Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Grit

Has anyone read this? Pretty interesting stuff, a friend found the first article and mentioned it to me, and it lead me to the underlying one.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/08/02/the_truth_about_grit/

http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~duckwort/images/Grit%20JPSP.pdf

Like this quote from the first -

Lewis Terman, the inventor of the Stanford-Binet IQ test, came to a similar conclusion. He spent decades following a large sample of �gifted� students, searching for evidence that his measurement of intelligence was linked to real world success. While the most accomplished men did have slightly higher scores, Terman also found that other traits, such as �perseverance,� were much more pertinent. Terman concluded that one of the most fundamental tasks of modern psychology was to figure out why intelligence is not a more important part of achievement: �Why this is so, and what circumstances affect the fruition of human talent, are questions of such transcendent importance that they should be investigated by every method that promises the slightest reduction of our present ignorance.�

Exactly! That's why I pulled my DS from public school. He wasn't developing perseverance, wasn't gaining self-esteem through working through a tough problem and figuring it out. Even with his intelligence, I don't feel he would get far in life w/out developing those qualities. OH and also how to get through the boring stuff. He was faced w/ soooo much boring stuff, it was getting to the point he couldn't deal with any of it. By being challenged in areas important to him, I've slowly increased his tolerance for the less-interesting stuff.

Yes, the boring stuff can get overwhelming, that's a great point! I think it's ok for ds to daydream in class here and there, but all day long isn't getting anyone anywhere.

This reminds me somewhat of the book 'Outliers', where part of the formula that the author worked up for life success was a 'sense of entitlement', but I always thought that was a bit negative and 'rick kid' sounding. Being willing to stick up for yourself and try again, or ask questions when you don't know why you're not moving ahead the way you think you ought to...well, that sounds like perseverance to me.

I like the idea that people are working on a way to measure this, and hopefully get kids going in the right direction on it!