Delayed Results

“Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.” – Jim Rohn

One of the things my fifth graders struggle with every year is seeing how their efforts in academics will pay off for them. I thought the world I grew up in back in the late 80’s and early 90’s was all about instant gratification, but this generation has it way worse. From social media to Netflix, students today can get their entertainment quickly and on demand. One of my goals as a teacher is to teach my students what discipline really is. The definition is discipline is “the quality of being able to behave and work in a controlled way which involves obeying particular rules or standards.” The results of discipline are to help you be a better person. In the case of my students, my goal is for them to walk into middle school ready for the next set of challenges better than when they first walked into my classroom. Over the course of a school year, I teach my students that hard work pays off, and the hard part of discipline is you might not see the results of it right away.

I took these photos last year when my wife and I took a day trip to the North Carolina Mountains. The kids were away at camp, so we took the day just to go out and enjoy one another’s company. We took the long way to Asheville by driving on the Blue Ridge Parkway. This is one of the many overlooks on the parkway. I could easily spend hours driving and stopping at every place to check out the views there.