How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character

How do children succeed? Is there one thing that boils down to? Is there one magic formula to ensure success for children? This is what Paul Tough explores in his book, How Children Succeed. In particular, he closely examines the aspects of character, including grit, curiosity, self-control, and 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 story. Reading Tough’s book really helped me to do a self-analysis of what I considered to be “character”. There is a lot of discussion throughout the text about character and what exactly that boils down to, and what indicators of character could be. Tough described several professionals and they had various lists of traits that together formed character. I found this interesting and was intrigued by that which I had never really considered. I have used the term of character before, but I had not done enough self-reflection to determine what, exactly, I was referring to when I said that. After reading, I have more ideas but I think I need more time for self-reflection to be able to determine my own personal idea of character, and how that definition and those traits are impacting my teaching and my students. Character was the big theme of the text, but there was more to the book than just that. I really liked how each chapter in this book had it’s own feel but still built upon the previous chapters. Chapter one is entitled “How to Fail (and How Not To)”. This part of the book explores a school, Fenger, and the students and administrator of the school. Using this, Tough gives us an introduction to trauma scale (ACE), stress systems, and executive functioning skills, among other things. He also introduces us to students who have shown that they can overcome circumstances. Brain research is a heavy theme in this opening chapter. Chapter two is entitled “How to Build Character”. Here is where Tough spends a lot of time introducing us to professionals and their ideas and research on character. He introduces us to David Levin, who came up with the idea of a character report card, and goes through the process of this becoming reality. It is in this chapter, too, that Tough examines affluence. Typically, affluent students are thought to have less troubles than students who are in poverty situations, but Tough shows that although they do not have the same troubles, there are other obstacles they face and that has a different impact on character development. For example, these students might experience a greater pressure to be successful, which an create a feeling of distress. Next the narrative switches to an examination of chess and character in chapter three, “How to Think”. 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 takes it beyond the game itself. She ingrains in her students a way of thinking via her chess education. Chapter four, “How to Succeed”, examines college and the path from high school to college. It turns out the greatest indicator of college graduation is a high school GPA, and not because it reflects a student’s mastery of content; rather, a GPA is more a reflection of character skills. In this chapter as well, we are introduced to the organization OneGoal, which is based in Chicago and the goal is to help students find, apply, and be accepted to appropriately matched colleges. Tough goes over this program and also takes us through one student’s journey in this chapter. The book ends with chapter five, “A Better Path”. The chapter begins with a bomb-drop moment of Tough revealing to the reader that he himself was a college drop out. Here he goes into a self-analysis with you, the reader. Then he turns the narrative to his son that the introduced you to in the book’s introduction, and the way that his parenting choices can impact his child’s character. Here, Tough makes a lot of personal connections back to the research he shared with us in chapter one. Finally, Tough spends time here looking at poverty and education. As a teacher, I felt this book was a good read for me. I teach kindergarten at a Title One school, and while reading Tough’s book, I was able to make connections to situations and students I have had. In particular, the overall theme of character I think is important and influential to teachers. 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. Not only do I think I have a better grasp on the concept of character for my students, but I also think I can examine my own character more closely, such as Tough did in the final chapter. While reading, I had an idea of things I was good at and other traits came up that I knew I was not so good at. These character traits I am not exactly strong are areas I can be cognizant of and be proactive about. Self-control is an example of a character trait that I am strong in but I am lacking in grit, which I would attribute to a lack of challenge in childhood. I would definitely 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. How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character by Paul Tough is $15.95, 231 pages long, and published by Mariner Books: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Even as I was reading "How Children Succeed" I was wondering if this is not really the most important book in the world. Based upon scientific research the book gives clear guidelines on how we can make every child a worthy citizen of the world. Isn't this the greatest thing that could happen to mankind? The gist of the book concludes that rather than academics, if parents and schools were to focus on developing the character in a child, the child will be successful in life. In other words, though we think that academic excellence leads to holistic success, actually it is character which leads to both. When two things happen together we usually think that one is the cause of the other, but it might be that both are the effect of a yet unknown cause (in this case character). Character attributes to be inculcated from childhood are - self control, managing emotions, ability to delay gratification, curiosity, conscientiousness, grit (determination to succeed despite failures) Character is malleable. If we teach children to pay attention to character, their character will improve. It's not that some children are good and some are bad. Some children have good habits and some have bad habits. The book talks about an almost one-on-one relationship between stress caused by Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) and negative adult outcomes. Stress could be because of family turmoil, low level of maternal attachment, high level of parental criticism, isolation from parents - both physical and emotional. Stress causes damage to a child's development because the human body is in a perpetual state of high alert leading to wear and tear of internal organs. On a positive note, high quality mothering can counter the effect of unavoidable stress. Hearteningly, it has been scientifically proven that a spontaneous motherly cuddle can actually eliminate the damaging effects of stress. The book has many more valuable insights and I recommend it to everyone. The importance of the book is not just for parents. It is for the entire adult community who can use this knowledge to build a better society. [...]

Paul Tough's conclusions can be summed up very briefly: - the biggest obstacle to academic & life success is a home & a community that create high levels of stress, and the absence of a secure relationship with a caregiver that would allow a child to manage stress; - non-cognitive skills, like conscientiousness, grit, resilience, perseverance and optimism are more important than cognitive skills for young people to succeed in life; - character matters; as the author points out, conservatives are right about this. But character is molded by the environment and as a society we can do a lot to influence its development in children; as the author points out, liberals are right about this. "We now know a great deal about what kind of interventions will help children develop those strengths and skills, starting at birth and going all the way through college." (p. 196). To get to those conclusions the author takes the reader on a very interesting journey, and that is what makes the book superb. It is well written and a treasure throve of scientific insights and cutting edge research, with moving stories about students, teachers and schools that make the science alive. Mr. Tough introduces the reader to innovative interventions for children and adolescents while painting insightful portraits of the people at the forefront in the quest to develop (or at least not squander) the human capital of this nation. I felt the author's position was very balanced. While looking for successes in his reporting, he does not shy away from highlighting the difficulties and the unknown: e.g., he puts the early successful KIPP's results into perspective, with the good, the bad and what can be done differently; you got a sense this topic is still a work in progress; he makes it very clear that "No one [author's emphasis] has found a reliable way to help deeply disadvantaged children, in fact."(p. 193). But overall there is a sense that, in the end, we will figure it out. A sense of possibility. For passion and for work I read a lot of books about psychology, neuroscience & leadership / personal development. I always learn a lot. But this book is different. Not only did I learn a lot. I was also moved. I was totally absorbed and emotionally involved in the stories of the kids the author features in his narrative. Mr Tough says that when he spent time with these young people he felt "a sense of anger for what they've already missed." I felt the same way - and that goes to his credit. I almost feel as if I personally know little James Black or Kewauna. I did get mad on their behalf. Mr. Tough also says he had a second reaction: "a feeling of admiration and hope when I watch young people making the difficult and often painful choice to follow a better path, to turn away from what might have seemed like their inevitable destiny." (p. 197). That is what I felt as well - again, to Mr. Tough's credit. I am already doing some volunteer work with Big Brothers, Big Sisters. But you get sucked in the local situation and your horizons get narrower. Reading this book widened my perspective and made me fully appreciate the depth of the problem but also the promise of better days to come if we embrace a new way to tackle it. So I made the resolution to get more involved next year. Here is my recommendation: read the book. You will learn a lot - about neuroscience, about parenting, about teaching and about what makes people successful. You will meet some young people who deserve all of our respect and admiration. Hopefully, you will be moved as well to do something, even a little tiny bit, to make a difference.

A large amount of the success of children is placed on the shoulders of teachers. Teachers are responsible for the academic achievement of their students and it was previously believed that academic success translated into success in life. Paul Tough did an extensive amount of research in various school environments to determine if that was true. Through the research he concluded that although academic success is a positive for young students, it does not necessarily equal life success. He found that social emotional responsiveness, grit, and excellent character traits are better predictors of success in life. I recently read How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character written by Paul Tough. This book was fairly inexpensive when purchased through Amazon coming in at around $10. Tough published the book with Houghton Mifflin in 2012. The book is approximately 200 pages long, with additions of the Introduction and citations. Tough went on to write additional books examining why children succeed after this book was published. I thoroughly enjoyed this read and would highly recommend it to any teachers or others looking to expand their knowledge of childhood development. This book was packed with research and information about the science behind child success and how that success translates to their adult lives. There were some parts of the book that were extremely difficult to read and were slow, for back of a better way to describe it. Despite this, I still found this book to be extremely interesting and informative. I have already recommended it to a large number of my colleagues. The guiding question featured in How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character is “Why do some children fail while others succeed?” This question is asked and answered many times throughout the duration of the book. Tough has determined that success in adulthood has a lot to do with the items listed in the title of the book; grit, curiosity, and character. He interviews and observes successful individuals and individuals that might be struggling to determine the correlation. According to Tough, the lack of those skills is directly linked to childhood poverty and childhood trauma. Individuals that have a higher ACE score tend to show that later in life with their successes and failures. Although childhood trauma can be a predictor of success in adulthood, with the presence of certain character traits, children and adults can overcome those adverse childhood experiences. This book examined the character traits necessary for success. It looked at successful people and determined what they all had in common. Tough examined schools that historically produce successful adults and the schools that historically do not. The practices of the schools were examined to determine what was taking place to produce successful adults. This success primarily centered around effective character education. The schools that had effective and reflective character education produced more successful adults. The students produced by these schools had more social emotional awareness which lead to more grit, curiosity, and overall character. Overall, I would highly recommend this book to all individuals in the education profession or any individuals that work directly with children. I learned a lot from this book that I will be able to take into my classroom to better serve my students in the future. This book altered my perspective on what it means to be successful and how to acquire that success. It has changed my view on teaching significantly. It is not enough to simply focus on academic subjects and gains in the classroom. 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 in life.

How Children Succeed (Paul Tough, 2012) sparked an interest within me as a teacher and new mom. The title made me question myself in both of my roles; am I doing enough to help both my students and my son succeed? I knew this book was a must read for me. However, I must admit I am truly left feeling unsatisfied and still as curious as I was before reading How Children Succeed. Tough writes using a journalist style approach. He focuses his research on how best to help children in three categories of grit, curiosity, and character. The main focus of the book is that knowledge is not going to be the be all end all that gets poverty stricken children to what he determines as success. Tough’s classification for success is graduating college, marriage, and income levels. I questioned this though, who is to say that that is what makes someone successful? Not every child has to attend higher education. That is why we have, in so many high schools career tech classes that allow them to be completed and into the job force after high school graduation. More so, Tough focuses on the fact that these children need to be taught grit and how to stick it out when the going gets tough. He also focuses on the fact that teachers should be teaching grit along with different character strengths. The strengths of kindness and resilience. If a student can have those strengths they are on a path towards success. I found his arguments to be two-fold though. He often mentioned the results of the home life and how the support at home is the most importance. His research did not have hard evidence that grit taught at school is truly working or successful. As a parent, I feel like I am setting my son up to succeed as I am teaching him love, patient, hard work and determination. However, as a teacher, I almost feel like Tough’s arguments that teaching grit, character, and curiosity outweigh the academic portion of school and that his emphasis was solely focused on character skills to help children. I personally believe that just character skills and strengths are not going to be enough to push a student on to higher education, we saw this in his own research with a few students. Kewauna really struggled to get into college with a low ACT score and James Black did not get into a particular high school because his knowledge was not high enough. I liked that Tough did question whether or not if Black had spent as much time daily on knowledge that he did on chess would he have been accepted into the high school he wanted? This is what I wanted more so, what can we do academically to continue pushing our students. I do believe that character skills are important though and they are something that I focus on with my own students. I teach them daily skills that will help them in life no matter what they do post high school (I teach elementary level). I enjoyed reading the different personal stories of the children that Tough used as his examples throughout his research. Kewauna’s story was one that resonated with me in showing that the program worked for her, in the long run. She really needed to be taught how to never give up and to believe in herself. Had she not been taught those things she would have never even made it on to college. I also enjoyed reading how not only did she learn the meaning of grit and hard work she learned exactly what to do once she got to college when the going got hard again. I feel like far too often even in middle class high schools the counselors and teachers get the students enrolled in college and universities, but they never prepare them for the difficulties they will face. My main take away from Tough’s research is to keep teaching what we call the “hidden curriculum” because far too often students are not learning it at home. Make the time to get to know your students deeper than just on an academic level and show them that someone really cares about them and believes in them. For some students, having this mentor will be the change they need to find success. That way when the going does get tough they know they have someone in their court, that will support them and help them through the adversities they are bound to face, even if that person is not at home with them.

I sought out this book after reading a long article in the New York Times magazine that introduced the subject of the book. Tough is a journalist who provides a very readable, compelling, and informative overview of a very interesting topic. He cites psychological research that identifies 24 key character skills (I would call them "life skills or habits") which influence the success of individuals over their lives much more than any academic or trade skills and knowledge. Tough wraps the narrative around stories of two school leaders, one from a very exclusive and expensive private school and one from a KIPP Charter School serving disadvantaged kids, who work together to incorporate these skills into their schools.. Both of them noted that improving the academic grades and competencies of their students was not a good predictor of their success in college and in life. They end up working with psychologists at the University of Pennsylvania, I believe, to home in on the seven character skills that are most determinate of future success. The KIPP school leader creates a character report card that is now used in KIPP schools along with traditional report cards, with encouraging outcomes. The elite school leader does his best to incorporate the ideas into his school, but is not able to explicitly teach "character" because the parents don't see that as a role of schools. I would encourage every educator to read this book. The book makes a compelling argument that the learning described here could make a big difference to help students overcome many of the issues that are bred by the dysfunctions in today's society. And those dysfunctions are responsible for much of the "failures" attributed to schools today. This is not really about character in terms of being a good person. Rather, it is about habits of successful people such as grit, persistence, determination, social awareness, etc. For that reason, I would not use the term "character," which can attract controversy. Nevertheless, the book provides enough understanding to begin to structure these life habits into a regular school curriculum. Highly recommended!

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.

The question I selected as a title for this review is one of several to which Paul Tough responds in this book. The titles of the first four chapters suggest others: How to Fail (and How Not to), How to Build Character, How to Think, and finally, How to Succeed. According to an ancient Africa an aphorism, it takes a village to raise a child. In the Introduction, Tough briefly discusses several research studies whose findings have had a great impact on child development in the U.S. (especially in public schools), for better or worse. He asserts that "conventional wisdom about child development over the past two decades has been misguided. We have been focusing on the wrong skills and abilities in our children, and we have been using the wrong strategies to help nurture and teach those skills." If it will take a society to develop a child, what specifically does Tough recommend? Where to begin? What specifically must "villagers" do? No brief commentary such as mine can possibly do full justice to the scope and depth of material that Tough provides, supplemented by 19 pages of extensively annotated notes. Also, those who have already reviewed the book have identified what they found most important, most valuable to them. Briefly, here are five of the several dozen passages that caught my eye: "There is something undeniably compelling about the cognitive hypothesis [i.e. the number of words a child hears from parents early in life determines academic success later]. 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] there [end italics]." However, in recent years, research conducted by individuals and teams raises questions about many of the assumptions behind the cognitive hypothesis. "What matters, instead [of stuffing information in a child's head], is whether we can help that develop a very different set of qualities, a list that includes persistence, self-control, curiosity, conscientiousness, grit, and self-confidence." These are all non-cognitive skills. (Pages xiv-xv) "Overloading the HPA axis, especially in infancy and childhood, produces all kinds of serious and long-lasting negative effects -- physical, psychological, and neurological." What's tricky about this process is that "it's not actually the stress itself that messes us up. It's the body's [begin italics] reaction [end italics] to the stress...Although the human stress-response system is highly complex in design, in practice it has all the subtlety of a croquet mallet...Your HPA axis, sensing danger, is conserving fluids, preparing to ward off an attack. And you're standing there looking for a glass of water and swallowing hard." The sense of threat is even more terrifying for a child. (Page 13) For infants to develop qualities like perseverance and focus, "they need a high level of warmth and nurturance from their caregivers (e.g. parents, other family members, teachers, coaches, and clergy]...when children reach early adolescence, what motivates them most effectively isn't licking and grooming-style care but a very different kind of attention. Perhaps what pushes middle school students to practice as maniacally as [Elizabeth] Spiegel's chess players do is the unexpected experience of someone taking them seriously, believing in their abilities, and challenging them to improve themselves." (120-121) Neuroscientists have discovered that "the most reliable way to produce an adult who is brave and curious and kind and prudent is to ensure that when he is an infant, his hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal [HPA] axis functions well. And how do you do that? It's not magic. First, as much as possible, you protect him from serious trauma and chronic stress; then, even more important, you provide him with a secure, nurturing relationship with at least one parent and ideally two. That's not the whole secret of success, but it is a big, big part of it." (182) Tough explains that, rather than making a case for the economic value of better-educated students who will add greater value to society, "the argument that resonates more with me is a purely personal one. When I spend time with children growing up in adversity, I can't help but feel two things. First, a sense of anger for what they've already missed...Which leads to my second reaction: a feeling of admiration and hope when I watch young people making the difficult and often painful choice to follow a better path, to turn away from what might have seemed like their inevitable destiny...And every day they pull themselves up one more rung on the ladder to a more successful future...They did not get onto that ladder alone. They are there only because someone helped them to take the first step." I share Paul Tough's hope that those who read his book will follow Elizabeth Siegel's example and seize every opportunity to provide children with "the unexpected experience of someone taking them seriously, believing in their abilities, and challenging them to improve themselves." Help them to locate a "ladder" and then take the first step up. Thus begins what is certain to be a difficult climb for them but one made somewhat easier by knowing they are not alone. In years to come, many of the young ladder climbers will then help other children to achieve success. That is a compelling vision, one that simply must become a reality.

Review courtesy of www.subtleillumination.com How Children Succeed follows on from the classic Mischel work on self control and examines the importance of character (things like self-control, optimism, and grit), not just intelligence, in adult outcomes. Tough points out that measures of character are as good at predicting success in later life as measures of intelligence, and that measures of intelligence can be disturbingly flawed: one study found that offering M&Ms for each correct answer increased IQ scores by 12 points for kids at the bottom of the distribution. One of the most fascinating chapters, though, is on stress. On the savannah, when we see a lion every possible system activates in order to get us out of trouble: we breathe faster, we have more white blood cells, our muscles tense, etc. This response is essential for survival, but wears our body out over time. He argues the same happens today when people have stressful childhoods: their systems become overloaded and wear out, and they find it difficult to regulate thoughts and emotions later in life. If we measure stress levels as children and control for them, the effect of poverty on adult outcomes almost disappears. The evidence is clear that character is extremely important to outcomes, and it’s not clear our modern society accounts for that. Policy interventions are therefore critical. Stress reduction among children can contribute to measures meant to tackle poverty, and ensuring that students rate themselves on non-cognitive measures can go a long way to encouraging the right behaviour, as some charter schools that offer a character report card have discovered. Intelligence is not enough, as many an intelligent adult can tell you.

Paul Tough geht der Frage nach, inwiefern Charaktereigenschaften wie Ausdauer, Optimismus, Neugier, Mut und Gewissenhaftigkeit wichtig für ein erfolgreiches Leben sind und ob der IQ nicht vielleicht eine untergeordnete Rolle spielt. Tatsächlich bezieht er sich auf Studien aus den USA, bei denen besonders leistungsschwache Schüler aus sozial vernachlässigten Elternhäusern ausgewählt wurden, um nachzuweisen, dass diese Schüler bei gezielter Förderung eine gute Chance auf einen guten Schulabschluss und später einen guten Universitätsabschluss haben und somit eine Grundlage für ein erfolgreiches Leben geschaffen wird. Das Werk zeigt eindrucksvoll, dass der IQ einer Person durch günstige Lebensbedingungen auch noch im Jugendalter gefördert werden kann. Er zeigt aber auch, dass Kinder aus vernachlässigten Elternhäusern nur dann eine faire Chance auf einen guten Start ins Leben haben, wenn es spezielle Förderprogramme für sie gibt. Diese Förderprogramme dürfen aber nicht nur Wissen vermitteln, sondern müssen besonderen Wert auf die Charaktereigenschaften legen, da diese wichtiger zu sein scheinen, als der "bloße" IQ eines Menschen.

Useful book

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.

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.