Students Need Grit

   I was very fortunate to attend quite a few NJAGC (New Jersey Association for Gifted Children) conferences with my sons.  At one conference, I attended a workshop that had a profound and transformative impact on my philosophy of both parenting and teaching.  The speaker was Nathan Levy, he was at one time the president of NJAGC and is an accomplished author and speaker. The topic of the workshop was something along the lines of "Strategies to enhance learning in gifted children".  He said "children cannot succeed unless they are made to be uncomfortable".  This resonated with me to my core.  As an educator, we give directions that are so precise, no thinking is really required. We compound the problem by repeating ourselves over and over. The result is that we  teach them that they do not need to listen the first time because they will be able to hear them again or just wait until we are done and ask "what are we doing?"  We complain that our children do not listen, but it is clearly learned behavior and we must take some of the responsibility. When we give our children directions, for example, "go get your shoes on and get ready for school," they know that we will not leave for school without them so the directions will come again and again.  I remember another tip from a Nathan Levy workshop in which he said we should whisper "If you come here now with your shoes on, I will give you $5." He said we would be very surprised at how quickly our children learn to listen attentively.  

    When I returned to my classroom after that weekend workshop, I changed how I teach.  At the time, I was a teacher of Computers and Financial Literacy and our curriculum included all of the Microsoft Office products.  I looked at our directions for projects, with the arrows and pictures and detailed descriptions. We were not teaching the children how to use the applications, I would even venture to guess that when the project was done, they really had no idea how they did it.  I reduced the directions, and made some of them purposefully vague. I  developed a "let them figure it out" mentality.  Of course, I helped when needed but I let them work on a problem for a bit first.  Rather than jump right up, I would wait a minute or two. They were actually learning the programs this way, they would have to check the menus to see where the save command was found or how to add a picture or graph.  This process allowed the children to easily adjust each time a program was updated or tweaked and allowed them to be intuitive learners who could find a solution rather than those who required intricate step by step directions.  It was an amazing transformation in my classroom, the students became vested in their learning and proud to figure things out on their own. 

    When we push through problems and learn to persevere without assistance, we develop grit.  Whereas talent is usually inherent, grit is learned; it is developed through conflict, challenge and competition.  Grit is the ability to problem solve and pivot when necessary.  It is not giving up until you find a solution and is not easily achieved. Grit is a characteristic we earn when we are made to feel uncomfortable.  Grit is a gift that we can all give our children and students.  Let them struggle from time to time, they may never thank you for it, but they will develop essential life skills in the process.

For more information and resources from Nathan Levy, visit storieswithholes.com