Thursday, September 15, 2011

NYTimes.com: What if the Secret to Success Is Failure?


Good character traits are maybe more important than grades in grooming someone for success. "...he noticed something curious: the students who persisted in college were not necessarily the ones who had excelled academically at KIPP; they were the ones with exceptional character strengths, like optimism and persistence and social intelligence. They were the ones who were able to recover from a bad grade and resolve to do better next time; to bounce back from a fight with their parents; to resist the urge to go out to the movies and stay home and study instead; to persuade professors to give them extra help after class."..."People who accomplished great things, she noticed, often combined a passion for a single mission with an unswerving dedication to achieve that mission, whatever the obstacles and however long it might take. She decided she needed to name this quality, and she chose the word “grit.”


"...he identified a set of strengths that were, according to his research, especially likely to predict life satisfaction and high achievement. After a few small adjustments, they settled on a final list: zest, grit, self-control, social intelligence, gratitude, optimism and curiosity."
"they also see many parents who, while pushing their children to excel, also inadvertently shield them from exactly the kind of experience that can lead to character growth." "give them everything they want and need, to protect them from dangers and discomforts both large and small. And yet we all know — on some level, at least — that what kids need more than anything is a little hardship: some challenge, some deprivation that they can overcome, even if just to prove to themselves that they can. "


The New York Times
 September 18, 2011
What if the Secret to Success Is Failure?
By PAUL TOUGH
Why our children's success - and happiness - may depend less on perfect performance than on learning how to deal with failure. 


Also - this story of 3 children suddenly dropped into a school where they didn't know a word of the language is a great example of the strengths achieved through initial failure. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/18/magazine/my-familys-experiment-in-extreme-schooling.html

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