I want my students to learn, but more than that, I want to develop in them a desire to learn, a desire to be productive, to accomplish things, to do more than they ever thought they could.

That’s my goal. That is why I push my students to do their work, to use their time wisely, and to not be satisfied with their first effort.

But my students don’t know what I am thinking. They don’t know my goals. They don’t read my day book. They think I’m just bossy, a tyrant, too strict, or too tough.

So I let them know. I expect more from them because I know they can do it.

If people were satisfied with their first effort, video games would still look like this.

“Pong” via Wikipedia

or this

“Asteroids” via Wikipedia

or even this

“Super Mario Bros” via Wikipedia

While each of these games is quite simple, they show improvements. Pong controllers only move up and down. The space ship on Asteroids could move in all directions across the screen. Super Mario Bros had side-scrolling so that you could travel long distances and not just have to stay on one screen. The latest video games allow movement in a virtual 3-D world.

In school work, first drafts are like Pong, which might be just fine for some occasions. But a student’s work can often be taken further.

Tell your kids to get out of the 64K work, move passed 8 Bit, and take it to the real world.