"Why Some Children Succeed..." Paul Tough

Paul Tough was at the Center Scene program at the California Endowment on Thursday evening talking about "Why Some Children Succeed While Others Lose Their Way."  He is a journalist who has written about Geoffrey Canada's Harlem Children's Zone in his book "Whatever It Takes:  Geoffrey Canada's Quest to Change Harlem" and his new book "How Children Succeed:  Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character."

He has studied the work of professionals such as Nadine Burke Harris M.D. who set up a pediatric clinic in a poor area of San Francisco and has identified that people are sick due to trauma and stress in an environment like a war zone.  He said that research has shown the effects of childhood trauma that include increase incidents of heart disease, diabetes, cancer and suicide.  He said that toxic stress damages a persons systems.  He said the antidote is secure attachment and talked about experiments with rats with those doing better having mothers who licked and groomed them a lot....we all need licking and grooming.  The caring, rocking, and cuddling is important in early childhood but also in adolescence when life is particularly stressful and when teenagers are thinking deeply about themselves in their environment.

He talked about the character measurements of the following traits as the most important predictors of success...more that academic performance:  Optimism, Zest, Curiosity, Self Control, Grit and Perseverance.

Angela Duckworth, PhD, University of Pennsylvania has written that self control "not doing something" is a better predictor of success than I.Q.  She developed a test to measure Grit and Passion. High levels of these characteristics lead to greater success at spelling bees and military academies.

Carol Dweck, PhD, Stanford, has written that we need to help children develop Grit to work harder and try harder.  Grit and self control are built on overcoming failure which leads to resilience.  Some children have too much adversity and some don't have enough...a moderate amount can make them stronger...to manage failure.

He gave the example of a chess championship from a public middle school in central Brooklyn that teaches the students how to handle failure.  The teacher is hard on her students but also supportive to help them manage failure.  Parents and teaches need to pull back sometimes and let the children deal with failure and problem solve. Those individuals who succeed in spite of a difficult environment do so because of Grit.

He recommended some helpful programs:  "Tools of the Mind" for prekindergarten and kindergarten children, "Expeditionary Learning" and meditation with mindfulness training.