How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character By Paul Tough.
As a parent who wants his children to be successful in life I have often wondered why it is that some children become successful and others do not? It is all in attempt to try raise my kids in the best way possible to help them achieve success in life. Boy was I glad when I ran into this book by Paul Tough on Amazon.com the other day. Finally someone has taken the time to research and study a subject that has been bothering me for a couple of years now. I was really excited to dive into it and hopefully get some or all of my questions answered. How Children Succeed sets out to challenge some of the commonly labeled reasons of failure such as poverty and the quality of the teaching. Paul Tough establishes that the focus should instead be on the character of the children. He goes on further to state that other traits such as self control, perseverance and even diligence can help predict how successful a kid is going to be better than using their IQ. He goes even further to reveal that children who are brighter in class, could actually have a harder time out in the real world. He backs up everything with solid research and also takes the time to look at this issue from many different perspectives. Paul Tough specializes in education, child development, poverty, and politics. He has been featured on the cover of the New York Times Magazine on quite a number of child and poverty issues. In addition he has also been an editor at that magazine and at Harper's Magazine. Paul has also been involved with radio and founded the online magazine Open Letters. This is his second published book, his first one was published in 2008, "Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada's Quest to Change Harlem and America." It is interesting how, Paul Tough took the time to travel around the country to visit schools that have implemented programs based on character development. How Children Succeed was not written as a 'how to' book that outlines how to help those kids or schools that are failing to succeed. Instead, he simply identifies the issues, talks about what works and what does not work. In my own personal opinion, this makes this book more interesting to read. This book shows us that there is hope for kids who grow up in poverty, they too can be successful in life. They just need someone to recognize and nurture their character, As an avid chess player, the section on chess that he used to illustrate performance character in general, really hit the nail on the head. It is not often that you hear research backing up the need for skills for our children that go beyond just acquiring knowledge. How Children Succeed is a fascinating read, both very enjoyable and jam packed with information. There were a few areas that I did not completely agree with Paul Tough, even though he has research and experience to back up his conclusions. I am probably just being a parent, you all know how we can be. There are many revelations within for both parents and teachers. This book opened my eyes, from now on my approach to teaching my kids has to change. My only hope now is that as many teachers, parents, school district officials, school board members and policy makers as possible, can get their hands on this book.
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