School bells across the island are ringing … a new school year is beginning. Teachers, what an awesome task is yours! How will you lead your students to success?

Just as we read in St. James' letter to the early Christians, "Faith without good works is useless" so I would like to say that teaching without a passion for learning and its impact on your students' lives is self-defeating. What does empowering students for success mean? To empower means in this sense to enable. How can you, as teachers, enable your students to succeed? You must begin with yourselves by having great hope in your hearts, a hope that your students will catch that hope and believe that they can succeed.

When I say students I mean those fragile beings between the age of conception and 18 whom the adult world of this 21st Century have set adrift on the sea of life without a moral rudder or a beacon of values to guide them to the safe shores of mature and responsible adulthood.

With the breakdown of family values and a world buffeting them on every side with false ideas of what success is, you, their teachers, must become the light in the darkness to guide and direct their safe passage to adulthood.

Today's young people, highly connected to each other and the world for better or for worse, have become sophisticated enough intellectually to recognise and resent contradictions between what adults say and what they do. You must guide them through example by showing that you value learning, that you respect other people, their ideas and their property.

You must have high expectations for learning and achievement while at the same time never losing sight of who it is that you teach.

You must try daily to show students the connection between education and the quality of life that they will enjoy. In this third millennium, the educated person will have to be prepared to be open to an ever changing job market and to manage competently a vast amount of information. He or she will have to be able to relate to others at a variety of levels and to interact effectively and productively with them. To achieve this end, you must inspire your students to set goals for themselves that will enable them to reach their full potential as both learners and human beings. You must encourage them not to lose heart if they fail, and to begin again each day to give their best, to develop their God-given gifts and talents.

You must help them to see that to learn requires a commitment from them to be totally involved in the process of learning. You have to help them to believe in themselves because the attitudes and beliefs that they have about themselves impact directly on the achievement of their goals and will be a great influence on what their future holds. To empower your students you must teach them how to handle and manage change. You must let them know that it is OK to have faults because no one is perfect but that they should focus on their strengths in order to be productive members of our society.

And what is the yardstick with which success should be measured? How dare any of us suggest that a good academic record, adherence to civil law, fidelity in relationships are the fibre of a happy and successful life when our teens are daily exposed to a culture and electronic media that define success more by the dollar sign than by strength of character … when sport stars can flaunt the laws of society and be portrayed as heroes … when rock stars receive greater public attention and higher salaries than research scientists.

Somehow you have to teach them the meaning of success in order for them to succeed. Using the letters of the word success I will share with you my thoughts on its meaning. These ideas are not only for you to ponder in relation to your students but also in application to your own lives.

S… satisfaction with who we are, what our talents are… and knowledge that each of us is special and important to our world.

U… utilise those talents… urge others to do likewise… understand that each of us is part of the same human family, called into being by one and the same God regardless of the Name we give our Creator.

C … conscience… that we know good from evil, right from wrong, and that we do our small part to right those wrongs we see around us.

C … care and concern… that somehow we show that we do care about each other, that we are indeed our brother and sister's keeper, that our concern for our planet earth is carried over into our daily actions.

E … enthusiasm… energy… nothing great in this world can ever really be accomplished without enthusiasm… enthusiasm gives rise to the energy necessary to achieve

S … sincerity … we must be real… honest with ourselves and others… you must teach your students to be real… this is a difficult task in our present world fraught with so much hypocrisy.

S … spirituality… each person must come to acknowledge a Power greater than himself or herself… each must recognise that God has called him or her into existence to accomplish some special task.

There is an ancient Chinese proverb, later adopted as the motto of the Christopher Movement, that points out, "It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness." God's invitation to each of us `and to the young people you teach is to strike a match… sometimes He may ask you to strike the first match.

By bringing about even a small change you can pierce the darkness. Every positive change at home, at school or in the community makes our world a better place. When we truly believe that one person, each of us, with God's help can effect a positive change, however big or small, our world becomes richer. That, I believe, is success.

Sister Judith Marie Rollo is a retired principal of Mount Saint Agnes Academy