I know that many of us agree that adult educators:

• Not only can, but must support disenfranchised adults in their and their family's efforts to take control of their own lives.
• Must respect the actual and perceived unequal power relationship between "teacher" and "student."
• Must continuously improve our craft so that the academic and language skills of our students catch up with our own.
• Must, from the very beginning, engage students as our equals in every nonacademic dimension of their experience and wisdom.

I reiterate these beliefs to make the following points related to this issue of Field Notes:

• Adult education at its best cannot be separated from issues of social and economic justice. Thank you for this issue of Field Notes.
• When joined, good adult education demands that we serve as GUIDES as we and our students search out paths to social and economic justice. In my opinion, all but one of the authors for this issue of Field Notes are wonderful models for this role. It is not appropriate for teachers to DRIVE their own positions related to social and economic justice through the adult education classroom. If you share the beliefs listed above and whether you agree with a position or not, proselytizing under any guise or name is disrespectful of our students.
• Although staying at the cutting edge of our profession is extraordinarily demanding, it is not and cannot be viewed as incompatible with our roles as guides for social and economic justice. Our struggles with our expertise (for example, in the area of standardized assessment) and with justice are all part of the whole cloth of adult education at its best.

Bob Bickerton is the director of Adult and Community Learning Services for Massachusetts and brings many years of experience in ABE to his work. He can be reached at: rbickerton@doe.mass.edu.