I love the perserverance piece of band. When we get to the competition portion of the season and things get tough I often hear, "so and so is going to quit band." I almost never go and talk to a kid like that because I have always believed that someone will step up and take the place of that kid and most of the time it's just an attention seeking kind of situation. I remember one day there was a kid coming back to my band after he had quit. When that kid quit I didn't think much about it because they were a below average alto saxophone player and I honestly didn't need anymore saxophones. =) When the kid came back he came back determined and wound up being one of my best kids in the program his senior year. That kid is now a band director. My point from this is that we have to give the students growth opportunities and sometimes that growth can be really hard and even amazing kids can quit because of stuff. It's part of the process. Us having expectations of our students is a sign of love and respect for them. Whether they take it that was is up to them. It is harder today than ever to give students a structured environment that pushes growth. But, it's possible. And, we don't have to be "mean" but we do have to be demanding.