"WE HAVE TO GET GRITTY ABOUT GETTING OUR KIDS GRITTIER..."
I am a huge nerd as we've already established, and one of my obsessions this year is TED Talks. I can't stop watching them. They inspire me. They make me want to change and rule the world. Obviously, since I'm a teacher, the education talks are my favorite. But, I strongly feel like this one sends an essential message to the masses. It can apply to kids in school or to anybody trying to accomplish anything in life.
We. Need. More. GRIT.
Think about your job, or your hobby, or your favorite sport to play. How do you approach things that you set your mind to? The words grit and perseverance go hand in hand. In life, it's not about how intelligent you are, or what you have or don't have, it's about having the will, the stamina, the yearning to push forward no matter what. Not for a day, or a month, or a year, but forever.
This TED Talk is by Angela Duckworth, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. She was a classroom teacher for many years, and she left after realizing that there was a key component missing in how we view education in America. She became a psychologist, and began to study different schools, jobs, and corporations. She did endless research and finally came to the conclusion that what was missing is...grit.
One of my favorite parts of this talk is when she mentions that as a nation, we have an issue with accepting failure. She mentions that we need to get our kids to understand that failure is not permanent. We have to be willing to fail, then try again. It's a vital part of life.
I am dealing with an extremely difficult student right now. I have kept myself up at night thinking about what I can do differently to help her succeed. She is has a very low IQ, and she has several behavior issues. Can she change? Can she be successful? Will she slip through the cracks? Angela mentions the "Growth Mindset," which comes from Stanford University. This is the concept that the ability to learn is NOT fixed, and that it can change with effort. This concept really has sunk in deep for me, and I am working through my brain how I can apply it with my own students, and even with my own life. This student in my class...is she a hopeless case? I believe it's much more than what I am teaching her, how I am teaching her, the environment she's in, the interventions I've tried, and what her home life is like. Those things are important, but they aren't going to make a difference in changing her direction in life. SHE has to have the tenacity, the perseverance, and the drive to want to change. To me, ability level or IQ don't matter when it comes to this child. If she has the inner motivation to WANT to do succeed, long term, then she will. She could have all the tools in place, but the one tool she truly needs, grit, is one that she needs to find within herself.
This is the hard part, how do we instill grit in our children? Is it possible for a middle school aged child, or a teenager, or even an adult to find and establish grit? Is it ever too late? Is it something that can even be taught?
Think about what internally drives you. How do you approach the responsibilities and obligations in your life?
Do you have grit?
"GRIT IS LIVING LIFE LIKE A MARATHON AND NOT LIKE A SPRINT."
