How Children Succeed

Anyone interested in the discussion about education gaps, school performance, etc. should read this book. Tough presents many ideas, supported by both research and practical environments, that show how to address many of the commonly perceived problems in K-12 education. Not only is it informative, it's a good read. I've purchased copies for a couple of friends.

This is a great read! Tough is very convincing that there are ways to help all children succeed. Character is vital and I agree with Tough that we can teach these skills if we look at children on the whole. Paul Tough didn't quote any research by the very successful Reading Recovery program which does take the lowest readers. It has been successful for thirty years. Reading Recovery also trains it's teachers continually. It targets first graders. Even though Tough didn't include Reading Recovery, he's done an excellent job thinking about character, grit, and curiosity. My hat's off to him to write a helpful book for people who are in the trenches trying to help children succeed.

This lazy mom was looking for the formula to raise a well adjusted adult. This book made me realize yet again there is no easy button for this one. There is a lot of science in it. I enjoyed to an extent.

This book was a monotonous and endless jungle of research and stories. After the first chapter, I realized this book was going nowhere, and I needed to read it for a class I had already paid for. Although it is only about 200 pages, it has a small font that made it the equivalent of a very long book. After completing the book, I ceremoniously took it down to the dumpster, flung it in, and chalked it up to another academic hoop jump. I would not have signed up and paid for the class if I had viewed this book prior. I enjoy almost everything I read, but this book required perseverance and stamina.

Sometimes Tough comes to the wrong conclusions about what we should do about the studies, but the best part about this book is the large amount of studies he includes. For example, the study on ACE (adverse childhood experiences) and the studies on HLG mice (high licking and grooming) can teach us all a lot about what's most important for young children in order for them to grow up to be functioning adults.

I turned to this book after it was recommended by a motivational speaker. I was interested particularly in how social and other environmental factors impact our children. So far I am not disappointed. Although I am not done, I think this is a great read for everyone, not just parents. This looks at a whole host of factors has helped me understand more how what I do impacts my child.

This book made me change my perspective on how to teach my children to handle stress and failure. My relationship with my children change in a better way since I want them to succeed and learn how to handle frustration when something goes wrong. Must read for parents.

I purchased this book for a book study I participated in last summer offered by the Association of Texas Professional Educators. As a gifted and talented teacher, I enjoyed gaining more insight of my students.

I ride MTA Maryland transit buses home every day in Baltimore, Mryland. I have a great job but due to disabilities I am unable to drive. Everyday I ride home with people who obviously are very poor. yet it is NOT poverty alone that keeps a person marginalized in life. I see children who are rude, vulgar, base, uncaring, common, brazzen, uncivil, uncultured, unkept, uncouth as close to utter barbarians as one can get. Not just black children. Today urban white children are just as ignorant as their black peers.

Regularly on my transit bus ride home I experience first hand young ladies who act, talk and carry themselves in a manner worse then the most vile men in a prison yard or old seaman's home. Young men smell as if they have not washed in months smelling worse than a locker room in a homeless shelter. Young men who are quick to fight rather than think in almost every instance. Young men so insecure in their sense of male idenity that they use any perceived slight as a invitation to fight.

I see regularly black and brown children who live in a perverse world where reading, the proper use of manners, having an expansive vocabulary and other such uplifting things is considered acting white. Understanding and appreciating science, literiture, art and classical studies or culture is considered giving up one's blackness or ghetto ethenic identity. I know these hinderances exist because, I lived through them.

I am a black man. Back when I was an autistic young black child in the 1960's, I was tormented by peers and adults for "acting white" because; I dared have manners and show traditional signs of respect. I knew the proper way to eat a multi-course meal. I knew the basics of how to engage in polite dinner conversation. I knew how to read. I knew how to find information in the library. I knew how to read medical books. I studied the dictionary so I knew the meanings of so called, "Big Words" so I would not easily be taken advantage of. I learned how to craft words in ways that conveyed in exact terms what I wanted to say. I avoided ghetto slang since I found it an impercise method of communication.

My grandparents and family who raised me took us to church every Sunday and the task of building our character was a 24 hour a day 7 day a week 365 day per year enterprise. We were encouraged to follow our curiosity of math, science and other humane pursuits. We were taught the value of a dollar, the virtues of thrift, the fiscal benefits of sexual abstinance, the value of prompt payment in building a credit history, the value of financial planning and such things. Being autistic I had plenty of passion and my family taught me how to focus my grit in directions that would benefit me later in life in my search for a job. It took grit to overcome my autism and disability caused challenges.

I am a success today and it is all born of the fact that I was encouraged to build up my character to a point where no matter where i went black people, white people, asian people all people from bank presidents, to homeless folks on the street knew I was possessed of a quality character. It took 41 years to overcome my autism disabilities but character I had mastered from childhood. I say this book How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character is worth reading because; the basic tenents of this book are what shaped me so I could become the success I am today. The reprobate ghetto children one see's today is a result of colossial laziness on the parts of children and their parents. Building character in a child requires an investment of time and resources found in good books, manners and other things that are readily avaialble. Inspiring curiosity is simple as exploring the world around you, asking questions and knowing how to dig in books and other resources till you find needed answers. Children succeed only if they are properly and constantly empowered to do so which is the message this book How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character tells in an able and blunt way.

How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character is the basic formula for success if you want to raise offspring fully participate in the american dream. I am solidly middle class now but I was once dirt poor on disability and living in section 8 housing. I did not stay poor and am successful today because, no matter how far I sunk, the same ideals shared in How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character shaped and were part of me. Soon as I overcame my autism issues I had the Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character that would open doors for me that remain tightly shut to those whose manner and ideals spring from poor ignorant lazy ghetto thuggish mentalities.

This is another of my hard reviews so it may never get published but this book has a hard message. There are so many bright awesome smart children who are NOT reaching anything near their potential because they and their parents do not fully understand How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character. I pray this book is read by parents and children alike because their are so many otherwise intelligent kids wasting themselves on foolishness that leads no where. As a child I had 13 disabilities and autism and I ended up being wildly successful. I know so many children with no disabilities can do better than I have if only they understood and followed the lessons shared in How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character. Clothes, smiles, body type, hair style, cars, bling and material things all of these things capture the attention of a perspective employer or person in power but it is character alone that is the key that opens the door to opportunity. Only when a person in power feels safe working in intimate quarters with you because of the strength of your character on a daily basis will paths to opportunity and success be open to you. In every field of human endeavor it is the strength of one's character that moves mountains and wins hearts thats the message of How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character. It is a message we must all hear and learn from if we want to combat poverty by winning hearts, minds and souls.

I love the directness. This is a very enlightening tool to use for changing thought processes in educators. I do want everyone to drop the terms " white" and " black " for those are colors and negate the essence if being human.

Highly recommend for parents and educators. Offers great insights into how the process of success is nurtured from early early roots and how those characteristics that are vital are nurtured .... This book deals more with the psychological aspects of the building blocks that must be present for a child to grow into a sucessful adult and lifelong learner.... Highly recommend

This is a timely book for anyone interested in how children REALLY learn. Filled with the kind of interventions that work and can be applied. It is critical to understand that the old "student as empty vessel to be filled up" does not work when trying to educate learners/thinkers. Looking forward to the next read.

Mr. Tough has written a well researched book that looks at how children succeed and what it takes to help them do so. I highly encourage anyone who is interested in making this world a better place for our children to read this book. We must, as a society but certainly as individuals, begin having the hard conversations about the impact of poverty on our children. We can change this. We can make a difference.

The question I selected as a title for this review is one of several to which Paul Tough responds in this book. The titles of the first four chapters suggest others: How to Fail (and How Not to), How to Build Character, How to Think, and finally, How to Succeed. According to an ancient Africa an aphorism, it takes a village to raise a child. In the Introduction, Tough briefly discusses several research studies whose findings have had a great impact on child development in the U.S. (especially in public schools), for better or worse. He asserts that "conventional wisdom about child development over the past two decades has been misguided. 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." If it will take a society to develop a child, what specifically does Tough recommend? Where to begin? What specifically must "villagers" do?

No brief commentary such as mine can possibly do full justice to the scope and depth of material that Tough provides, supplemented by 19 pages of extensively annotated notes. Also, those who have already reviewed the book have identified what they found most important, most valuable to them. Briefly, here are five of the several dozen passages that caught my eye:

"There is something undeniably compelling about the cognitive hypothesis [i.e. the number of words a child hears from parents early in life determines academic success later]. The world it describes is so neat, so reassuringly linear, such a clear case of inputs [begin italics] here [end italics] to outputs [begin italics] there [end italics]." However, in recent years, research conducted by individuals and teams raises questions about many of the assumptions behind the cognitive hypothesis. "What matters, instead [of stuffing information in a child's head], is whether we can help that develop a very different set of qualities, a list that includes persistence, self-control, curiosity, conscientiousness, grit, and self-confidence." These are all non-cognitive skills. (Pages xiv-xv)

"Overloading the HPA axis, especially in infancy and childhood, produces all kinds of serious and long-lasting negative effects -- physical, psychological, and neurological." What's tricky about this process is that "it's not actually the stress itself that messes us up. It's the body's [begin italics] reaction [end italics] to the stress...Although the human stress-response system is highly complex in design, in practice it has all the subtlety of a croquet mallet...Your HPA axis, sensing danger, is conserving fluids, preparing to ward off an attack. And you're standing there looking for a glass of water and swallowing hard." The sense of threat is even more terrifying for a child. (Page 13)

For infants to develop qualities like perseverance and focus, "they need a high level of warmth and nurturance from their caregivers (e.g. parents, other family members, teachers, coaches, and clergy]...when children reach early adolescence, what motivates them most effectively isn't licking and grooming-style care but a very different kind of attention. Perhaps what pushes middle school students to practice as maniacally as [Elizabeth] Spiegel's chess players do is the unexpected experience of someone taking them seriously, believing in their abilities, and challenging them to improve themselves." (120-121)

Neuroscientists have discovered that "the most reliable way to produce an adult who is brave and curious and kind and prudent is to ensure that when he is an infant, his hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal [HPA] axis functions well. And how do you do that? It's not magic. First, as much as possible, you protect him from serious trauma and chronic stress; then, even more important, you provide him with a secure, nurturing relationship with at least one parent and ideally two. That's not the whole secret of success, but it is a big, big part of it." (182)

Tough explains that, rather than making a case for the economic value of better-educated students who will add greater value to society, "the argument that resonates more with me is a purely personal one. When I spend time with children growing up in adversity, I can't help but feel two things. First, a sense of anger for what they've already missed...Which leads to my second reaction: a feeling of admiration and hope when I watch young people making the difficult and often painful choice to follow a better path, to turn away from what might have seemed like their inevitable destiny...And every day they pull themselves up one more rung on the ladder to a more successful future...They did not get onto that ladder alone. They are there only because someone helped them to take the first step."

I share Paul Tough's hope that those who read his book will follow Elizabeth Siegel's example and seize every opportunity to provide children with "the unexpected experience of someone taking them seriously, believing in their abilities, and challenging them to improve themselves." Help them to locate a "ladder" and then take the first step up. Thus begins what is certain to be a difficult climb for them but one made somewhat easier by knowing they are not alone. In years to come, many of the young ladder climbers will then help other children to achieve success. That is a compelling vision, one that simply must become a reality.

This book was so amazing! It captured true stories of our failing youth as well as the amazing strides that particular schools are making in the lives of have-nots. I lend this book to friends and colleagues in education because it contains some hard hitting numbers to digest and gives you plenty to chew on when we think on the character of our children who are to fill our societal shoes in the upcoming future. Great read!

Maybe I read more into the synopsis and the few pages that I looked at on line, but I found the readabiliy and the format of the presentation making for a laborious read. It was not a text that made you want to keep reading, rather one that reminded me of a text book, containing material that I wanted to know. But little pleasure in the actual process of reading it.That does not mean the content was flawed or uninteresting, just a presentation that could have been much better with some editing .

Tough has written a brilliant book. He combines a solid synthesis of a range of scholarly work with useful examples. In an era that fetishizes No Child Left Behind's high-stakes testing, Tough pushes back firmly, if gently, arguing persuasively that other aspects of a child's education, especially those relating to character development, may well matter more. Though I've read (indeed, written about)some of these questions, I learned a lot from the book. It's indispensable reading for anyone with an interest in how our chilren are educated.

Paul Tough has brought together important research and anecdotal data reinforcing the value of non-cognitive learning as a pathway for success. Teachers at all levels need to read this brief but essential work. Teaching and Learning for success is not a a one way street. The current emphasis on high stakes testing is limiting to students, teachers, and parents. Tough encourages us to choose another way. As Margaret Mead said, "Children must be taught how to think, not what to think." How Children Succeed points educators in the right direction.

My daughter in law suggested this book, as I teach in an elementary school. I found the book very interesting. It is based on clinical studies. I ordered it to read on my iPad, I would have preferred the hard copy. I like to make notes and reference pages. An interesting read for not only teachers, school psychologists, but also parents wanting their child to succeed.

Read this book over the last three nights, I think all parents, educators, and anyone interested in the future of the youth should read this. Even those who are well off and living in good school districts can find gleanings from this book. I wish we could somehow get all the educators in this book in a room, and rebuild the education system in the US.

From birth through college, Tough combines a thorough review of the research with on-point interviews and visits with programs and staff who try to change the trajectory for high-risk children. He also captures the voices of the children themselves. It's a bit uneven in how it approaches topics and parts are too long (I do not ever want to hear another word about middle school chess). However, as a policy advocate for low-income children, I'd consider this a great introduction to what we know and what can be done in your community.

Though academic with conclusive hard data driven (rat) research, this book is easy to read and put into practice. It demonstrates how to inoculate children against failure and gift them the greatest opportunity for success and life happiness. It's not any of the latest and greatest hot brain games, toys, or computers. Based on Bolby's Attachment Theory, success is driven by parental involvement and simple soothing in times of stress. It can be practiced successfully by any parent regardless of income or social status. It is the antidote for poverty. A good compliment is [...] and author Paul Zak and his work on the Cuddle Molecule—oxytocin.

GRIT AND CHARACTER: CHILDREN SUCCEED WHO HAVE IT; THOSE WHO DON'T WON'T

I. GED DEGREES ARE WORTHLESS. IQ or intelligence, by itself, has little to do with a child's ultimate success. America once believed the contrary: that what schools develop, and what a high school degree certifies, is cognitive skill. Thus, if a teenager has proven this skill through passing the GED exam, then she doesn't have to waste her time actually finishing high school. We now know this is false. In terms of all kinds of important future outcomes - annual income, unemployment rate, divorce rate, use of illegal drugs and college accomplishments - GED holders look exactly like every other high school drop-out. Yes, the GED measures intelligence. But it signifies nothing more.
II. THE ACQUISITION OF NON-COGNITIVE SKILLS SUCH AS GRIT, CURIOSITY AND CONSCIENTIOUSNESS. These are what economists refer to as noncognitive skills, that psychologists call personality traits and that the rest of us sometimes think of as character. Developing many other kinds of skill - such as in vocabulary and math - is a simple matter of starting earlier and practicing more. If you want to perfect your foul shot, shooting 200 free throws every afternoon is going to be more helpful than shooting 20. If you're in fourth grade, reading 40 books over the summer is going to improve your reading ability more than 4. But we can't get better at overcoming disappointment by working harder at it; children don't lag behind in curiosity simply because they didn't start doing curiosity drills at an early enough age.
III. PERRY PRESCHOOL PROJECT. In this 1960s war on poverty experiment, children 4 years of age were selected from low-income, low IQ, inner-city black parents and then immersed in a high quality two-year pre-school program. The Perry Project for a long time was considered something of a failure because by the time the children were in the third grade, their IQ scores had deflated and were no better than a control group's. However, years later, an economist looking at the Perry data discovered that there had been very positive effects. Compared to the control group, the Perry children were more likely to have graduated from high school, more likely to be employed at age 27 , and less likely ever to have been arrested or spent time on welfare.
IV. ADVERSE CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES STUDY. (Commonly called ACE) From a mostly middle class Kaiser HMO data base, researchers conducted surveys on thousands of adults to determine whether they, as children, had experienced any of 10 different categories of adverse childhood experience: physical and sexual abuse, physical and emotional neglect, divorced or separated parents, parents incarcerated/ addicted, etc. A child who had suffered one of these conditions got an ACE score of "1", two conditions, "2" etc. The correlations between adverse childhood experiences and negative adult outcomes were so powerful that they "stunned" the researchers. People with ACE scores of 4 or higher were twice as likely to smoke, 7X more likely to be alcoholics, and 7X more likely to have had sex before age fifteen. They were twice as likely to have been diagnosed with cancer, twice as likely to have heart disease, twice as likely to have liver disease, four times as likely to suffer from emphysema or chronic bronchitis. On some charts, the slopes were especially steep: adults with an ACE score above 6 were 30X more likely to have attempted suicide than those with an ACE score of 0. And men with an ACE score above 5 were 46 more likely to have injected drugs. Even when researchers discounted for self-destructive behaviors like smoking and heavy drinking, the negative health effects on things such as heart disease were still pronounced. The key channel causing the damage: the body's hormonal reaction to the stress, precipitated by the childhood adversity. The effects were "written" on the child's body ... deep under their skin where they remained for the rest of its life.
V. EXECUTIVE FUNCTION (the ability to deal with confusing and unpredictable situations) Researchers long have known that poverty correlates strongly with executive function, but they didn't know why. When researchers used statistical techniques to factor out child adversity influences, the apparent poverty effect disappeared completely. It wasn't poverty itself that was messing with the executive-function abilities of poor kids. It was the stress that usually goes along with poverty.
VI. HIGH-LICKING AND GROOMED LAB RATS. A researcher (Meaney) while handling baby rat pups, inadvertently noticed a difference between pups after they were put back in the litter: some were licked and groomed by their mothers while other mothers ignored their pups. Tests determined that human handling of pups always produced anxiety and a flood of stress hormones. Researchers divided the pups into two categories: high lick and groomed (LG) pups vs. low (LG) pups. Factoring out genetics (by putting pups with foster mothers) the differences in "character" between the two groups was striking. Over the full course of their lives, the high-LG pups excelled: They were better at mazes. They were more social. They were more curious. They were less aggressive. They had more self-control. They were healthier. They lived longer.
VII. HUMAN CHILD DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH. Into the 1960s, research in this field was dominated by the "behaviorists." Non-behaviorist researchers created the "Strange Situation" experiment: 12 month old human babies with their mothers were put into a lab set up as a playground. Then the mothers were asked to leave the lab, sometimes leaving the baby alone and sometimes with strangers. When the mother returned, researchers observed two different categories of baby reaction: 60% ("securely attached") greeted the returning mother happily, sometimes tearfully, sometimes with joy; 40% ("anxiously attached") did not have a happy reunion, lashing out, pretending to ignore the mother, etc. Not surprisingly in retrospect- since this was exactly the opposite of what the behaviorists had expected - the parents of the anxious babies had parenting styles that were detached or conflicted or hostile. This difference in early parental care had long-term consequences; the researchers discovered that this single measure of baby attachment could predict with 77% accuracy which children would never graduate from high school. A more accurate predictor than IQ or test scores or the natural abilities of the child! Bottom line: improving a child's attachment is the most powerful lever for improving later academic outcomes, far more important than infant nutrition, housing, the vocabulary richness of the home, etc.
VIII. KIPP CHARTER SCHOOLS (Knowledge is Power Program) These charter schools were started in New York City for inner city kids and involved a new, immersive style of schooling, combining long days of high-energy, high-intensity classroom instruction with an elaborate program of attitude adjustment and behavior modification. Initially, the formula seemed to have worked: in 1999 the KIPP students earned the highest scores of any school in the Bronx and the fifth-highest in all of New York City. Unheard of. But longer term, the results of PIPP were not so clear-cut. Six years after their high-school graduation, just 21 percent of the KIPP initial class-- eight students-- had completed a four-year college degree. The problem: KIPP set up graduating students very well academically, but it didn't prepare them emotionally or psychologically. "We went from having that close-knit family, where everyone knew what you were doing, to high school, where there's no one on you." What the founder of KIPP (Levin) learned was that what his students needed, in addition to academic skills, what he called "character strengths"... like optimism and resilience. The trouble was that at that time in America, there was not an established curriculum or method for teaching character.... or even talking about it! Today, Levin's teachers use chants, songs and drills and the students wear T-shirts with the slogan "One School. One Mission. Two Skills. Academics and Character." Upshot: Levin has learned that character traits such as optimism are learnable skills and that these character skills are even more necessary for the under-privileged.
IX. CHARACTER NEEDED EQUALLY BY CHILDREN OF THE WEALTHY. John F Kennedy and Robert F Kennedy once attended Riverdale School in New York City. Tuition in this school, just for prekindergarten, starts at $38,500 per year. It is the kind of school members of the establishment send their kids so they can learn to be members of the establishment. Yet the new headmaster at Riverdale believes the emphasis on tests and IQ "is missing out on some serious parts of what it means to be a successful human." That missing thing is character. "People who have an easy time of things, who get eight hundreds on their SATs, I worry that those people get feedback that everything they're doing is great. And I think as a result, we are actually setting them up for long-term failure." For underprivileged KIPP kids, the notion that character can help them get through college is a powerful lure, but for kids at schools like Riverdale, not so much. No Riverdale student ever doubts that he/she is going on to college and inevitable graduation. (`Every generation in my family did it'). So it's harder to get rich kids invested in this idea of character. Riverdale see a lot of "helicopter parents," always hovering around, ready to swoop in to rescue, but not necessarily, to bond.
X. AFFLUENT TEENAGERS OFTEN HAVE MORE PROBLEMS WITH ALCOHOL, DRUGS AND DEPRESSION THAN LOW-INCOME TEENS. Studies show that children of affluent parents exhibit "unexpectedly high rates of emotional problems beginning in junior high school. And this is no accident of demographics. Wealthy parents today are more likely than others to be emotionally distant from their children while at the same time insisting on high levels of achievement, a potentially toxic blend of influences that can create "intense feelings of shame and hopelessness." Some studies have found that affluent teenagers use alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana, and harder illegal drugs more than the low-income teens. And because of emotional disconnection, affluent parents tend to be unusually indulgent of their children's bad behavior. Children of affluent parents don't have to put up with a lot of suffering. They don't have a threshold for it and, thus, inadvertently they are shielded from exactly the kind of experiences that can lead to character growth. What kids need more than anything is a little hardship: some challenge, some deprivation that they can overcome, even if just to prove to themselves that they can.
XI. CONSCIENTIOUSNESS. Human personality can be explored along 5 dimensions: agreeableness, extraversion, neuroticism, openness to experience, and conscientiousness. The most important of these from the standpoint of academic success is conscientiousness, the ability to respond well even in the absence of material incentives. Conscientiousness predicts many outcomes that go far beyond the workplace. People high in conscientiousness get better grades in high school and college; they commit fewer crimes; and they stay married longer. They live longer-- and not just because they smoke and drink less. They have fewer strokes, lower blood pressure, and a lower incidence of Alzheimer's disease. The people in society who value conscientiousness are not intellectuals, and they're not academics, and they're not liberals. They tend to be religious-right conservatives. Until very recently, academic researchers shunned conscientiousness; they preferred to study "openness to experience" because it's "cool" and it's about creativity. Most of the research on conscientiousness was done by consultants to resource managers in large corporations who found that IT was the trait that best predicted workplace success. But though it has no downsides, conscientiousness is not the only measure of human potentiality, nor the only word to encompass the concept.
XII. "GRIT" AND THE 6 OTHER STRENGTHS OF HUMAN PERSONALITY. Grit is roughly defined as "a passionate commitment to a single mission and unswerving dedication to achieve that mission. A simple test (involving self-evaluation) has been developed and it is highly predictive of academic success. Grit is only faintly related to IQ; there are smart gritty people and some dumb gritty people. The educational authorities upon whom the author relies believe grit is the most important for education of the 7 dimensions of human character they have focused upon. Self-control, zest, social intelligence, gratitude, optimism and curiosity are the others.

XIII. THE CRUCIAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN `WANTING' SOMETHING AND `CHOOSING' IT. When it comes to ambition, there is a crucial difference between volition and motivation. Between wanting to lose weight and choosing to be fit. Decide that you want to become world chess champion, and you will probably fail to put in the necessary hard work. If, however, you choose to become world champion, then you will reveal your choice through your behavior and your determination. Every action says, `This is who I am.' The author spent several years monitoring a woman public school chess coach who has had amazing success teaching NYC underprivileged black kids to become (often) nationally ranked chess players. One such kid gave up everything for more than a year to achieve his goal: no parties, no Facebook, no TV or ESPN. Talking about it later, this young man looked back on those months with not just pride in the result, but also pleasant memories of that monastic process. He contrasted this period of dedication with his previous feeling of being unchallenged, "Wasting his brain." Why not, he was asked, spend the same energy on something worthwhile like becoming a brain surgeon? Or something that will bring one material advantage? He answered in terms of aesthetics. The game of chess "is a celebration of existential freedom, in the sense that we are blessed with the opportunity to create ourselves through our actions. In choosing to play chess, we are celebrating freedom above utility. The same can be said of football, competitive swimming, etc..
XIV. RULES, WILLPOWER, HABIT AND CHARACTER. Rules are not the same as willpower. They are a metacognitive substitute for willpower. By making yourself a rule ("I never eat fried dumplings"), you can sidestep the painful internal conflict between your desire and your willful determination to resist. Rules provide structure, preparing us for encounters with tempting stimuli and redirecting our attention elsewhere. Before long, the rules have become as automatic as the appetites they are deflecting. William James, the American philosopher and psychologist, wrote that the traits we call virtues are no more and no less than simple habits. Habit and character are essentially the same thing. Some kids have good habits and some bad; the trick for schools is to inculcate - in most of them - the good.
XV. GROUP IDENTITY AND "STEREOTYPE THREAT." The human psyche is incredibly complex. Psychologists have demonstrated that group identity can have a powerful effect on achievement-- both a positive and a negative one. For example, poor disadvantaged kids going to KIPP charter schools are encouraged to play on the in-group/ out-group thing: `We know what SLANTing is and you don't know what SLANTing is, because you don't go to KIPP.' When white students at Princeton were told before trying a ten-hole mini golf course that it was a test of natural ability in sports (which they feared they didn't possess), they scored four strokes worse than a similar group of white students who were told it was a test of their ability to think strategically. For black students, the effect was the opposite: when they were told the mini golf course was a test of their strategic intelligence, their scores were four strokes worse. Before a challenging math test, female college students need only be reminded that they are female for them to do worse on the test than female students who don't receive that identity cue. The good news about stereotype threat is that, just as it can be triggered by subtle cues, it can be defused by subtle interventions.

XVI. YOUNG ADULTS WITHOUT CHARACTER SKILLS DON'T HAVE MUCH ....BECAUSE CHARACTER IS WHAT KEEPS PEOPLE HAPPY AND SUCCESSFUL AND FULFILLED. Chess or athletics or an "A" in calculus, anything that one choses to accomplish, it doesn't matter. Per the author: "I think the worst thing is you look back on your childhood and it's one blur of sitting in class and being bored and coming home and watching TV." This is the all too common result for too many American children. In positive psychology "optimal experiences" are those rare moments in human existence when a person feels free of mundane distractions, in control of his fate, totally engaged by the moment. A word to describe this is flow. Flow moments occur "when a person's body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult or worthwhile." "There's joyousness to it. That's when you're happiest or that's when you're most you or that's when you feel your best. It's easy for naysayers - looking from the outside in - to deride your accomplishment; but for the child who has achieved, there's nothing else they'd rather do.

XVII. CONCLUSION: WE NEED TO IMPROVE POOR CHILDREN'S ACADEMIC SKILLS AND OUTCOMES. Academic grades in school are very good predictors of all kinds of outcomes in life: not just how far you'll go in school and how much you'll earn when you get out, but also whether you'll commit crimes, whether you'll take drugs, whether you'll get married, and whether you'll get divorced. What The Bell Curve showed was that kids who do well in school tend to do well in life, whether or not they come from poverty. If we can help poor children improve their academic skills and academic outcomes, they can escape the cycle of poverty by virtue of their own abilities and without additional handouts or set-asides. But....according to a consensus of reform advocates, the challenge is that there are far too many underperforming teachers, especially in high-poverty schools.

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I purchased this book a while back after seeing a review of it in the Boy Scouts of America newsletter. It more than exceeded my expectations. Paul Tough reveals some concepts about how to help children of all economic backgrounds succeed academically and personally that are realistic and attainable. He focuses heavily on character development, which can be seen in many schools today. Excellent book!

This book needs to be read by every parent, teacher and medical professional who deals with children, pay attention to the order listed in the sentence.

There are many things that even people without kids can learn.

This book was very interesting because it approched teaching and student learning from a different perspective. Instead of learning being tied to test scores, the book examines other ways in which students succeed based on things other than book learning, such as character development, curiosity about the world, and determnation.

A very interesting book. I chanced upon a reference to it and decided to purchase it. Not at all sorry. I recommend the book for all "parents to be". Unfortunately, those that would benefit most (for the benefit of their children) are less likely to do so. BTW, my children are all adults.

Superb and fastidious reporting on one of American society's most complex challenges. We know what's going wrong, and it's devastating. Now, with Tough's perfect weaving of science and social science, there are actual ANSWERS. I am going to recommend this book to every teacher I know, and everyone who has a child they love in their life. And EVERYONE ELSE. Fascinating. Sad that it ended...but I guess I have to sleep sometime. (Low grit. Working on it.)

Tough provides excellent information from professionals who have dedicated their lives to study how children learn. Now, if anyone is looking for the answer to how children succeed, he/she may end up disappointed. This book does not provide an one-fits-all answer, but it does provide powerful insights, real life examples, and experiments that do help to understand how parents could raise kids to become better learners. I expected to have more thoughtful analysis from the author, yet he did an excellent job putting together all the info in one book. I would recommend this book to anyone, especially parents.

There are some interesting insights, but some of this was common sense. Overall, I would recommend reading this book only if you borrowed it from the library and were to scan major parts of the book. It was really repetitive and extremely dry to try and read cover to cover.

An interesting look at the qualities that children need to be successful. It didn't tell me much that I didn't already know, but its well written and a good reminder of how important it is to teach the whole child and not just focus on academic content.

This book delivers the research on education to the classroom, school and community in a way that would help parents, teachers and especially administrators teach in ways that lead to a successful life - (with higher scores as a welcome side effect.) Well told stories make the reading interesting as well.

In the great debate over opportunity in America, quality education has emerged as a critical sound bite. Here the discussion goes to a place where few concerned parties dare to tread, the painful reality of the home environment. If we as a nation are to tackle our education issues we must be honest about the difficult conversation of poverty and hopelessness. We must embrace education as empowerment, and create an national environment of support. Newer more complex educational systems look great on paper, but they do not address or help our children with the greatest educational needs.

This book takes a very comprehensive look at every aspect of what it takes to educate a child. The author carefully connects all of the initiatives and the many attempts to improve education in our country. He includes stories and practical examples of what works and what doesn't work....and why specific approaches don't work. This book confirms what many educators have felt for years but did not have the evidence needed to support classroom practices that will make a difference. Thank you, Mr. Tough for doing your homework and giving us this resource!

One of the most clear and concise accounts I have read of why students act as they do when dealing with stress. It explains the physiological effects of stress on the developing brains of young children and teens and how it relates to school. I highly recommend this book to all educators and parents.

Inspiring! I also bought the Audible and listened while I was stuck in traffic and while I was cooking or washing dishes. i consumed this book in 3 days, and then reread big chunks of it. The reader for Audible is fantastic, and the book itself is a pleasure.
Teachers, treat yourself to this book as summer reading!

Tough's book provides an accessible and enjoyable run through some of the latest research on why children succeed, or, more importantly, why some (usually poor kids) don't. As someone who studies this area professionally, I was impressed by the breadth of research covered and the nuance with which Tough handles it (with a few exceptions). Mixing journalistic profiles and coverage with scientific research, Tough does an excellent job weaving together themes and patterns in the field of child development. If you're a fan of Malcolm Gladwell's books, I would recommend this highly as it moves past airport-popular press to a deliver some real stories about what's happening with American kids.

This book is the practical how-to companion book to Paul Tough's "Whatever It Takes." After reading a few chapters every day, it helped me hone in exactly what I needed to for my kids (4 kids aged 8 to 13) that day, week, month, year, and beyond. I just hope that public policy makers are picking up Mr. Tough's books and, really hope (maybe beyond hope?) that caregivers of at-risk children are doing the same.

I enjoyed this book I reflected on my own childhood and being brought up under the poverty line. I am thankful that I had teachers believe in me in addition to my family. I received that bachelor degree and it wasn't easy. Being one of the first to earn a degree is satisfying. I hope the cycle is broken and my children will aspire to do great things. I am always hopeful that there are teachers who will continue to Chang e the landscapeo the less fortunate.

This is a well researched book presented in an interesting way. It is an easy read and fun! As a teacher it has been useful in helping me think of how to design lesson plans that will help build character. It also helps me understand how to talk to parents on why it is okay if their child doesn't get an A.

I enjoyed this book a lot. Notwithstanding the author is trying sometimes to cover too many topics: education system, brain development, racism, poverty, even chess technics... I think the core idea throughout the book is interesting. Very nice book.

While it has interesting quotes and studies, it is not prescriptive, which is what our reading group wanted. Much of the book gave us information that we already know about students who do not have resilience, etc.

I found this book to be full of interesting details about teaching and what is being taught. The information about morals was very relevant to me. I had an aha moment when the author discussed how the war on poverty has shifted to the present discussion of "if only our schools were doing their job our society would be all right." I feel that ideas in this book should be discussed and that more people should find ways to act upon them.

This book makes an unbalanced argument in two ways. First, it claims that if schools could just help students develop non-cognitive skills such as grit, courage, kindness, that would have more impact on eventual success than cognitive skills. In truth it's both/and. You need knowledge AND habits of mind. Paul Tough alludes to this with a couple of stories of students who have learned to focus but don't have the background knowledge to score well on tests, yet keeps coming back to grit as the solution.

Second, from my standing as an expert in psychological type, I'm concerned about how the book describes conscientiousness, one of these key non-cognitive skills that relates to the NEO-Pi, or Five-Factor personality model scale for Conscientiousness. This model measures traits, so absence of Conscientiousness is a problem. Solution presented: teach the habits of conscientiousness to those who don't have them.

The world of psychological type, popularized through the MBTI, has a very different model. Conscientiousness is highly correlated (you can check the MBTI manual) with what we call having a preference for Judging, or coming to closure. Its psychological opposite is Perceiving, or preferring to stay open to more perceptions. Both are equally valuable ways of being.

Tough spends a few sentences admitting that one can be too Conscientious (i.e. OCD) and also that people like Steve Jobs didn't necessarily exhibit this--they are more Open in the model he refers to. That's what we'd call Intuition, in contrast to the down-to-earth Sensing approach to life (check my website for way better information on all of this!!)

But here's the deal: Tough is pretty much prescribing Sensing/Judging ways of succeeding. And what we know in the type world is that Intuitive/Perceiving types NEED DIFFERENT STRATEGIES. What works for J's like planning ahead and starting early HAS to take a different form for P's.

Tough admits that no school has figured out how to educate all students successfully. We won't figure it out until we acknowledge that these inborn differences have different needs for, and definitions of, success.

This book is well-researched and informative regarding the interaction of grit, character, and intelligence. However, if you are looking for guidance to develop perseverance in your students or own children, this book will not be useful to you. There are no techniques for helping children learn to persevere.

This was a very reader friendly compilation of research done over the past 50 years in the areas of child development, neuroscience and brain development, psychology and education. It is told from the viewpoint of a reporter telling stories about an area so important to the future of our children and country. I highly recommend it!

As a retired psychologist, I was familiar with much of the research that Paul Tough reviewed, however I was encouraged to read about the successful efforts to promote the traits of conscientiousness, perseverance, and "grit" in students. This is an important book for parents, educators, and politicians to read.

I would have liked a discussion of temperament included. (See a discussion of Temperament on the Wikipedia website. ) Most parents recognize their children's temperamental traits from an early age. Stella Chase and Herbert Birch were among the first to note that many children show inborn traits that reflect "easy," "slow to warm up" and "difficult" temperaments. The concept of "goodness of fit" between the child's temperament and his/her environment are critical to promote success. I expect that even children experiencing many stressors differ in the way they respond, as examined in the literature on the "resilient child." I am just emphasizing the need to meet children's individual needs as they progress through any program. Obviously in the impressive case studies presented, each individual was involved in a caring, supportive relationship with a mentor.

Helping kids succeed isn't! If you are in education, hopefully it's because you have been called into this most critical career! Passion for life, for kids, for helping create miracles is a must!

Money and programs are NOT necessary to help all students! You must hold kids accountable for success and show them that the only limit one has is the ones we place on ourself... "We must do the thing we think we cannot do"! Eleanor Roosevelt. Believe and achieve!

I'm working on a doctoral dissertation on related matters and Tough is killing me because he is beating me to the punch on a number of conclusions. He uses empirical research from top thinkers exceedingly well and makes them accessible to all, and his use of anecdotal evidence to illustrate his points is engaging and helpful. Everyone in education (including parents) should read this book.

Very well researched and written. Not enough is written that goes against the popular stream of thought and of that small amount, much is a mindless rant. This book stands out for the quality of its ideas and their presentation. One of my top ten books of the year; one that has changed my thinking.

Great presentation and sequence for ideas and concepts. I liked the stories and the data used behind the scenes. It really has helped me take a different perspective of how I look at learning as well as traits that are critical to success.