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So when is “good enough, good enough”? 

This is the question of the week in my classroom with my students.  I overheard them use the phrase “oh, that’s good enough” when they were doing their math homework recently during study hall.  Most of them were struggling with it and were getting frustrated.  Eventually one of them spoke the tainted phrase.

That one phrase has sparked a new movement in my classroom.  We apply it to everything.  I ask them to clean up the floor at the end of the day.  They pick up most of the books but leave the erasers, pencils, and paper chunks.  “Is that good enough Mrs. Andersen?”  Nope!  It’s not!  I check their language arts homework for completion.  Jerry finished eight out of the 10 questions.  “Isn’t that good enough?  I didn’t get the rest.”  Nope, not good enough.

Maybe as a parent you’ve heard the same thing.  You ask them to go clean their rooms to gather their dirty clothes because it’s time to do laundry.  Later, you check how things look.  Ok, so the clothes are picked up but there are shoes, books, and unidentifiable stuff everywhere.  “Aww mom, it’s good enough!”  The list goes on and on with tasks that are only done to the “good enough” stage.

Where did this good enough attitude come from?  Well, like any behavior, the “good enough attitude” is akin to a “thinking habit.”  You develop behaviors and thinking patterns over time that become habit.  If you are a perfectionist, then by habit you work towards completing tasks at a level that equals 100 percent or more of your effort.  If you are a “good enough” thinker, then you will complete tasks only to the “good enough” level.  Maybe it’s 50 percent or 80 percent effort; whatever it is, it is less than your best.

In the classroom, good enough just doesn’t work.  Good enough students will never achieve their full academic potential.  How can they when they never give anything their full attention and their full effort?  Think of it this way.  If the average person really only uses 10 percent of their potential brain power (which I don’t think is true; it is much higher than that) than how much is a “good enough” student using?  Five percent; half of the average person?  And if I translate that into the quality of work being done in the classroom, then I am really only getting about a 50 percent effort?  That translates into a student who is earning an F average. 

At what effort level do you think your child is performing?  Are they giving their all or only giving enough?  If you think it is only enough, are you fine with that?  I am not sure how a student develops his or her thinking habits, but I venture to say that it may come from the culture of expectations in the home.  Parents with limited expectations may very likely wind up with a child who feels that “good enough” is plenty of effort to get by in the world.

Imagine being the boss of an adult who thought that good enough was all one needed to do to get through school.  A good enough attitude is sure to produce good enough work.  I bet it doesn’t make a boss impressed enough though.

Now, don’t read me incorrectly here.  I don’t think we need to push our kids over the edge with being perfect.  I do believe that we can hold them to the expectation that when it comes to school work that they should perform at their highest level.  This means getting their homework done neatly to the best of their ability.

Further, it means that they don’t give up just because they don’t understand something, but they ask questions and try on their own first.  This is especially true in math.  It is very difficult to assist a child in math who has not even tried to work through a problem.  Children need to be taught to write down their thinking process in a math problem. 

Once you see on paper what they are thinking, then you can figure out where they have misunderstood the process and correct them.

As the saying goes, our children are out future.  Do we want a future that is being lead by people who think “good enough” is good enough?  I am hoping for better than that!

Margaret Andersen is the mother of three teenagers and is a middle school teacher somewhere in the Midwest.  She is a regular ShareWIK.com columnist. For more Margaret Anderson articles, click here. 

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