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.
Paul Tough, How Children Succeed
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I am plenty deep in my reading of How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character by Paul Tough. (I will present my synopsis of this exceptional book at the December 7 First Friday Book Synopsis). His thesis is pretty simple: there are traits that trump cognitive traits. And those traits include, among others, grit, curiosity, and character.
And we are barely learning how to “teach” these traits.
Mr. Tough argues that we are pretty committed to the “cognitive hypothesis.” From the book:
…the cognitive hypothesis: the belief, rarely expressed aloud but commonly held nonetheless, that success today depends primarily on cognitive skills—the kind of intelligence that gets measured on IQ tests, including the abilities to recognize letters and words, to calculate, to detect patterns—and that the best way to develop these skills is to practice them as much as possible, beginning as early as possible.
One indication of our commitment to this hypothesis is that if a person can demonstrate certain cognitive knowledge, they can “skip” the process of High School and get a G.E.D. (General Equivalency Degree). But the outcome of this is that people with the G.E.D. are, in fact, not “prepared” to function in the real world of ever-more-demanding work environemnts. Something is missing.
In other words, cognitive is not enough!
He refers to the findings of the economist James Heckman:
What was missing from the equation, Heckman concluded, were the psychological traits that had allowed the high-school graduates to make it through school. Those traits—an inclination to persist at a boring and often unrewarding task; the ability to delay gratification; the tendency to follow through on a plan—also turned out to be valuable in college, in the workplace, and in life generally. As Heckman explained in one paper: “Inadvertently, the GED has become a test that separates bright but nonpersistent and undisciplined dropouts from other dropouts.” GED holders, he wrote, “are ‘wise guys’ who lack the ability to think ahead, persist in tasks, or to adapt to their environments.
Look again at these key {“non-cognitive”) traits:
• an inclination to persist at a boring and often unrewarding task;
• the ability to delay gratification;
• the tendency to follow through on a plan
• {these} also turned out to be valuable in college, in the workplace, and in life generally.
These “so-called” soft skills are every bit as critical to life and work success as are any cognitive skills.
This reminds me of other books I have read. (My apology – I can’t remember which authors/books this came from). Other books have argued that the smartest folks are not the most successful. As long as a person is “smart enough,” then other traits become more important. Much more important!.
How Children Succeed may be one of the most important books to read. If you are a parent; if you are in charge of hiring people, or leading people; – this could be an investment worth your time.
Because, curiosity, grit, character – I think these may really matter! Don’t you?
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Read the review of this book by our blogging colleague Bob Morris here.
Follow the link to the article by Paul Tough that got this conversation started, from the New York Times Magazine, What if the Secret to Success Is Failure?
First Friday Book Synopsis 