Phenomenal,thank you for pointing this out.

By the way,you`ve got it:)!

POBOD

A profound sense of the obvious. Been known for many years. usually called a sense of postponed gratification.

The knowledge of the marshmallow test well known in education.

Saying Grit or more formally postponed gratification is the key is interesting but in the end is “overwhelmed” by poverty. The fact that the odd poor person has the grit to overcome obsaicles is no substitute for removing the obstacles for all poor kids.

When talking about how to build ‘grit’, this video references the work of Carol Dweck at Stanford.  Here’s a few words from her book ‘Mindset’, where she talks about whether success is about learning, or proving that you are smart.

“When I was a young woman, I wanted a prince-like mate. Very handsome, very successful. A big cheese. I wanted a glamorous career, but nothing too hard or risky. And I wanted it all to come to me as validation of who I was.

It would be many years before I was satisfied. I got a great guy, but he was a work in progress. I have a great career, but boy, is it a constant challenge. Nothing was easy. So why am I satisfied? I changed my mindset.

I changed it because of my work. One day my doctoral student, Mary Bandura, and I were trying to understand why some students were so caught up in proving their ability, while others could just let go and learn. Suddenly we realized that there were two meanings to ability, not one: a fixed ability that needs to be proven, and a changeable ability that can be developed through learning.

That’s how the mindsets were born. I knew instantly which one I had. I realized why I’d always been so concerned about mistakes and failures. And I recognized for the first time that I had a choice.

When you enter a mindset, you enter a new world. In one world—the world of fixed traits—success is about proving you’re smart or talented. Validating yourself. In the other—the world of changing qualities—it’s about stretching yourself to learn something new. Developing yourself.

In one world, failure is about having a setback. Getting a bad grade. Losing a tournament. Getting fired. Getting rejected. It means you’re not smart or talented. In the other world, failure is about not growing. Not reaching for the things you value. It means you’re not fulfilling your potential.

In one world, effort is a bad thing. It, like failure, means you’re not smart or talented. If you were, you wouldn’t need effort. In the other world, effort is what makes you smart or talented.

You have a choice. Mindsets are just beliefs. They’re powerful beliefs, but they’re just something in your mind, and you can change your mind. As you read, think about where you’d like to go and which mindset will take you there.”

How very interesting how grit is being used in the schools of the 21st century.  Doug, points out the typical response that victimizes children based on the social-income variables. Of course its in the best interests of the public education stakeholders and their political agendas to downplay the individual’s endowment of grit, and enhanced the fixed traits of the public education system according to the needs of the education stakeholders.

Another viewpoint from a parent - “This is when I began to realize we’d crossed some weird Foucaultian threshold into a world in which authority figures pathologize children instead of punishing them. “Self-regulation,” “self- discipline,” and “emotional regulation” are big buzz words in schools right now. All are aimed at producing “appropriate” behavior, at bringing children’s personal styles in line with an implicit emotional orthodoxy. That orthodoxy is embodied by a composed, conforming kid who doesn’t externalize problems or talk too much or challenge the rules too frequently or move around excessively or complain about the curriculum or have passionate outbursts. He’s a master at decoding expectations. He has a keen inner minder to bring rogue impulses into line with them.”
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/114527/self-regulation-american-schools-are-failing-nonconformist-kids

Further down - “As a consumer of education—both as a child and a parent—I’d never thought much about classroom management. The field sounds technical and dull, inside baseball for teachers. Scratch two inches below the surface, however, and it becomes fascinating, political philosophy writ small. Is individuality to be contained or nurtured? What relationship to authority do teachers seek to create?” 

A real shame, in the public education system - grit is always defined within the parameters of the needs and belief systems of the educators. The parent concludes with another parent anecdotal story - “. As one mother told me: “The insidious part is, you can start losing faith in your child. You go down this road ...” Your child’s teacher tells you your child is not showing appropriate emotional regulation. You’re directed toward psychological evaluations and therapists. They have a hammer. Your kid becomes the nail. “The saddest, most soul-crushing thing is the negative self-image. We think kids don’t understand what’s happening, but they do. There’s this quiet reinforcement that something is wrong with them. That’s the thing that’ll kill.”

By the way, what happens to the children who don’t like marshmallows? In the 2013 school, it would mean that the kids are overwhelmed by the external social-income variables. Why wouldn’t any kid like to attend a school, constantly being told that they are not school material?

2 comments

Doug,you should apply to TED and do a video,you don`t have a specialty,you have ALL the answers.

Tom,thank you.What a great posting,I`ll try to find the book.