achievement: academic, and social

 challenge, and current learning

what do we want from our students?

we want them to realize

that each can understand what's out there

and act successfully on the world,

and then we want each student

to joy in learning,

in the pushing of oneself

higher, deeper, fuller,

to take the risk,

to work harder and surer

than they readily know how,

if first they know deep down that success is possible for them,

then second they can do the work to change the world,

within our students this battle plays itself out,

yet this can seem to them

far less important than their social world,

where validation can be a friend who is there for them,

with that validation, maybe, 

they can believe in themselves enough

to allow the work to change the world,

and themselves, with their efforts.

by Henry H. Walker

March 3, ‘23