Mike Grant noted that persuading students to solve a long, time-consuming project or problem or work on something an hour a day for two weeks is his biggest challenge in teaching. When people are engaged in intellectual tasks, you must engage the whole person. That sustains them over the long haul. There is something to slowly unveiling what you teach. Rick VanDeWeghe teaches a course in writing the memoir.
Students can understand it as a genre, but the ideas come out of their lives.
Those who have experience sustaining a topic don't want to give it up. They are involved way beyond the course. This is a spiritual experience. Students spend a lot of hours on their final projects for his class. Fred gave the example of a bicycle.