Got grit???
This recent NPR piece examines the benefits and challenges of teaching ‘grittiness’ to students in order to promote resilience.
Central to thinking about teaching grittiness or resilience to children are two ideas:
- The award winning research of Angela Duckworth (UPenn Psychology professor) who argued that grit is a better measure of success than IQ
- Growth mindset and fixed mindset. Growth mindset is the attitude that values the value of learning from mistakes as a part of the process (“I can learn from my mistakes, If I work hard, I will reach my goals, etc“). Fixed Mindset is the attitude that one out the outset either does or does not possess the qualities to successfully complete a task ( I am no good at math, I’m terrible at public speaking )
There is lots of interesting information in this piece, the focus on the New City school and others who are leading the way in the initiative to teach perseverance in education. The discussion is rounded out by opinions that diminish the importance of teaching grittiness to students, including educational giant Alfie Kohn’s assertion that all this focus on grittiness is just wishful thinking.
Even if, as Mr. Kahn argues, (in a very fixed mindset kind of way!) this is a ‘convenient distraction’, anyone who has ever been encouraged to keep pursuing their dreams knows how important it is to believe that they could learn from their mistakes and keep going. Anyone who has ever had a parent or a boss with a fixed mindset towards their ability can probably attest to the fact that they didn’t feel empowered to test their limits and keep going while they were in that situation. It might helpful to consider when we may unknowingly be applying a fixed growth mindset to our students, to clients, even to our spouses and ourselves… Wouldn’t everyone perform a little bit better if just for today, we said to ourselves “I really don’t know all the things I/you/we are capable of. Let’s keep trying and see!
What can we do for ourselves, our students and others today that might help them to gain in grittiness for the challenges ahead?
I think if we keep going, we may find out… 🙂