a strong work ethic or if they seem to acquire more patience with their more challenging subjects as time moves on. Is their resilience level stronger when introduced to new and challenging opportunities for learning? If I can step back and answer yes to these questions, then I feel a sense of success for my children. 

I am often reminded that when I was in school, the job that I do today was not in existence. Similarly, we are educating and parenting kids to be successful in jobs that don't yet exist and for a world that we have no idea what it will look like. To that end, I value nurturing qualities that encourage flexible thinking, problem solving, and serious patience. At the end of the day, if I witness these traits, I surely feel a measure of success.