"Good is the enemy of Great"

This quote by Collins (2001) took me some time to dissect. My first thought was that good is good, right? My second thought compared the words good and great. Wouldn't you rather be great at something than just good? In education we sometimes get stuck in a rut of things that work. When things are humming along (good) it can be hard to put everything in an upheaval in an attempt to make it great. The other problem is that what if what we try doesn't work and we are instead stuck with less than good?

We owe it to our students to never give up on trying to improve their learning and educational experience. As teachers we are required to keep up our teaching certificates by doing professional development and always working to improve our methods. Schools need to be constantly looking at the status quo of things and see if there are ways we can do it better.

I guess the biggest point is that education is not for those who enjoy going to work day after day, knowing what to expect and having it always be the same. Education is dynamic and always changing. We need professionals that are prepared for such a challenge, people that will not accept "good" when "great" is out there somewhere.