Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Character matters more than brains after all, who'd have guessed?
This article in the NYT this morning is worth reading in its entirety. Apparently character - as measured by "grit", self-control, gratitude, curiosity, "zest" and optimism - is a far better predictor of grades than standardized tests, which only correlate with intelligence. This would explain, for one thing, all those "brilliants" who flame out when they hit university; and also gives a basis for the gut feeling that all those coddled, entitled kids are missing something major. For example, the moron at York from the last post. It's not the misunderstanding; it's the fact that she can't admit she was wrong.
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I wonder what...
ReplyDelete... what?
ReplyDeleteThere is a very, very speshul snowflake in one of my classes -- one of those students you just know, after one class, is going to be taking up far more than his/her fair share of time and attention -- to whom I'd love to send a copy of this article, for the sake of the headline alone. But I'd have to do it anonymously, and that would be unprofessional. Still, I'd love to see how the snowflake would do on the "grit" test. If wailing and wheedling and catastrophizing and generally not taking "no" for an answer when I said that a (teeny, tiny, very minor) missed assignment could not be handed in late, then asking that I do a better job of reminding the class of upcoming assignments (all of which are spelled out, in detail, on the course calendar), then asking about opportunities for extra credit, is any measure, this snowflake may be persistent, but doesn't deal well with the prospect, or the fact, of anything less than a perfect score on anything. Aargh.
ReplyDeleteEric Idle said something like that about Graham Chapman; that after he graduated from Cambridge he lost his drive because as a Cambridge alum he thought everything should be handed to him. Chapman's drinking didn't help the situation.
ReplyDeleteMy mom used to talk about character and insist that certain things we did or did not do were evidence of it. So, you know, there were epic events like being marched back to the crafts store to return a feather I had stolen, or being punished if my numerical "effort" grades were lower than my letter grades (we got both), even if my letter grades were all As. My brother and I would rather have died than have had our mother question our character.
ReplyDeleteI can't really see myself objectively, but in my brother I can see the results: perseverance, fairness, kindness, and a moral compass that never, ever wavers. The dude is sterling. I don't know that schools can teach that if parents aren't on board, but it seems worth a try.
@Merely: Thanks for the tip. Great article, and worth more discussion than it got here. Maybe it was just a mid-week slump.
ReplyDeleteSome of my favorite students have been those with zest and curiosity and the humility to ask for help. One of them was recovering from a traumatic brain injury that changed her from a successful, salaried office worker with a graduate degree to a CC student with mismatched facial features and slow, slurred speech. She worked her ass off, demanding that I keep challenging her on a concept even after that unit was tested and done with.
She was very proud of her "C" and keeps in touch. And now she's a successful, salaried office worker with slow, slurred speech and another graduate degree.
Talk about grit.