Looking at what is currently "in action"

After reading the last chapter in This We Believe In Action I tried to put it all into perspective as far as where my school stands. I realized that there is another piece to putting everything "in perspective" for some schools to consider. I do feel that my school, like many others, has been a little lax since our first implementation of true middle level philosophy, but our journey is really not to far from where where we need to be. There are some things that we need to improve upon. Some new initiatives and others we have in the works and just need to look in at them. On the other hand, there are many things that we are currently doing a fantastic job on and others that don't exist because we found a better way to do them. If you look at all of the characteristics, strategies and core practices it can seem like a mountain that must be scaled in order to find success, but in reality I bet many schools are close to, equal to, or even surpass my status of things we are doing well. I would bet, that many schools around us would see a brighter picture if they look at the good things they are doing as a starting point. See the positive ...