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

from rivkat

Character matters to children's success (and adults) and can be taught in school, but not in the sense of the moral virtues. Rather, the character that education should aim for involves performance virtues-sticking to something even when it's hard, learning from failure, believing that one will e...

from gbsallery

Fascinating, and possibly even useful. Whilst there are a few too many anecdotes and not quite enough rigour, Tough (nominative determinism at work?) extols a non-cognitive child development theory with some conviction. Many of his ideas seem to be grounded in reality, and at least worth a try, t...

from steve02476

Really obvious premise (character, hard work, etc count for more than raw IQ) but some good explanations, etc. Very nicely written.

from porch_reader

Drawing from a combination of research findings and real-world examples, Paul Tough develops the thesis that success is associated more with character - grit, self-control, curiosity, conscientiousness - and less with scores on intelligence tests. He shows how stressors experienced by children gr...

from Daniel.Estes

Paul Tough's How Children Succeed challenges the conventional wisdom of educational success being significantly correlated with acquired knowledge and IQ. Character, he argues, is a much better measure even if it's not easily measurable. I agree with Tough's assertion, and he presents a number of...