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How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character Paperback – July 2, 2013

4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 2,670 ratings

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"A persuasive wake-up call.”—People

A
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

From the award-winning journalist Paul Tough, a provocative and profound examination of childhood success and character—an insightful study that reveals the power to transform young people’s lives.


Why do some children succeed while others fail? The story we usually tell about childhood and success is the one about intelligence: success comes to those who score highest on tests, from preschool admissions to SATs. In
How Children Succeed, Paul Tough argues that success has more to do with character—skills like perseverance, curiosity, optimism, and self-control. In this groundbreaking study, Tough introduces us to key researchers and educators, who, for the first time, are using the tools of science to peel back the mysteries of character. Through their stories—and the stories of the children they are trying to help—Tough reveals how character has the power to transform young people’s lives. This provocative and profoundly hopeful book will not only inspire and engage readers—it will also change our understanding of childhood itself.
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Drop the flashcards - grit, character, and curiosity matter even more than cognitive skills. A persuasive wake-up call."
People Magazine "In this absorbing and important book, Tough explains why American children from both ends of the socioeconomic spectrum are missing out on these essential experiences. … The book illuminates the extremes of American childhood: for rich kids, a safety net drawn so tight it’s a harness; for poor kids, almost nothing to break their fall."
—Annie Murphy Paul, 
The New York Times Book Review "An engaging book that casts the school reform debate in a provocative new light. … [Tough] introduces us to a wide-ranging cast of characters — economists, psychologists, and neuroscientists among them — whose work yields a compelling new picture of the intersection of poverty and education."
—Thomas Toch, 
The Washington Monthly "Mr. Tough’s new book, How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity and the Hidden Power of Character, combines compelling findings in brain research with his own first-hand observations on the front lines of school reform. He argues that the qualities that matter most to children’s success have more to do with character – and that parents and schools can play a powerful role in nurturing the character traits that foster success. His book is an inspiration. It has made me less of a determinist, and more of an optimist."
—Margaret Wente, 
The Globe and Mail "How Children Succeed is a must-read for all educators. It’s a fascinating book that makes it very clear that the conventional wisdom about child development is flat-out wrong."
—School Leadership Briefing "I loved this book and the stories it told about children who succeed against big odds and the people who help them. … It is well-researched, wonderfully written and thought-provoking."
—Siobhan Curious, Classroom as Microcosm "
How to Succeed takes readers on a high-speed tour of experimental schools and new research, all peppered with anecdotes about disadvantaged youths overcoming the odds, and affluent students meeting enough resistance to develop character strengths."
—James Sweeney, 
Cleveland Plain Dealer "[This] wonderfully written new book reveals a school improvement measure in its infancy that has the potential to transform our schools, particularly in low-income neighborhoods."
—Jay Mathews, 
Washington Post "Nurturing successful kids doesn’t have to be a game of chance. There are powerful new ideas out there on how best to equip children to thrive, innovations that have transformed schools, homes, and lives. Paul Tough has scoured the science and met the people who are challenging what we thought we knew about childhood and success. And now he has written the instruction manual. Every parent should read this book – and every policymaker, too."
— Charles Duhigg, author of
The Power of Habit "I wish I could take this compact, powerful, clear-eyed, beautifully written book and put it in the hands of every parent, teacher and politician. At its core is a notion that is electrifying in its originality and its optimism: that character — not cognition — is central to success, and that character can be taught. How Children Succeed will change the way you think about children. But more than that: it will fill you with a sense of what could be."
—Alex Kotlowitz, author of
There Are No Children Here "Turning the conventional wisdom about child development on its head, New York Times Magazine editor Tough argues that non-cognitive skills (persistence, self-control, curiosity, conscientiousness, grit and self-confidence) are the most critical to success i —

From the Back Cover

“Drop the flashcards—grit, character, and curiosity matter even more than cognitive skills. A persuasive wake-up call.”—People

Why do some children succeed while others fail? The story we usually tell about childhood and success is the one about intelligence: success comes to those who score highest on tests, from preschool admissions to SATs. But in
How Children Succeed, Paul Tough argues that the qualities that matter more have to do with character: skills like perseverance, curiosity, optimism, and self-control.

How Children Succeed introduces us to a new generation of researchers and educators, who, for the first time, are using the tools of science to peel back the mysteries of character. Through their stories—and the stories of the children they are trying to help—Tough reveals how this new knowledge can transform young people’s lives. He uncovers the surprising ways in which parents do—and do not—prepare their children for adulthood. And he provides us with new insights into how to improve the lives of children growing up in poverty. This provocative and profoundly hopeful book will not only inspire and engage readers, it will also change our understanding of childhood itself.

“Illuminates the extremes of American childhood: for rich kids, a safety net drawn so tight it’s a harness; for poor kids, almost nothing to break their fall.”—
New York Times

“I learned so much reading this book and I came away full of hope about how we can make life better for all kinds of kids.”—
Slate

PAUL TOUGH is the author of
Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada’s Quest to Change Harlem and America. He has written about education, child development, and poverty in The New Yorker and in cover stories for the New York Times Magazine, where he is a contributing writer. His journalism has also appeared in Slate, GQ, and Esquire, and on This American Life. Learn more at www.paultough.com or follow him on Twitter: @PaulTough.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0544104404
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Mariner Books; Reprint edition (July 2, 2013)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780544104402
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0544104402
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.31 x 0.68 x 8 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 2,670 ratings

About the author

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Paul Tough
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Paul Tough is the author, most recently, of "The Inequality Machine: How College Divides Us." His three previous books include "How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character," which was translated into 27 languages and spent more than a year on the New York Times hardcover and paperback best-seller lists. Paul is a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine; his writing has also appeared in the New Yorker, the Atlantic, and GQ and on the op-ed page of the New York Times. He is a speaker on topics including education, parenting, equity, and student success. He has worked as an editor at the New York Times Magazine and Harper’s Magazine and as a reporter and producer for "This American Life." He was the founding editor of Open Letters, an online magazine. He lives with his wife and two sons in Austin, Texas.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
2,670 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book provides valuable insights and cutting-edge research. They describe it as a compelling and thought-provoking read that highlights unknown concepts about child development. The narrative is engaging and lucid, with an interesting and engrossing approach. Readers appreciate the book's understanding of character development and resilience skills.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

488 customers mention "Information quality"448 positive40 negative

Customers find the book provides valuable insights into what at-risk students face. They appreciate the well-developed anecdotes, scientific insights, and cutting-edge research. The book contains positive stories about real people that explore the theme of grit.

"...in New York City for inner city kids and involved a new, immersive style of schooling, combining long days of high-energy, high-intensity classroom..." Read more

"...Tough dug into real issues, talked to experts and explored their research, asking deep questions...." Read more

"...recommend this book to teachers, and I would also recommend the book to parents as it has a lot of information that parents can use as well...." Read more

"...It is crucial to also focus on the emotional well-being of students and push them to develop certain skills that will translate into success later..." Read more

429 customers mention "Readability"406 positive23 negative

Customers find the book engaging and thought-provoking. They appreciate the narrative and the author's explanation of what the learning could do. The book is well-written and distills complex concepts into easy-to-understand explanations.

"...Human personality can be explored along 5 dimensions: agreeableness, extraversion, neuroticism, openness to experience, and conscientiousness...." Read more

"...One person's opinion. Great book, even if not perfect." Read more

"...This chapter I found to be the easiest to read. The focus is on chess and how a teacher in Brooklyn uses chess with her intermediate students and..." Read more

"...This book was fairly inexpensive when purchased through Amazon coming in at around $10. Tough published the book with Houghton Mifflin in 2012...." Read more

94 customers mention "Child development"92 positive2 negative

Customers find the book helpful for understanding child development and raising children. It provides insights into theories and ideas about human development that are useful for parents and would-be parents to consider. The book highlights concepts about child-rearing and grit, including stories about people who overcome poverty and rich kids with little.

"...VII. HUMAN CHILD DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH. Into the 1960s, research in this field was dominated by the "behaviorists."..." Read more

"...I learned so much about success and raising children...." Read more

"...In particular, he closely examines the aspects of character, including grit, curiosity, self-control, and more...." Read more

"...He found that social emotional responsiveness, grit, and excellent character traits are better predictors of success in life...." Read more

81 customers mention "Interest"70 positive11 negative

Customers find the book engaging and engrossing. They say it provides an accessible overview of the latest research on children's success. The book is easy to read and put into practice, with a call to action.

"...personality can be explored along 5 dimensions: agreeableness, extraversion, neuroticism, openness to experience, and conscientiousness...." Read more

"...he closely examines the aspects of character, including grit, curiosity, self-control, and more...." Read more

"...schools had more social emotional awareness which lead to more grit, curiosity, and overall character...." Read more

"...function and character strengths - specifically grit, self-control, zest, social intelligence, gratitude, optimism, curiosity and conscientiousness..." Read more

65 customers mention "Character development"61 positive4 negative

Customers find the book helpful for understanding character development. They say it explains how parents and educators can shape children's character and improve their quality of life. The book introduces readers to interesting people working in the field, as well as children themselves. It includes great stories of kids who are determined to beat the odds. Overall, customers consider it an excellent read, especially for parents and those who work with children.

"...After my reading, I believe I have a better understanding of character and what I can do in my time with students to help them build this...." Read more

"...He found that social emotional responsiveness, grit, and excellent character traits are better predictors of success in life...." Read more

"...I do believe that character skills are important though and they are something that I focus on with my own students...." Read more

"...four chapters suggest others: How to Fail (and How Not to), How to Build Character, How to Think, and finally, How to Succeed...." Read more

40 customers mention "Resilience"40 positive0 negative

Customers find the book helpful for building resilience in students. They say it makes a compelling case for perseverance, conscientiousness, and staying the course. The author provides a solid synthesis of scholarly work with useful examples. Readers mention that strong character impacts one's resilience.

"...Rules are not the same as willpower. They are a metacognitive substitute for willpower...." Read more

"...be given all support and opportunities; she's working and fighting hard to succeed. But, i think Murray would also agree and Tough mis-quotes him...." Read more

"...The strengths of kindness and resilience. If a student can have those strengths they are on a path towards success...." Read more

"...Rather, it is about habits of successful people such as grit, persistence, determination, social awareness, etc...." Read more

37 customers mention "Presentation"37 positive0 negative

Customers find the book well-presented and engaging. It provides an enlightening look into inner-city education and challenges. They appreciate the author's genuine exploration of what makes school work for some kids and not for others. The topic is presented clearly, making it accessible and appealing to the masses.

"...The world it describes is so neat, so reassuringly linear, such a clear case of inputs [begin italics] here [end italics] to outputs [begin italics]..." Read more

"...The book itself is written well and easy to read and is a bit like Freakanomics where it tries to get in behind the numbers...." Read more

"A stimulating look at how to help kids to develop their own abilities...." Read more

"...I was not disappointed. Tough writes in the engaging and accessible style of Malcolm Gladwell...." Read more

32 customers mention "Length"11 positive21 negative

Customers have differing views on the book's length. Some find the narrative compelling and skillfully blending historical information into simple explanations. However, others feel some chapters are too long and repetitive, especially the chess chapter.

"...It is that important. It also is quite short:197 pages." Read more

"...The book is set up in a narrative format, with Tough introducing us to a variety of researchers, administrators, and students, and telling us their..." Read more

"...1-The portion on chess is random, long, boring and never ties back to the importance of character in a successful life...." Read more

"...The only low point of the book was that the chapter about chess players seemed extremely long in comparison to the rest of the book...." Read more

Forget High Grades- Other Factors Might Matter Even More
4 out of 5 stars
Forget High Grades- Other Factors Might Matter Even More
Much has been written and debated about the American education system and why some kids seem to do better than others. There are several positions taken on such important issues, often with personal or political preferences getting in the way of sound reasoning and research. How Children Succeed draws conclusions of a different sort, showing how academic achievement is influenced by factors other than mastery of the three R’s and other traditional measurements.I have been a teacher myself, on the university level, so I have a definite interest in education. I have never taught young people, but I have two junior high aged kids of my own and I am always looking for ways to improve the way they learn and ways to improve the way others learn, for the betterment of the community. This book’s author draws on his own experience and official research to challenge the common beliefs about learning. Rather than focus on basic skills, the book stresses motivation, self- control, and overall character development as better determinants of who will succeed and who will not. This contrasts with what many others have said was the key to education success and I like that the book takes a fresh angle on a hotly debated subject.The author of this book derives most of his conclusions from experiences he had dealing with kids in low income neighborhoods. These kids are often the ones regarded high risk to drop out, have a child while in school, and otherwise fail to achieve much in the way of educational attainment. I like that the author focused on these individuals and some of his conclusions are surprising, while others are not. For example, there does, indeed, appear to be a strong correlation between low educational attainment and distractions at home caused by an unstable environment. This isn’t too shocking- many people have drawn the same conclusion. But the idea that grit and determination are stronger determinants of educational success than getting high grades is something different. I liked reading these parts of the book because they help explain something that has always puzzled me about the achievement gap. The author backs up his claims with official research, too, so this is not just some guy pushing his own personal opinion with nothing to back it up.Education is lagging in the United States and while there is no definitive answer to our problems, How Children Succeed does its best to resolve these issues from a fresh perspective. Other developed nations are ahead of us in the race for educational excellence and this book is good at identifying some possible solutions that could improve education and, ultimately, economic well- being for the disadvantaged.
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2012
    GRIT AND CHARACTER: CHILDREN SUCCEED WHO HAVE IT; THOSE WHO DON'T WON'T

    I. GED DEGREES ARE WORTHLESS. IQ or intelligence, by itself, has little to do with a child's ultimate success. America once believed the contrary: that what schools develop, and what a high school degree certifies, is cognitive skill. Thus, if a teenager has proven this skill through passing the GED exam, then she doesn't have to waste her time actually finishing high school. We now know this is false. In terms of all kinds of important future outcomes - annual income, unemployment rate, divorce rate, use of illegal drugs and college accomplishments - GED holders look exactly like every other high school drop-out. Yes, the GED measures intelligence. But it signifies nothing more.
    II. THE ACQUISITION OF NON-COGNITIVE SKILLS SUCH AS GRIT, CURIOSITY AND CONSCIENTIOUSNESS. These are what economists refer to as noncognitive skills, that psychologists call personality traits and that the rest of us sometimes think of as character. Developing many other kinds of skill - such as in vocabulary and math - is a simple matter of starting earlier and practicing more. If you want to perfect your foul shot, shooting 200 free throws every afternoon is going to be more helpful than shooting 20. If you're in fourth grade, reading 40 books over the summer is going to improve your reading ability more than 4. But we can't get better at overcoming disappointment by working harder at it; children don't lag behind in curiosity simply because they didn't start doing curiosity drills at an early enough age.
    III. PERRY PRESCHOOL PROJECT. In this 1960s war on poverty experiment, children 4 years of age were selected from low-income, low IQ, inner-city black parents and then immersed in a high quality two-year pre-school program. The Perry Project for a long time was considered something of a failure because by the time the children were in the third grade, their IQ scores had deflated and were no better than a control group's. However, years later, an economist looking at the Perry data discovered that there had been very positive effects. Compared to the control group, the Perry children were more likely to have graduated from high school, more likely to be employed at age 27 , and less likely ever to have been arrested or spent time on welfare.
    IV. ADVERSE CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES STUDY. (Commonly called ACE) From a mostly middle class Kaiser HMO data base, researchers conducted surveys on thousands of adults to determine whether they, as children, had experienced any of 10 different categories of adverse childhood experience: physical and sexual abuse, physical and emotional neglect, divorced or separated parents, parents incarcerated/ addicted, etc. A child who had suffered one of these conditions got an ACE score of "1", two conditions, "2" etc. The correlations between adverse childhood experiences and negative adult outcomes were so powerful that they "stunned" the researchers. People with ACE scores of 4 or higher were twice as likely to smoke, 7X more likely to be alcoholics, and 7X more likely to have had sex before age fifteen. They were twice as likely to have been diagnosed with cancer, twice as likely to have heart disease, twice as likely to have liver disease, four times as likely to suffer from emphysema or chronic bronchitis. On some charts, the slopes were especially steep: adults with an ACE score above 6 were 30X more likely to have attempted suicide than those with an ACE score of 0. And men with an ACE score above 5 were 46 more likely to have injected drugs. Even when researchers discounted for self-destructive behaviors like smoking and heavy drinking, the negative health effects on things such as heart disease were still pronounced. The key channel causing the damage: the body's hormonal reaction to the stress, precipitated by the childhood adversity. The effects were "written" on the child's body ... deep under their skin where they remained for the rest of its life.
    V. EXECUTIVE FUNCTION (the ability to deal with confusing and unpredictable situations) Researchers long have known that poverty correlates strongly with executive function, but they didn't know why. When researchers used statistical techniques to factor out child adversity influences, the apparent poverty effect disappeared completely. It wasn't poverty itself that was messing with the executive-function abilities of poor kids. It was the stress that usually goes along with poverty.
    VI. HIGH-LICKING AND GROOMED LAB RATS. A researcher (Meaney) while handling baby rat pups, inadvertently noticed a difference between pups after they were put back in the litter: some were licked and groomed by their mothers while other mothers ignored their pups. Tests determined that human handling of pups always produced anxiety and a flood of stress hormones. Researchers divided the pups into two categories: high lick and groomed (LG) pups vs. low (LG) pups. Factoring out genetics (by putting pups with foster mothers) the differences in "character" between the two groups was striking. Over the full course of their lives, the high-LG pups excelled: They were better at mazes. They were more social. They were more curious. They were less aggressive. They had more self-control. They were healthier. They lived longer.
    VII. HUMAN CHILD DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH. Into the 1960s, research in this field was dominated by the "behaviorists." Non-behaviorist researchers created the "Strange Situation" experiment: 12 month old human babies with their mothers were put into a lab set up as a playground. Then the mothers were asked to leave the lab, sometimes leaving the baby alone and sometimes with strangers. When the mother returned, researchers observed two different categories of baby reaction: 60% ("securely attached") greeted the returning mother happily, sometimes tearfully, sometimes with joy; 40% ("anxiously attached") did not have a happy reunion, lashing out, pretending to ignore the mother, etc. Not surprisingly in retrospect- since this was exactly the opposite of what the behaviorists had expected - the parents of the anxious babies had parenting styles that were detached or conflicted or hostile. This difference in early parental care had long-term consequences; the researchers discovered that this single measure of baby attachment could predict with 77% accuracy which children would never graduate from high school. A more accurate predictor than IQ or test scores or the natural abilities of the child! Bottom line: improving a child's attachment is the most powerful lever for improving later academic outcomes, far more important than infant nutrition, housing, the vocabulary richness of the home, etc.
    VIII. KIPP CHARTER SCHOOLS (Knowledge is Power Program) These charter schools were started in New York City for inner city kids and involved a new, immersive style of schooling, combining long days of high-energy, high-intensity classroom instruction with an elaborate program of attitude adjustment and behavior modification. Initially, the formula seemed to have worked: in 1999 the KIPP students earned the highest scores of any school in the Bronx and the fifth-highest in all of New York City. Unheard of. But longer term, the results of PIPP were not so clear-cut. Six years after their high-school graduation, just 21 percent of the KIPP initial class-- eight students-- had completed a four-year college degree. The problem: KIPP set up graduating students very well academically, but it didn't prepare them emotionally or psychologically. "We went from having that close-knit family, where everyone knew what you were doing, to high school, where there's no one on you." What the founder of KIPP (Levin) learned was that what his students needed, in addition to academic skills, what he called "character strengths"... like optimism and resilience. The trouble was that at that time in America, there was not an established curriculum or method for teaching character.... or even talking about it! Today, Levin's teachers use chants, songs and drills and the students wear T-shirts with the slogan "One School. One Mission. Two Skills. Academics and Character." Upshot: Levin has learned that character traits such as optimism are learnable skills and that these character skills are even more necessary for the under-privileged.
    IX. CHARACTER NEEDED EQUALLY BY CHILDREN OF THE WEALTHY. John F Kennedy and Robert F Kennedy once attended Riverdale School in New York City. Tuition in this school, just for prekindergarten, starts at $38,500 per year. It is the kind of school members of the establishment send their kids so they can learn to be members of the establishment. Yet the new headmaster at Riverdale believes the emphasis on tests and IQ "is missing out on some serious parts of what it means to be a successful human." That missing thing is character. "People who have an easy time of things, who get eight hundreds on their SATs, I worry that those people get feedback that everything they're doing is great. And I think as a result, we are actually setting them up for long-term failure." For underprivileged KIPP kids, the notion that character can help them get through college is a powerful lure, but for kids at schools like Riverdale, not so much. No Riverdale student ever doubts that he/she is going on to college and inevitable graduation. (`Every generation in my family did it'). So it's harder to get rich kids invested in this idea of character. Riverdale see a lot of "helicopter parents," always hovering around, ready to swoop in to rescue, but not necessarily, to bond.
    X. AFFLUENT TEENAGERS OFTEN HAVE MORE PROBLEMS WITH ALCOHOL, DRUGS AND DEPRESSION THAN LOW-INCOME TEENS. Studies show that children of affluent parents exhibit "unexpectedly high rates of emotional problems beginning in junior high school. And this is no accident of demographics. Wealthy parents today are more likely than others to be emotionally distant from their children while at the same time insisting on high levels of achievement, a potentially toxic blend of influences that can create "intense feelings of shame and hopelessness." Some studies have found that affluent teenagers use alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana, and harder illegal drugs more than the low-income teens. And because of emotional disconnection, affluent parents tend to be unusually indulgent of their children's bad behavior. Children of affluent parents don't have to put up with a lot of suffering. They don't have a threshold for it and, thus, inadvertently they are shielded from exactly the kind of experiences that can lead to character growth. 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.
    XI. CONSCIENTIOUSNESS. Human personality can be explored along 5 dimensions: agreeableness, extraversion, neuroticism, openness to experience, and conscientiousness. The most important of these from the standpoint of academic success is conscientiousness, the ability to respond well even in the absence of material incentives. Conscientiousness predicts many outcomes that go far beyond the workplace. People high in conscientiousness get better grades in high school and college; they commit fewer crimes; and they stay married longer. They live longer-- and not just because they smoke and drink less. They have fewer strokes, lower blood pressure, and a lower incidence of Alzheimer's disease. The people in society who value conscientiousness are not intellectuals, and they're not academics, and they're not liberals. They tend to be religious-right conservatives. Until very recently, academic researchers shunned conscientiousness; they preferred to study "openness to experience" because it's "cool" and it's about creativity. Most of the research on conscientiousness was done by consultants to resource managers in large corporations who found that IT was the trait that best predicted workplace success. But though it has no downsides, conscientiousness is not the only measure of human potentiality, nor the only word to encompass the concept.
    XII. "GRIT" AND THE 6 OTHER STRENGTHS OF HUMAN PERSONALITY. Grit is roughly defined as "a passionate commitment to a single mission and unswerving dedication to achieve that mission. A simple test (involving self-evaluation) has been developed and it is highly predictive of academic success. Grit is only faintly related to IQ; there are smart gritty people and some dumb gritty people. The educational authorities upon whom the author relies believe grit is the most important for education of the 7 dimensions of human character they have focused upon. Self-control, zest, social intelligence, gratitude, optimism and curiosity are the others.

    XIII. THE CRUCIAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN `WANTING' SOMETHING AND `CHOOSING' IT. When it comes to ambition, there is a crucial difference between volition and motivation. Between wanting to lose weight and choosing to be fit. Decide that you want to become world chess champion, and you will probably fail to put in the necessary hard work. If, however, you choose to become world champion, then you will reveal your choice through your behavior and your determination. Every action says, `This is who I am.' The author spent several years monitoring a woman public school chess coach who has had amazing success teaching NYC underprivileged black kids to become (often) nationally ranked chess players. One such kid gave up everything for more than a year to achieve his goal: no parties, no Facebook, no TV or ESPN. Talking about it later, this young man looked back on those months with not just pride in the result, but also pleasant memories of that monastic process. He contrasted this period of dedication with his previous feeling of being unchallenged, "Wasting his brain." Why not, he was asked, spend the same energy on something worthwhile like becoming a brain surgeon? Or something that will bring one material advantage? He answered in terms of aesthetics. The game of chess "is a celebration of existential freedom, in the sense that we are blessed with the opportunity to create ourselves through our actions. In choosing to play chess, we are celebrating freedom above utility. The same can be said of football, competitive swimming, etc..
    XIV. RULES, WILLPOWER, HABIT AND CHARACTER. Rules are not the same as willpower. They are a metacognitive substitute for willpower. By making yourself a rule ("I never eat fried dumplings"), you can sidestep the painful internal conflict between your desire and your willful determination to resist. Rules provide structure, preparing us for encounters with tempting stimuli and redirecting our attention elsewhere. Before long, the rules have become as automatic as the appetites they are deflecting. William James, the American philosopher and psychologist, wrote that the traits we call virtues are no more and no less than simple habits. Habit and character are essentially the same thing. Some kids have good habits and some bad; the trick for schools is to inculcate - in most of them - the good.
    XV. GROUP IDENTITY AND "STEREOTYPE THREAT." The human psyche is incredibly complex. Psychologists have demonstrated that group identity can have a powerful effect on achievement-- both a positive and a negative one. For example, poor disadvantaged kids going to KIPP charter schools are encouraged to play on the in-group/ out-group thing: `We know what SLANTing is and you don't know what SLANTing is, because you don't go to KIPP.' When white students at Princeton were told before trying a ten-hole mini golf course that it was a test of natural ability in sports (which they feared they didn't possess), they scored four strokes worse than a similar group of white students who were told it was a test of their ability to think strategically. For black students, the effect was the opposite: when they were told the mini golf course was a test of their strategic intelligence, their scores were four strokes worse. Before a challenging math test, female college students need only be reminded that they are female for them to do worse on the test than female students who don't receive that identity cue. The good news about stereotype threat is that, just as it can be triggered by subtle cues, it can be defused by subtle interventions.

    XVI. YOUNG ADULTS WITHOUT CHARACTER SKILLS DON'T HAVE MUCH ....BECAUSE CHARACTER IS WHAT KEEPS PEOPLE HAPPY AND SUCCESSFUL AND FULFILLED. Chess or athletics or an "A" in calculus, anything that one choses to accomplish, it doesn't matter. Per the author: "I think the worst thing is you look back on your childhood and it's one blur of sitting in class and being bored and coming home and watching TV." This is the all too common result for too many American children. In positive psychology "optimal experiences" are those rare moments in human existence when a person feels free of mundane distractions, in control of his fate, totally engaged by the moment. A word to describe this is flow. Flow moments occur "when a person's body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult or worthwhile." "There's joyousness to it. That's when you're happiest or that's when you're most you or that's when you feel your best. It's easy for naysayers - looking from the outside in - to deride your accomplishment; but for the child who has achieved, there's nothing else they'd rather do.

    XVII. CONCLUSION: WE NEED TO IMPROVE POOR CHILDREN'S ACADEMIC SKILLS AND OUTCOMES. Academic grades in school are very good predictors of all kinds of outcomes in life: not just how far you'll go in school and how much you'll earn when you get out, but also whether you'll commit crimes, whether you'll take drugs, whether you'll get married, and whether you'll get divorced. What The Bell Curve showed was that kids who do well in school tend to do well in life, whether or not they come from poverty. If we can help poor children improve their academic skills and academic outcomes, they can escape the cycle of poverty by virtue of their own abilities and without additional handouts or set-asides. But....according to a consensus of reform advocates, the challenge is that there are far too many underperforming teachers, especially in high-poverty schools.

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  • Reviewed in the United States on September 27, 2012
    I really like this book.

    Tough dug into real issues, talked to experts and explored their research, asking deep questions.

    Some of his conclusions were more feel good than fully explored, but that was rare! I learned so much about success and raising children. While I don't agree with everything realize that his research and sources are innovating in a developing field thus are still learning themselves. And his sources are both super smart and very committed thus even when they haven't fully come up with a final answer they lead you to follow the direction their research is going.

    One profound conclusion Tough makes (because I believe it myself) is that parents in the better schools are often setting their kids on a safe path but one that doesn't encourage innovation or risk. Yes! And so few writers are willing to point that out...and it limits the options long term for these "safe" kids who are facing a more rapidly evolving and more competitive world.

    Why four star and not five? I didn't always agree with the conclusions Tough makes from his research. But you should still buy the book and read every page! I'm just pointing out that it isn't all fact and readers should question his conclusions. A lot of the research is too new or limited, but is heavily valuable as it's so important and ground breaking. Readers just need to do an analysis as well, and judge for their own child or circumstances. So, for example, I've read the Charles Murray book he references, and disagree with how he characterizes Murray's point (to support his thesis). Murray does not claim that children who score poorly on standardized tests should not go to college. Rather he points out our high college drop out rate, especially for children who enter college unprepared, and suggests being realistic about what our child can accomplish. Not all will graduate (they don't). He then points out the best plumber will earn more and be happier than a mid range or less manager. So ,know your child and push them in their best direction; they will feel like failures if you set them up for goals they can't accomplish. Tough uses this Murray line in reference to a very determined young lady who does well her first year in college, despite her poor test score and scattered history...but only after she'd completed one year of college and didn't graduate! So, yes, I totally agree that kids like her should be given all support and opportunities; she's working and fighting hard to succeed. But, i think Murray would also agree and Tough mis-quotes him. One person's opinion.

    Great book, even if not perfect.
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  • -
    1.0 out of 5 stars No practical or summarized knowledge
    Reviewed in the Netherlands on January 28, 2024
    The book only and only contains excessively dramatized and unactionable stories with zero practical information. I was expecting more practical aspects and summarized research results instead.
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    Reviewed in India on May 21, 2023
    What a great insight to have as a human being.. this book could easily be renamed to 'how people succeed'..
  • Amazon Customer
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    Reviewed in Mexico on November 14, 2017
    This book is amazing. I really enjoyed it. I think all teachers must read it. I am a mexican teacher and i think someone should translate it in order to make it accesible for non-english speakers.
  • Vero
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent read
    Reviewed in Spain on December 2, 2016
    I discovered through this book some outstanding researches on how stress in early childhood can influence later their character and learning skills. A great book full of good references and very easy to read.
  • Terence
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    Reviewed in Australia on February 27, 2018
    Useful book