Can Grit Save American Education?

In education, grit has become a buzzword that has permeated the American education system.

But should we even be teaching it?

What about the disadvantaged child who believes if he is just “grittier,” he can eventually overcome the socioeconomic obstacles in his path to success? What happens if the success he imagined never comes to fruition?

These questions are explored in this long-but-good article entitled “Can Grit Save American Education?

Here are my thoughts:

Yes, the concept of grit should be taught!

From the article:

Stefanie DeLuca, a sociologist at Johns Hopkins University, sees grit’s academic value and defends teaching it in schools. (“Learning how to be persistent at an unpleasant task, it’s hard to argue that doesn’t matter,” she says.)

The value of grit and the growth mindset seem to be self-evident in my opinion.

From the Bible:

…because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us…

Aren’t researchers, most notably Angela Duckworth and Carol Dweck, simply just highlighting an age-old universal truth?

Humanity loves the underdog, the person (or character) who overcomes incredible odds, who presses on despite the suffering, despite the struggle, to go on and succeed. Why?

Because it gives us hope.

HOPE.

And besides hope being the Christmas message, isn’t hope the underlying message of education? Hope for a better life, hope for a better future, hope for a better world.

Also from the article:

But ultimately DeLuca worries about where the public conversation is going. “On the one hand, there’s a hopefulness that grit offers us. It’s an American narrative that’s really appealing, and it tells us that poor kids are not lost causes,” says DeLuca, who notes that too many policymakers just give up on kids in poverty. “But what happens with really popular ideas that have simple and compelling solutions is that you can run with them, and if things don’t change, then you start to think things can’t ever change.”

This is where another valued biblical, and universal, truth comes into play.

WISDOM.