Analysis Of ' How Children Succeed '

In the article of The Limits Of “Grit” by David Denby there are plenty of interesting ideas that are brought up. One of the ideas that Denby brings up is teaching grit in schools. Denby thinks the idea of teaching grit should be taught it all schools. One point that Denby brings up is when he says the following “ If we suffer from a grit deficiency in this country, it shows up in our unwillingness to face what is obviously true—that poverty is the real cause of failing schools.” ( Denby,4) Denby explains that poverty is the real reason why some

Paul Tough discusses his research concerning educators that have attempted to teach grit and self-control in the classroom and other research targeting how children succeed in school. Paul Tough also points out that educators have attempted to put his ideas into practice and use a school-assessment system that relies on certain measurements of students’ non-cognitive abilities (Tough, 2016). Paul Tough also notes that his notion is no small idea, but has been recognized across the country. This is valuable information as it establishes the author’s credibility and appeal to ethos through his personal experience. Paul Tough also does a good job building his argument and establishing credibility by using reputable sources. These sources include Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child and the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (launched in the 1990s by Robert F. Anda, a physician at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Vincent J. Felitti, the founder of the preventive-medicine department at Kaiser Permanente), a study conducted by Nadine Burke Harris (a pediatrician and trauma researcher in San Francisco), Roland G. Fryer Jr. (a celebrated economics professor at Harvard), Edward L. Deci and Richard M. Ryan (two professors at the University of Rochester), as well as other reputable studies and people. Citing these sources increases Paul Tough’s credibility by showing he has done his research to provide the facts and statistics needed to support his

Psychologists have been researching what traits are highest correlated with success for decades. A professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Angela Duckworth, has come across a breakthrough in the secret of success, but Marcus Crede disagrees. In Anya Kamenetz’s article “MacArthur ‘Genius’ Angela Duckworth Responds To A New Critique Of Grit” she discusses assistant professor of psychology Marcus Crede’s assessment of grit, which he effectively denounces Duckworths findings. Crede argues, “Effect sizes in one of Duckworth's major papers on grit were described incorrectly to sound misleadingly large. The impact of grit is exaggerated, especially when looking at broader populations of people.” Therefore, Crede states that Duckworths findings

It is important for foster youth to have metacognition ability because they need to learn how to make right choices to improve their life without family help. It is not easy for children to live by themselves; they do not have enough skill or knowledge to live in society. Foster youth become homeless or go to jail because their family could not teach them right or wrong, so they make mistakes without thinking. GSP not only gives essential help, but also helps them with personal counseling. In How Children Succeed, Tough writes about a child named Sebastian Garcia who came from a school in a poor neighborhood. He played chess very well, but lost games because spent a short time on thinking. Tough writes: “Teaching chess is really about teaching

Duckworth’s main point in, “Grit is Better than IQ” is to make the argument that perseverance is more important than just being intelligent, and that the current generation needs to break free from the idea that they do not know how to work hard while learning pure grit. I agree that grit can be more important in life outside of school than test scores were while the students were obtaining an education. Other than that, I disagree with most of Duckworth’s argument; grit cannot be taught in a classroom and it definitely cannot be learned by a student who does not see the value in it. Neither teachers nor parents can teach or force their kids to be grittier.

Paul Tough, author of How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character, takes on a tough topic of figuring out what components enable a child to succeed. Throughout the book he makes several claims that are related to poverty, attachment, and character. We believe all three of these items play a critical role in how children succeed. We will provide evidence to support these claims as well as critique them.

Executive level brain functions (“executive functions” for short) are a tool for managing cognitive processes such as working memory, reasoning, and problem solving. Tough points out that the present-day education system places considerable emphasis on measurable intelligence (i.e., IQ, pattern detection, and recognition of words and symbols) instead of focusing on the development of executive functions. If schools instead identified these executive functions and worked to build upon them, they will develop in children greater persistence, self-control, determination, and motivation. Additionally, Tough claims that a child’s executive brain function is quite malleable and can be influenced in ways measurable intelligence cannot. To emphasize his point, he includes a study done by Carmit Segal called the Coding-Speed Test in which participants were tested on how their personalities interacted with incentives. Segal concluded that those who performed poorly “may not have been low in IQ, but they were low in whatever quality it is that makes a person try hard on an IQ test without any obvious incentive” (Tough 69). Participants who were able to tap into their ability to care about such a boring test ended up surpassing those who put little effort in, demonstrating that motivation (an executive function) is swayed by incentives while IQ is not. Finally, Tough highlights the fact that matured executive function leads to the development of better character, resulting in a fruitful future. Successful students usually possess six key character traits – optimism, self-control, motivation, conscientiousness, grit, and identity – that lead to higher GPAs and earning potential. (Notice that this list does not include IQ nor economic background). These traits, as Tough details, are developed through successes

A.) The author of this article follows the perspective that persistence is essential for success in difficult, long-term goals and is defined as working endlessly to overcome challenges. B.) This study was intended to test this analysis by examining the structure of grit and observing how it fits into broad personality and how it impacts IQ. A wide age range of participants were used, aging from 18-70 years old. There were 494 total with the male to female ratio being about equal. Participants were chosen from a wide variety of countries and job experiences. The psychologists studied how grit is connected to achievement in school and life which then

Succeeding in college, or succeeding in life is not all about getting a job that pays you the most, or graduating with honors diploma. Sure, it is good to have a good job, and graduate with honors diploma, but college is a stepping stone that gets students ready to go out in the real world and elaborate on what they’ve learned in school. If students just try to avoid hardships they will never learn to have grit in anything they do. As a result, they will have a hard time going out into the real world where there will be times when they will have to face the problems and not run away.

Grit is cultivated, but from the very beginning. In his book, Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell argues, contrary to Duckworth, that success is about much more than rugged individualism. One point he makes is that success depends greatly on what he calls “concerted cultivation,” the way in which we are taught growing up to interact with other people. Although Duckworth has a chapter on “Parenting for Grit,” it proves less feasible when the parents don’t themselves have grit to give. As The New Yorker’s David Denby explains, “...prosperous children who are read to, talked to, and educated in many ways by their caregivers come to school way ahead of poor children, especially children who grow up amid noise, violence, and unending stress and uncertainty.” Privileged children grow up learning how to be assertive and get what they want—they learn grit. But in Duckworth’s words, “...no matter the domain, the highly successful had a kind of ferocious determination that played out in two ways. First, these exemplars were usually resilient and hardworking. Second, they knew in a very, very deep way what they wanted” (pg. 8). She goes on to show the ways in which these very successful have achieved their goals, but fails to recognize that unlike her exemplars, the 14.5% of people in the United States living below the poverty line have not been taught how interact in a gritty way. As Denby contends, “...Duckworth’s work regarding poor children becomes irrelevant or even unwittingly abrasive. In effect, the children are being held responsible for their

The video "recipe for success: how children learn" discussed difference traits and how these traits are applied to daily life. The video starts off by discussing music and how it can not only help people concentrate, but also help with emotions. The video also stated if children plays instruments, this may increase IQ. A experiment was perform to see if people can tell if the music was going up or down. This experiment was held to see if one is tune to his or her musical ability. Another experiment that was performed was with school children. The children were split into 3 groups: A, B, and C. Scientists wanted to see if the children will continue to do a task after recieving an reward. Group A was asked to draw for 5 minute and was given

Ms. Duckworth begins her talk with a story about having a teaching position in which she instructed seventh graders in mathematics. She determined that her brightest kids were not the ones who did the best in her classes, and that some of her strongest performers did not have the highest IQ scores. This revelation seemed to spur her to move on to graduate school to pursue the question, “Who is successful and why?”

People who live with grit do not feel afraid to face difficulties, and working hard to reach their dreams regularly and carefully. Grit is following the future goals under harsh condition, and overcome obstacles with a firm resolve Duckworth (2014). According to Dweck (2013), People with a growth mindset can develop their abilities through hard work. In opposing, position people with higher IQ enjoyed higher education and greater degrees (Tanner 2015). Also, the intellectual abilities are more important as it provides you more chances in life (Hambrick and Meinz 2011). Moreover, Oden's research into Terman's data (Tanner 2015) which showed that not all the children with high IQ were successful in life, and these kids with dynamic personalities traits can be more successful in their lives. Therefore, the idea of high cognitive ability is not always correct. In fact, not only the people who were born with intelligence they can reach success. Studies show that people can achieve success if they work hard and long enough. According to Dweck (2013) and Duckworth (2014) People can be successful if they focus on their goals and work toward them. Also, these people need support and encouragement until they reach their

Grit.” she talks about her 7th grade math students. When grading papers she discovered a staggering difference between her best and worst students. She noticed her stronger kids didn’t have amazing IQ scores and that many of them weren’t doing so well in her

Kewuana Lerna, used perseverance, passion, and confidence to achieve success in challenging classes. To begin, Kewuana used perseverance to get past the struggle of not knowing vocabulary in her college Biology class. For example, Paul Tough, author of “How Children Succeed” shares that Kewuana had written down every word that she did understand, when the class was over she waited until everyone else was finished talking to the professor. Kewuana proceeded to talk to her professor about the vocabulary and waited until she understood every word (Tough). Thus, Kewuana pushed herself through all the difficulties, one was asking for assistance, and learning words she did not know. Secondly, Kewuana was passionate about