School and Success

I have been a teacher and teacher leader for 25 years, and the core teaching values of how to be successful have been at the center of my work. It is also the subject of my book, The Missing Link: Teaching and Learning Critical Success Skills just published by Rowman and Littlefield.

 Growing up in a home with Holocaust Survivor parents, who were unable to have much of an an education beyond grade school and yet were able to live meaningful, hopeful and successful lives, gave me a very explicit message that there are many ways to be successful and many paths to success outside of the mainstream avenues. 

The reality is that being successful without education can happen if one applies the same identifiable skill set that, applied in schools, produces academic success. The two richest people in England, after all, were both high school drop outs. 

Success skills matter more than learning, always. Yet, there is little question that success skills and education are more often a winning combination. If you can, succeeding in school will likely open more doors and perhaps create an easier way forward.

Yes, the two richest people in England were high school drops outs but on the rolls of poverty, I would guess, there are many more who are impoverished that are dropouts than there are dropouts that have climbed the parapets of success.