Excellence can be a chosen way of life.  It will not be an easy road to follow, but it will be worth the effort.  I have never met a successful person who did not have excellence as his “chosen” path for life.  Oh yes, there are some who have gained fortune and fame by luck, chance, and even deceitful means.  However, many of those have ended their own life at what we consider a very premature age.

    My friend, who was one of Lawton’s entrepreneurs, Edna Hennessee, gave me a copy of her book, “I Don’t Have To…I Get To.”  In it, she gave illustrations and words of wisdom to prove that it takes so little to be above average.  She has been deceased for quite some years now, but I carry on her wisdom and sayings by telling my students I want to make them “Better than the average bear!”  Many laugh, but they are proud as I mark their successful accomplishment of another skill that exceeds the usual standards for their level in most schools.  I see that same sense of pride in students as they are notified by our teacher Mrs. Jump that they have “leveled up” another step in math.

    When you stop to think about all the time children (and some adults) spend playing the same video games over and over, you realize the most important thing to most of them is “Did I make the highest score…or at least better than yesterday?”  It must be important for them to achieve a new level, because they sure spend a lot of time trying to accomplish it!

    I am amazed at the crazy, even “stupid and dangerous” acts committed by people to achieve a web video that might go viral.  Is such temporary fame worth the attempts?  Does it last?  In the end, did it bring that person to success and excellence?

    Perhaps more people don’t seek excellence because they’ve never experienced it.  I once had my school district change our grading system so that an “A” required a grade of 85% or better.  My thought on this matter was that all testing on national tests say 50% is average.  (Gee, most women would agree that we’d be happy if our husbands heard and remembered even 50% of what we said!) If the school says below 60% is failing, we send two different messages.  Anyway, what we learned from this experience was that students who had never gotten an “A” grade before were so thrilled to see an “A” on their paper or report cards, they protected that grade with all their energy.  Many of them came to me and to their teachers and said, “I want to try to get a ”real ‘A’ now.”  Perhaps it is true that success breeds success!

    It is my desire to help struggling students to get that taste of “excellence” so they will never again be satisfied with throwing in the towel rather than putting forth more effort to have success.  I also want them to realize that excellence can be reached by taking small steps…but never being satisfied with keeping the status quo.  It is also my job as a teacher to show them what excellence looks like…and then help them reach for it.  Many classrooms I’ve visited over my career had a goal of excellence for their students, but there were no evidences or examples of excellence anywhere to be found in the classroom so that students could model after them.         Kay