[Vision2020] Reading, Math and Grit

[Gier, Nicholas]

Hi Wayne,

I also thank you for this post.  When I added a final unit on virtue ethics to my ethics course, it became the more popular part of the course for many of my students.  I joined their enthusiasm and made it my own personal ethics. 

Before I decided to focus on finishing my book on origins of religious violence, I made several forays into Idaho school districts testing the interest in character education in the schools.  I received one strong lead from Kellogg, but the teachers there could not get the necessary funding for the workshops that I wanted to do.

This column and the book mentioned has stirred by interest once again.

By the way, the Germans have their own word for "grit."  It is Sitzfleish, that essential piece of flesh between one's behind and the chair. A student can have the highest aptitude in the world, but she or he cannot go anywhere without Sitzfleish.

Nick 


A society grows great when old men plant the seeds of trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in. 

-Greek proverb



-----Original Message-----
From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com on behalf of Art Deco
Sent: Sat 9/8/2012 2:42 PM
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: [Vision2020] Reading, Math and Grit
 
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------------------------------
September 7, 2012
Reading, Math and Grit By JOE NOCERA

Early in his acceptance
speech<http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/president-obama-dnc-speech-full-transcript-article-1.1153851>Thursday
night, President Obama gave a nod to his administration's backing
of education reform. "Some of the worst schools in the country have made
real gains in math and reading," he said, calling on the country to add
100,000 math and science teachers in the next decade. Then he moved on to
other topics, like foreign policy and
Medicare<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/medicare/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier>,
that he clearly views as more vital to the campaign as it enters the home
stretch.

It is hardly a surprise that education isn't a heated subject in the
presidential race. Not when the economy is still sluggish, and the fight
over the role of government so central. Besides, Republicans and Democrats
alike have tried to fix education: George W. Bush with "No Child Left
Behind<http://www.edweek.org/ew/issues/no-child-left-behind/>,"
and Obama with his administration's "Race to the
Top<http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/fact-sheet-race-top>."
Those "real gains" notwithstanding, progress remains fitful and
frustrating. Too many disadvantaged children remain poorly educated. Too
many high school graduates don't attend - or drop
out<http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/03/why-do-so-many-americans-drop-out-of-college/255226/>-
of college, which has become the prerequisite for a middle-class
existence.

Which is why the publication of a new book, entitled "How Children
Succeed<http://www.hmhbooks.com/howchildrensucceed/index.html>,"
written by Paul Tough, a former editor of the Times Magazine, is such a
timely reminder that education remains the country's most critical issue.
In "How Children Succeed," Tough argues that simply teaching math and
reading - the so-called cognitive skills - isn't nearly enough, especially
for children who have grown up enduring the stresses of poverty. In fact,
it might not even be the most important thing.

Rather, tapping into a great deal of recent research, Tough writes that the
most important things to develop in students are "noncognitive skills,"
which Tough labels as "character." Many of the people who have done the
research or are running the programs that Tough admires have different ways
of expressing those skills. But they are essentially character traits that
are necessary to succeed not just in school, but in life. Jeff Nelson, who
runs a program in partnership with 23 Chicago high schools called
OneGoal<http://www.onegoalgraduation.org/formerly-us-empowered/>,
which works to improve student achievement and helps students get into
college, describes these traits as "resilience, integrity, resourcefulness,
professionalism and ambition." "They are the linchpin of what we do,"
Nelson told me. Nelson calls them "leadership skills." Tough uses the word
"grit" a lot.

On some level, these are traits we all try to instill in our children.
(Indeed, Tough devotes a section of his book to the anxiety of many
upper-middle-class parents that they are failing in this regard.) But poor
children too often don't have parents who can serve that role. They develop
habits that impede their ability to learn. Often they can't even see what
the point of learning is. They act indifferently or hostile in school,
though that often masks feelings of hopelessness and anxiety.

What was most surprising to me was Tough's insistence, bolstered by his
reporting, that character is not something you have to learn as a small
child, or are born with, but can be instilled even in teenagers who have
had extraordinarily difficult lives and had no previous grounding in these
traits. We get to meet a number of children who, with the help of a program
or a mentor who stresses character, have turned their lives around
remarkably. We meet Dave Levin, the founder of KIPP <http://www.kipp.org/>,
perhaps the best charter
school<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/c/charter_schools/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier>chain
in the country, whose earliest graduates run into problems when they
get to college - only 21 percent of them had graduated after six years,
according to Tough - and then begins stressing character traits to turn
things around.

And we also meet Nelson, the founder of OneGoal, which takes disadvantaged
students when they are juniors in high school - most of whom believe that
college is an unattainable goal - and transforms them into responsible
young adults who can succeed in good universities. OneGoal has a "persistence
rate <http://www.onegoalgraduation.org/onegoal-results/>," as Nelson calls
it, of 85 percent, meaning that that's the percentage of students from
OneGoal who are making their way through college. (The program hasn't been
around long enough to have a graduation rate.) By comparison, nationally,
around only 8 percent of the poorest students ever graduate from college.
Nelson told me that OneGoal is expanding to Houston next year, and it hopes
to be in five cities by 2017.

I hope it happens. Tough's book is utterly convincing that if disadvantaged
students can learn the noncognitive skills that will allow them to persist
in the face of difficulties - to reach for a goal even though it may off in
the distance, to strive for something - they can achieve a better life.

It is easy to get discouraged about the state of education in America.
Maybe that's why the presidential candidates aren't stressing it. Which is
the other thing about "How Children Succeed." It's a source of optimism.


-- 
Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)
art.deco.studios at gmail.com

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