One of the topics that finds its way into so many of our strategic planning and mission/vision conversations this year is the idea of what Seymore Papert calls, “Hard Fun.” A few nights ago, during a school board work session on the strategic plan, the superintendent voiced what our leadership team espouses so passionately, that we want learning to be fun.

I’ve attended meetings in the past where people have been skeptical of public school classrooms, especially given the more recent emphasis on creative strategies and a de-emphasis on “sage-on-the-stage” lecture. I join the superintendent in hoping to capture the hearts and minds of our students in lessons that are, indeed, fun.

But it isn’t entertainment we’re after. We aren’t trying to appease children or sidestep the necessary disciplines that students need to adopt as they develop character and learn responsible citizenship. On the contrary. Hard fun in the classroom actually requires those disciplines and helps to establish them, much moreso that its over-worn counterparts from yesteryear.

Hard fun indicates that students are hooked by a fascination and determination that leads them to pour themselves into what they’re learning. If you’ve ever seen a young child relentlessly trying to set the last block on top[ of a staggering tower of several previously lain blocks, you’ll recognize the relentless persistence that accompanies hard fun. It isn’t entertainment. It isn’t easy.

It’s engaging.

That’s what we’re after. We’re looking for instruction that causes children to call their work “fun” because it’s hard rather than in spite of being hard…