Fostering Grit
Overcoming
adversity. is part of the learning process.
By Thomas Hoerr
Illustrations by Donough O’Malley
“Should students be praised for
their achievements or their effort?” That question reflects a dialogue that
educators are having about how to prepare students for success in life. We’ve
come to realize that while doing well in school
counts, it’s also important to have strong “noncognitive” skills. These include
working well with others, being an engaged and caring person, and possessing
grit. Grit is having tenacity, hanging in there, and being resilient. Grit is
not backing away from a problem because it’s difficult and not giving up until
you finish the job.
When you consider who is
successful—regardless of how you define success—it’s probably their grit that
got them there. Their success didn’t come easily; it happened because they
learned from their mistakes, turned them into “good failures,” and didn’t give
up. Grit was written about in Paul Tough’s book How Children Succeed,
and associate professor Angela Duckworth was just named a MacArthur Fellow for
her research on grit.
Educators need to develop grit in
children, and there is a role for parents, too. At home and in school, children
need to know that good things don’t often come easily and that success comes
from not giving up. Children need to learn that there is merit in trying and
trying again, even if they aren’t immediately successful.
Parents should talk about grit and
let their children know that they value both the effort and the result. Instead
of complimenting Janice for being a good soccer player, she should be praised
for her effort and for being a good teammate. Lawrence should be told how much
we value the many drafts he prepared in
writing his report and that he kept working to make it better. Our children
should know that important goals aren’t achieved without effort and failure
along the way. That’s part of the learning process.
Children should also step out of
their comfort zones and take risks in learning. Too often, kids want to back
away at the first failure or when things become hard. We need to talk about
their grit, so they understand that tenacity is needed to succeed and that they
will gain from persevering. Grit needs to be part of their vocabulary.
We need to practice what we preach
and let our children know how we respond even when things don’t come easily.
Too often, we don’t share our frustration or how it took us seven tries to
finally get it right. We do our children a disservice if they don’t see us
displaying the grit that they need to develop. Our children need to appreciate
our grit and how we handle frustration. Modeling a behavior is always more
effective than just talking about it.
Let’s think about good grit, too. We
want our children to use grit in achieving positive ends and making the world a
better place. This means that we must teach character along with grit.
Thomas Hoerr, who received his Ph.D.
from Washington University, is head of New City School in the Central West End.
A former public-school principal and teacher, he’s the author of Fostering Grit
No comments:
Post a Comment