THE CONVERSATION\u2014In the same way that actual grit accumulates in the cracks and crevices of the landscape, our cultural insistence on possessing grit has gradually come to the forefront of child-rearing and education reform.<\/p>\n
Recent academic papers on grit include the education-leadership dissertation project of New England College\u2019s Austin Garofalo, titled Teaching the Character Competencies of Growth Mindset and Grit To Increase Student Motivation in the Classroom<\/em>, and UMass Dartmouth professor Kenneth J. Saltman\u2019s The Austerity School: Grit, Character, and the Privatization of Public Education<\/em>.<\/p>\n In contrast to the range of perspectives on grit offered in academia, the popular media will often frame it as an essential characteristic for healthy, productive maturation\u2014and certainly a necessary component for academic success.<\/p>\n In 2012, Paul Tough\u2019s book on the topic, How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity and the Hidden Power of Character<\/em>, was a critical and commercial success, earning positive acclaim from Kirkus Reviews, The Economist, The New York Times, Slate<\/em>\u2014and even former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.<\/p>\n And last year, in a column for The Washington Post<\/em>, Judy Holland, editor and founder of ParentInsider.com, wrote that the \u201ccoddled kids\u201d of the \u201c\u2019self-esteem\u2019 movement in the 1980s\u201d produced children who were \u201csofter, slower, and less likely to persevere.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGrit is defined as passion and perseverance in pursuit of long-term goals,\u201d she continued. \u201cGrit determines who survives at West Point, who finals at the National Spelling Bee, and who is tough enough not to be a quitter.\u201d<\/p>\n As someone who specializes in children\u2019s literature and cultural attitudes toward childhood, I\u2019ve been interested in this insistence on fostering grit. I\u2019ve also taught writing and literature over the past year to West Point cadets, who, it seems, must learn how to acquire this somewhat elusive quality.<\/p>\n But I can\u2019t help but wonder if we\u2019re talking about grit in an unproductive way. And maybe one of the problems is that it\u2019s presented as a concept: abstract, indeterminate and somewhat magical or mysterious.<\/p>\n How can we define grit, or the idea behind it, in a way that means something? What if we\u2019re not framing the discussion of grit in the right way, since grit can mean something entirely different for a kid living in the Chicago\u2019s South Side than it does for a kid living in the suburbs?<\/p>\n A slippery buzzword?<\/p>\n In 2014, National Public Radio\u2019s Tovia Smith looked at how educators and researchers are using the concept of grit in the classroom. She interviewed MacArthur Genius Grant recipient Angela Duckworth, associate professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and author of Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance<\/em>, which was published in May. In it, she considers how teaching grit can revolutionize students\u2019 educational development.<\/p>\n \u201cThis quality of being able to sustain your passions, and also work really hard at them, over really disappointingly long periods of time, that\u2019s grit,\u201d Duckworth told Smith in the NPR segment. Expanding on the national significance of grit, Duckworth added, \u201cIt\u2019s a very, I think, American idea in some ways\u2014really pursuing something against all odds.\u201d<\/p>\n But more recently, Duckworth has backtracked from some of her earlier advocacy. In March she told NPR\u2019s Anya Kamenetz that the \u201centhusiasm\u201d for grit \u201cis getting ahead of the science.\u201d And Duckworth has since resigned from the board of a California education group that\u2019s working to find a way to measure grit.<\/p>\n As Kamenetz notes, part of the problem with buzzwords like \u201cgrit\u201d\u2014and the attempt to measure or implement them in the classroom\u2014\u201dis inherent in the slippery language we use to describe them.\u201d<\/p>\n Is grit something that can even be taught? Can we measure it? Is it a trait or a skill? If a quality like grit is a trait, then it may be genetic, which would make it difficult to simply instill in kids. If it\u2019s a skill or habit, only then can it be coached or taught.<\/p>\n Grit\u2019s place in children\u2019s literature<\/p>\n The Oxford English Dictionary<\/em> tells us that grit\u2014the kind that describes \u201cfirmness or solidity of character; indomitable spirit or pluck; stamina\u201d\u2014originated as American slang in the early 19th century. It\u2019s easy to see its kinship to the other definition of grit: \u201cminute particles of stone or sand, as produced by attrition or disintegration.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s come to represent a refusal to give up, no matter the odds\u2014a refusal to wash away, break down or completely dissolve.<\/p>\n American children\u2019s literature has long had \u201cgritty\u201d protagonists: characters who\u2019ve arguably instilled moralistic values of bravery, industry and integrity in generations of readers.<\/p>\n In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, another word featured in the Oxford English Dictionary\u2019<\/em>s \u201cgrit\u201d definition figured more prominently in mainstream children\u2019s literature\u2014pluck.<\/p>\n Mark Twain\u2019s Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn both exhibited pluck, seen in their wily charm, adventurous spirit, and underlying moral conscience. But the notion of pluck, grit\u2019s forefather, was largely popularized in Horatio Alger\u2019s stories, which are known for their hardworking young male protagonists trying to eke out livings and educate themselves within the American urban landscape.<\/p>\n \u201cDick knew he must study hard, and he dreaded it,\u201d Alger wrote in his landmark text, Ragged Dick<\/em>. \u201cBut Dick had good pluck. He meant to learn, nevertheless, and resolved to buy a book with his first spare earnings.\u201d<\/p>\n Though he hates it, Dick studies hard because he believes he needs an education \u201cto win a respectable position in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n The determined, plucky child figure arguably evolved into one of grit through Mattie Ross in Charles Portis\u2019 1968 western novel of revenge set in the late 19th century.<\/p>\n The novel quickly establishes Mattie\u2019s resilience and resolve, which solidify after the murder of Mattie\u2019s father. Mattie, reflecting on her doggedness, says, \u201cPeople do not give it credence that a fourteen-year-old girl could leave home and go off in the wintertime to avenge her father\u2019s blood.\u201d<\/p>\n Grit to what end?<\/p>\n Mattie Ross and Horatio Alger\u2019s clever street boys helped shape an American ideal of youthful grit. But these fictional characters asserted their grit because they had goals. What good is grit if you feel like you have nothing to strive for?<\/p>\n In early children\u2019s literature for African-Americans, publications such as W.E.B. Du Bois\u2019 monthly youth magazine The Brownies\u2019 Book<\/em> attempted to also give its young readers an idea of what they could achieve. While much of American children\u2019s literature during the turn of the last century\u2014and even today\u2014filters ideas of grit through the perspective of the middle-class white child, The Brownies\u2019 Book<\/em> specifically addressed the lives and experiences of African-American children. First published in 1920, the magazine encouraged African-American children to fully embrace their cultural identities, participate in their communities and become citizens of the world.<\/p>\n But that was 1920, during the dawn of the Harlem Renaissance, a time when the work of African-American artists, activists and thinkers brought newfound optimism to the push for racial equality and cultural pride. Over the course of the 20th century, circumstances for many children of minority communities changed. As Atlantic<\/em> writer Ta-Nehisi Coates has explained, a public policy of ghettoization has left many urban school districts impoverished and underserved, with few examples of hope or achievement outside the drug trade. Yes, kids could develop grit\u2014they could find confidence, diligence and resilience outside the law\u2014a version of grit demonized by mainstream society.<\/p>\n David Simon\u2019s Baltimore-set HBO series The Wire<\/em> illustrates the narrow possibilities for black kids growing up in the city. Grit, as depicted in The Wire<\/em>, comes via success in the drug trade. This kind of grit has the bottom line of economic gain. It\u2019s not about a search for identity, cultural understanding or artistry because kids don\u2019t think they have the same opportunities and potential highlighted in the issues of The Brownies\u2019 Book<\/em>.<\/p>\n A 2014 study from the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights found that in America, there still exists a pattern of racial inequality in public schools, whether it\u2019s course offerings, teacher performance or student expulsion. These statistics\u2014the same as those echoed in The Wire<\/em>\u2014leave many somber, dejected, angry or, too often, complacent.<\/p>\n So how can students have\u2014or learn\u2014grit when all kids face different realities\u2014different struggles, different dreams and different social structures?<\/p>\n Yes, it\u2019s important to reevaluate the education system, as monumental a task that may be. But all institutional or systemic change starts with the individual.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of what The Wire<\/em> was about sounds cynical to people,\u201d Simon said in a 2009 Vice<\/em> interview. \u201cI think it\u2019s very cynical about institutions and their ability to reform. I don\u2019t deny that, but I don\u2019t think it\u2019s at all cynical about people.\u201d<\/p>\n Maybe the first step is to think of grit not as something to cultivate in students. Instead, maybe grit is the debris\u2014the dream\u2014that lingers. If children and young adults get that piece of grit stuck to them, they\u2019ll be motivated to keep going until the grit is gone.<\/p>\n Perhaps the job of adults, then, isn\u2019t to tell kids to buckle down and work through adversity. It\u2019s about opening their eyes to the innumerable possibilities before them\u2014so they\u2019ll want to persevere in the first place.<\/p>\n The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https:\/\/theconversation.com\/whats-behind-americas-insistence-on-instilling-grit-in-kids-65314.<\/em><\/p>\n Paige Gray (Fort Lewis College)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" THE CONVERSATION\u2014In the same way that actual grit accumulates in the cracks and crevices of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":322001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[163],"class_list":["post-338521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-kids"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}