Grit

It seems that every few years in education there's a buzz about something new and innovative whether it's new research, a new idea, or even an tried and true idea rediscovered.

For the past few years there's been much talk among educators about the importance of a student's attitude towards learning--and life in general--in determining his/her future success.

There was a report on NPR sharing research that of the three most important factors shaping a child's success (IQ, parents' socioeconomic level, and ability to self-discipline and self-regulate), the ability to self-control was the most variable and hence most significant.

There was Carol Dweck's book Mindset that posited that a growth rather than fixed mindset toward learning is crucial in a child's success.

There was the New York Times article "What if the Secret to Success is Failure" where author Paul Tough interviewed the KIPP school president and the head of school at Riverdale Country School in their quest to identify and quantify student study and work habits.

Recently, a close friend of mine, Tom Hoerr (head of school of New City School in St. Louis) wrote an article for ASCD entitled Got Grit? where he proposes that student success is predicated on learning to respond to failure.  He reduces this to one qulaity: grit.

For Tom, grit "entails working strenuously toward challenges, maintaining effort and interest over years despite failure, adversity, and plateaus in progress."

Engineering student failure and frustration is not something parents and teachers come to naturally, especially in a place like Orchard that celebrates the uniqueness of each child.

For most of us, helping a child develop self-confidence and assurance is a step-by-step process. Every child--especially in upper elementary and middle school--often has a fragile ego and more often that not we teachers strive to help every child find success.

While it's important to get to know every child as an individual, we also need to make sure they have opportunities to be frustrated and to learn to persevere. I often say one of Orchard's qualities is that is puts equal emphasis on the process and product of learning. In the case of learning to overcome adversity, the process is paramount.

A number of years ago I was coaching middle school soccer for a school in Tulsa, Oklahoma. We had traveled to Dallas to play an all-boys school that had a long home winning-streak. With just a few minutes left in the game and the score tied at 2, we scored the apparent wining goal, but the referee disallowed it for a reason known only to him. Our parents, who had driven down from Tulsa, were incensed and began yelling and protesting that the referee was clearly a "homer" and only disallowed the goal because he wanted to protect the home team's winning streak. One of our parents even had videotaped the end of the game and offered to show it to the referee.

For me, this was a great teachable moment.

I called my players to the bench, told them how hard they had played, how proud I was of their effort, and that sometimes forces beyond their control could lead to an unfair outcome. I told them to hold their heads up, shake hands with the other team, and not to say anything derogatory to anyone. In other words, exhibit good sportsmanship.

The next week back at school, the Dallas school contacted our head of school and lauded the behavior of our players in a situation that clearly was unfair. He thanked them for being such great sports and for exhibiting such self-control. The head of school later came to a middle school assembly and publicly praised our team for dealing so maturely and calmly in such a difficult situation.

I've coached many teams through the years being elated with exciting victories and crushed by tough tough losses, but this game and how my players dealt with adversity is the game I remember the most.

They displayed grit and grace that day, and I was proud of them not just as athletes but as young men who I knew would be able to face and deal with future disappointment and even failure but had the grit and perseverance to overcome.

Enjoy Spring Break!