I am
increasingly hearing the term "grit" thrown around in relation to
education. In January 2014, Michelle
Obama elaborated on the concept
(http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2014/01/16/first-lady-michelle-obama-hosts-discussion-education). Discussing some of the obstacles she managed
to overcome in life, she said, "It is not your circumstances that define
your future--it's you attitude. It's your
commitment. You decide how high you set
your goals. You decide how hard you're
going to work for those goals. You
decide how you're going to respond when something doesn't go your way"
(http://thegrio.com/2013/11/13/michelle-obama-the-ambassador-of-grit/). True
Grits...to some extent.
Foremost of
the authors of "grit," Paul Tough penned How Children
Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden
Power of Character. He associates "grit" with personal
characteristics such as perseverance, determination, optimism, self-control or
delayed gratification, conscientiousness and resilience. It may be cultivated by inspirational
mentors in young people's lives.
Proponents of "grit" argue that it is far more relevant to
success than I.Q.
Off hand, I
am all in favor of these traits, but the fuzziness of it all is frightening. In her blog, Dr. Diane Ravitch mentions current
federal plans to develop metrics to quantify grit
(http://dianeravitch.net/2014/02/05/clarifying-the-washington-post-account-of-what-i-said-in-d-c/). If that's the case, then I'm sick of my
serving of grits, too. Surely, they
can't be serious. Furthermore, I'm a
little worried because nine times out of ten, when I see an image of grit
(aside from the Southern breakfast food), someone has a gun in hand.
Similarly
alarming, this fixation on "grit" is reminiscent of old admonitions
to pull oneself up by one's bootstraps. It
seems like a cost-effective and relatively painless solution to widespread
poverty. It seems like a blanket
condemnation, blaming the victims of poverty.
And the solution to all their problems, well, let's just call it "Quick
Grits": Poverty stems mainly from lack
of initiative; go gritify yourself! And
just that easily, the need for further soul-searching for other possible,
perhaps more painful, solutions becomes no longer pressing.
How will
grit be measured? Apparently, Paul
Tough, the foremost author on "grit," followed a bumpy road, by
standard interpretations, to success. Twenty-seven
years ago, he dropped out of Columbia University. Tough (what a great name for an author on
"grit") says that many researchers have "identified dropping out
of high school or college as a symptom of substandard non-cognitive
ability: low grit, low perseverance, bad
planning skills." He certainly had some
kind of grit though. After quitting
Columbia, as a solitary rider, he cycled from Atlanta to Halifax. He failed to complete college, but succeeded
by building his career upon a successful internship at Harper's Magazine.
How should
we measure Paul Tough's "grit"?
Do we measure it by his ultimate success as a writer and the fact that his
theories are touted by the White House's educational "brain
trust"? Do we measure it by his
epic bike ride? Depending upon the time
at which we attempt to take our measurements, we may get wildly different
readings. The gritometer swings wildly
to and fro. Is "grit" akin to
a self-fulfilling prophecy? If you have
it, then you've succeeded. If you've
failed, then you must have lacked it.
Opportunity
and luck as well as amiable social traits seem far more relevant than
"grit" in my mind. Off hand,
there does not seem to be too much more important than the expansion of
economic opportunities, allowing for a broader middle class. In the era of the Great Depression, so many
people had what you might call "grit." I would call it the desire to find work to
feed one's family and to work a job that could add dignity to one's life. All the "grit" in the world doesn't
amount to much, if the doors of opportunity are shutting before you or being
outsourced. Witnessing increases in
poverty rates, and threatened state pensions going hand in hand with more subsidies
for the privileged, the middle-class seems besieged.
If
opportunities are available, then, beyond a doubt, something akin to "grit"
may help out, but one cannot underestimate the importance of knowing the right
people, social networks, and finding oneself in the right place at the right
time. Schools must build the academic skills
and knowledge base of their students, but they must also help build the social
skills necessary for survival and success.
If opportunities are not available, "grit," and most everything else, won't amount to a
hill of beans.
Can we
relate "grit" to the 70% failure rate of N.Y.S. students on
Common-Core tests last Spring? Students did
have to endure excessively long sessions of test-taking and, I suppose, this
entailed "grit." Did 70% fail
because they lacked "grit"?
Or, did they fail for reasons outside their control? Did they fail because the present SED powers
in Albany decided that parents should be shell-shocked because only then might
panic lead to a push for educational deformity?
Who could have guessed that the parents would show True Grit by lashing
back at Commissioner King and Meryl Tisch.
If mentors
foster "grit," how can teachers accomplish this as they march
students along with test prep? How many
favorite teachers prep to perfection?
According to theories of "grit," the 70% who failed in N.Y.S. must
pick themselves up, wipe off the mud and trudge on with solid determination
towards the next test. Are children
supposed to have this type of grit? How
many will prep themselves harder for the next test and how many will try no
more? How many will see the endless test
prep as pointless? How many will climb a
bicycle and cycle half way across the country and later write a book?
So, do I
have "grit" or don't I? How
would I measure it? I've run five New
York City Marathons. Does that entitle
me, in and of itself, to the title of "grit maven"? Running those marathons seemed right at the
time, but doubtless incomprehensible to others.
I walked across the finish line of a 5K with a stress fracture --which just seemed to be a very sore foot at the time. Than probably wasn't really "grit" so much as plain, old stupid. The next year, I participated in the same local race, won first overall among the females and the top raffle prize. Today, I have other priorities, immeasurable in miles. I've met defeat at points in my life and I've
felt things happen for a reason. So, I
suppose I lack grit for accepting some failures and turning down other roads. One thing is unquestionable though: Ultimately, I believe anyone who makes a
career of teaching in a public school probably has a great deal of
"grit," especially if they've survived the Bloomberg era, bloody, but
unbowed.
When I
listen to Angela Lee Duckworth on TED who left marketing to teach and then left
teaching to then develop psychocrud about "grit," I have to wonder if
she could have survived until retirement as a career teacher in the classroom,
helping, hands on, New-York-City children.
Teaching surely isn't for everyone, but to leave the profession and start
handing out "grit questionnaires" to public-school children in
Chicago, West Point and the national spelling bee seems somehow lame. So, while she effuses over "growth
mindset" and earns praise in some circles, I'd rather try my best to
motivate young minds without the benefit of pop psych. I hope the government will stop seeking to quantify
"grit" by applying its own warped definitions of success. Let the government turn its attention to more
pressing concerns instead. I would tell
the government: "slap some bacon on
a biscuit and let's go. We're burning
daylight." No more False Grit,
please.
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