Teaching Character: Grit Is Critical to How and Why People Succeed

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth Scribner, 2016, $28; 352 pages. Helping Children Succeed: What Works and Why by Paul Tough Houghton Mifj1in Harcourt, 2016, $18.99; 144 pages. As reviewed by Jay P. Greene Education reform has fallen prey to one ill-conceived fad after another. Whether the trend du jour is tearing down classroom walls, adopting whole language reading, or pursuing 21 st-century such as creative thinking and collaborating, we eagerly latch on to reform after reform with little skepticism and before the effectiveness of a new approach has been tested by research. This historical pattern has made people understandably wary of all the recent excitement about noncognitive or character skills, like grit, emotion regulation ability, and growth mindset. This new attention to character skills has many of the markings of previous failed fads. Key school leaders are embracing the importance of character skills before weu0027ve even clearly defined the concepts, let alone how they could be measured. And a variety of vendors are hawking character-skill curricula and pedagogical practices before they have been validated by rigorous research. In short, school and educator practice with respect to character skills is running far ahead of knowledge. When I picked up Grit by Angela Duckworth and Helping Children Succeed by Paul Tough, I was afraid these two volumes would simply be written so as to provide fuel for the noncog fad. Instead, I was impressed by the extent to which both books attempt to popularize the importance of character skills while keeping the reader firmly grounded in what we actually know and donu0027t know about the topic from research. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Angela Duckworth is a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and recipient of a 2013 MacArthur genius award for her work on grit. While she has published extensively in scholarly journals, her new book reads more like a self-help volume than an academic one. It is filled with inspirational examples of famous people whose passion and perseverance have helped them accomplish great things in a variety of endeavors, from sports to art to science. Importantly, Duckworth does not present these anecdotes as proof that grit is an essential character trait for success. Though she uses stories to illustrate her points, she also makes reference to rigorous research, including some of her own. She makes a persuasive case that talent and intelligence alone cannot fully account for how and why people succeed. Passion and perseverance, which together make up grit, are also critical elements. Duckworthu0027s proof lies in research showing that her measure of grit is predictive of accomplishments, such as thriving at West Point or advancing in the National Spelling Bee. The book would have benefited if she had gone further in acknowledging the limitations of her measure of grit, as she has done in other publications, but in general her claims and anecdotes stick pretty closely to the evidence, which is fully documented with citations. In the latter half of the book, when she shifts toward how grit might actually be taught, she notes: Before I say more, let me repeat the caveat that, as a scientist, Iu0027d like to collect more data points before coming to firm conclusions. In a decade, I should know a lot more about parenting for grit than I do now. But because thereu0027s no pause button for parenting the people you care about, Iu0027ll go ahead and tell you my hunches. By citing evidence when she has it and cautioning us when she doesnu0027t, Duckworth sets an example that would be well heeded by other authors of popular books about social science. Helping Children Succeed by journalist Paul Tough is the follow-up to his bestseller, How Children Succeed. In the earlier book, Tough popularized work by Duckworth and others on the importance of character skills. …