A picture is worth a thousand words.

I received a submission for a writing assignment today via email.  It was a picture, included as an attachment, showing a handwritten homework assignment, taken with the smartphone, at arm’s-length.  I have received three submissions this week for homework that was of this quality.  The other three were accompanied with the same question in different words:  “Is this good enough?”

I had a sergeant in the Army tell me one time, and it stuck in my vocabulary, that if the minimum was not good enough, then there would not be one.

I am having difficulty relating to the previous four students that sometimes good enough is not good enough.   I can relate it to video games, as we both generally have experience with them.  If the only objective is to get to the next level, then the minimum may be good enough.  However, if the game is interesting, and there is a sense of competition, then getting all the gold coins in that level takes precedence over merely completing the mission and moving on.   There is a challenge in getting the student to see the assignment as more than meeting the minimum standard.  In the broader sense, this is an opportunity to see that life is not going to be succession of tasks in which the minimum is all that is expected.  Even if the task at hand is distasteful, it is a reflection of personal pride to do more than the minimum.  Given the interest in the conversation, I take these opportunities to briefly explain the reason for minimum wage.  There will eventually be the need to do more than the minimum in order to improve their standing in the class, society, and life.  I have not found a person yet, student or soldier, that when pressed to explain minimum performance, admitted that what they did was the best that they could do.