David Warlick kindly replied to my comment, and I’m adding my response here, too. (Read the exchange here).

But is it better to push a stalled car, or steer one that has someplace to go. Well, of course I’d rather steer one that has someplace to go. But here’s my situation as I see it: I’m faced with a garage-full of stalled cars in various states of disrepair. And I’m expected to do something about them!

I like this: Perhaps our challenge, as teachers, is to compellingly define and describe that next level, create a place where the players want to be

If that is my challenge, then I have no idea how to do that.