If parents still believe that the most important factors that determine a child's success are 20% IQ and 80% emotional intelligence, it is out. In recent years, the entire American pedagogical community has been swept away by a new educational concept, that is, Grit (grit).
The original meaning of the word Grit in Old English is gravel, that is, hard and wear-resistant particles in sand piles.
In 2010, the Coen brothers remade John Wayne's old film True Grit, which was nominated for an Academy Award, in which Jeff Bridgers, who played deputy law enforcement officer Rooster Cogburn, won the Academy Award for Best Actor that year. The film, which tells the story of a 14-year-old girl who avenges her father all her life, was originally titled "True Courage" and is widely translated in China as "Earth Thunder".
The film also inspired the education community. Asian-American psychologist Angela Lee Duckworth, an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania, renamed his research, originally titled "Self-discipline outdoes IQ in predicting academic performance of adolescents," which was renamed Grit Research.
Grit can be translated as "perseverance", but its meaning is far richer than perseverance, diligence, and strength. Grit is a continuous passion and endurance for long-term goals, a personality trait that embraces self-motivation, self-discipline and self-adjustment.
If you meet a kid who "can be very engaged in doing something for a long time," this is Grit. "Staying true to long-term goals, staying true to your passions, and being able to persevere even after failure is called perseverance," Angela Duckworth defined Grett in a 2013 TED talk.
Since 2005, Angela Duckworth has been studying the role of character in success. She surveyed thousands of high school students and followed the West Point Military Academy, the national scrabble champion, the country's top universities and other observations and analysis, and found that in any case, perseverance is the most reliable indicator of success compared to intelligence, academic performance or looks.
Under this social trend, many schools in the United States have introduced new curricula, such as Long Beach Middle School in California, creating a new classroom culture - allowing children to face more struggles and adventures in learning, rather than just getting the right answers. In their view, IQ is innate, and perseverance is something that everyone can develop. Parents and schools still have a lot of room to help the child develop a strong character that will help him succeed in any field in the future.
The Current Situation and Reflections on Education in the United States
Cognitive skills development VS personality trait qualities
Like Chinese parents, American parents are now in a state of extreme anxiety. In major U.S. cities, wealthy parents compete with each other for admission to their favorite kindergartens, almost to the point of madness. Each year, this competition seems to start earlier and to a more intense degree. The Grit education that has swept the United States is re-brainwashing American parents. Like Chinese parents Jackie Chan, American parents are anxious about the competition their children face in the future.
This anxiety in parents stems fundamentally from the assumption that success in the United States today depends mostly on cognitive skills such as IQ, and the best way to develop these skills is to start practicing as many and as early as possible. Why are many parents afraid that their children will "lose at the starting line"? The reason is that parents' anxiety comes from a hypothesis: the future competition is the competition of cognitive skills represented by IQ.
This cognitive assumption clearly has some reluctance. The world it describes is believed to be "linear" and therefore helps children learn knowledge, increase skills, earn academic qualifications, obtain certificates... All of this is to increase the success of children on this linear track, that is, there will be output when there is input, for example: the more math problems a three-year-old child has done, the better the math score in elementary school.
In recent years, experts in a variety of fields, such as economists, educators, psychologists, and neuroscientists, have questioned this cognitive hypothesis. They generally believe that the most important factor in determining a child's success is not how much knowledge we instill in the young child, but whether we can help the child develop a series of important qualities, such as perseverance, self-control, curiosity, responsibility, courage and self-confidence, which will affect their life.
Grit ushered in the era of character education
What quotient is less important than character
What is the most important part of education? How to cultivate to help children succeed?
In the past, people mainly focused on intellectual development, believing that the amount of knowledge mastered directly determined the child's academic and career performance and whether they could win in the future social competition. The concept of emotional intelligence perfected by American psychologist Daniel Goldman pointed out that less than 20% of children's future academic performance, career achievement, and happiness in life depend on IQ, and the rest is mostly determined by emotional intelligence. Positive Psychology proposes seven indicators that are the "seven secret weapons" that predict a child's future success. The seven metrics are: Grit Grit, Zest Passion, Self-control Self-control Self-Control, Optimism Optimism, Gratitude Gratitude, Social Intelligence Social Intelligence, and Curiosity Curiosity.
Emotional intelligence is only a part of social intelligence, and IQ is completely excluded from these "seven secret weapons". Personality education based on positive psychology does not believe in the genetic origin theory of "IQ determinism" and "human fate and destiny", and believes that children are malleable in acquired education. If parents, teachers, etc. can set an example and example for children, children can be trained to become successful people in the future.
David Levin, a follower of character education and founder of the KIPP School in the United States, has made Grit the core concept of education. Kipp, which has 162 school chains in 20 states across the United States, evaluates students one by one on seven educational indicators, including Grit. Angela Lee Duckworth, the founder of grit research, is one of the school's collaborators, and she sees Grit as the most important of all seven metrics.
Grit education warns us that the most important factor in determining a child's success is not how much knowledge we instill in our children, but whether we help them acquire seven important character traits, led by Grit. Specifically, it doesn't matter whether a six-year-old knows that 3+2=5 is not important at all, what matters is whether he is willing to try again after answering 3+2=4 for the first time until he gets the right answer. We should teach our children not how fast to run, but to get up and keep running after falling, even if they are the last.
Why American society is so focused on perseverance
Today's children face less failure
Today's American children, especially those who grew up in privileged environments, grow up facing fewer failures than ever before. Of course, they also learn to work hard and are often under pressure. But in fact, their education has been easier and smoother than any previous generation, and many of them have successfully graduated from college without facing major challenges. Students are overprotected at home and at school and rarely encounter hardship, so they rarely have the opportunity to develop critical competencies to overcome setbacks.
As early as 2012, Stanford University psychology professor Carol Dweck and New York Times editor Paul Tuhe's book "The Power of Character: Courage, Curiosity, Optimism and the Future of Children" has brought the educational concept of "cultivating a strong character" into everyone's vision.
In 2013, Angela Duckworth, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, gave a talk at TED that drew unprecedented attention to "fortitude" in the education community, and Professor Angela Duckworth and her team even developed tools to measure the "grit index."
Many people who advertise American education do not realize that American children actually face the same problem as Chinese children, that is, today, when the standard of living is higher and education is easier, children face less failure than in the past, and after entering society, in the face of global competition in the Internet age, children do not know how to face failure than in the past. Nowadays, whoever says that "failure is the mother of success" seems to be old-fashioned, but in fact, today's American educators are precisely "old tunes and new bullets", and they have taken out these "old ancestral traditions".
At present, under the influence of Grit's concept of education, many schools in the United States are revising their curricula. Long Beach Middle School in California, for example, encourages children to take more risks in their studies than just get the right answers.
What should parents do?
A few proven methods
How parents should shape their children's gritty character, Professor Angela Duckworth suggests some proven practices:
True success often happens when people break through boundaries and barriers. If your child has never had the opportunity to overcome some difficulties, he may never have the confidence to face the challenge. Experiencing adventures and obstacles is an important way for children to learn.
Give your child the opportunity to pursue at least one difficult thing. It is best to have strict discipline and rules and require long-term practice. For example, piano, ballet. It doesn't matter how you do it, it's about trying as hard as you can. In the process, the child may be anxious, but when she overcomes the obstacles, she will truly fall in love with the matter and find the motivation and confidence to persevere from the heart.
Many people believe that talent is innate, and what we are good at or not is due to talent. This can lead to the habit of giving up easily. In fact, even geniuses need to hone their talents through unremitting efforts.
One of Angela Duckworth's house rules: Don't end up in moments that feel bad. Giving up immediately at the moment of setback can mean you'll miss your best moments – like finally scoring a winning goal or hearing thunderous applause at the end of a show.
So Professor Duckworth insisted that her two daughters (ages 9 and 11) stick to everything they did, and this exercise made them realize that there were some discomforts and obstacles to overcome during the learning process, which was a natural thing.
No one wants to be the kind of parent who always pushes their child to improve, but it does help your child know what you expect and helps him do his best. Push your child at the right time as you learn any new skill: make a schedule, then encourage your child to stick with it and practice it over and over again.
"I haven't heard of a child who is completely automatically 'on chain.'" Professor Duckworth says there's nothing wrong with setting a certain amount of practice time every day, and while your child may complain, if you're determined, his complaints will diminish and the fun of practicing will increase day by day.
Success rarely occurs on the first attempt. In fact, it's usually a pretty long journey and fraught with hardships and obstacles. Confused, frustrated, and even bored, these are all part of the journey. However, if children understand that having trouble learning doesn't mean they're stupid, they'll have more perseverance to persevere.
Instead of giving your child a solution when he's having trouble, see if he can figure it out on his own. Suppress the urge to help him. If it's clear that he's in a confused state, talk to him like, "It looks like you're really having trouble, do you think there's anything you can do to fix it?" Inspire him to think of a solution on his own, rather than telling him directly what to do. This kind of exercise makes children develop a kind of self-confidence – "Hey, I can solve it myself." ”
Reprinted from Wenhui Education