"How Children Succeed"

We have been going along full steam for the past couple of years being told that all educators had to do to ensure student success was to make sure that we did a great job at cognitive development. Of course that level of cognition can always be assessed/measured and that is one of the reasons for all the testing.

Some of the most recent studies have found that what matters most in terms of children succeeding is not getting young people stuffed early in life with numbers and reading. To be sure, this is not a rant about the need for cognitive development; rather, it is an examination of the forces that have a larger bearing on long term success in life.

Paul Tough has found that what really makes a difference in one life are the forces of grit, curiosity, persistence and the hidden power of character. His research, along with that of others, across many spectrum (social sciences, stress physiologists, economics and more) have found that the care and attention children receive in early life are the building blocks that shape the above qualities.

Tough has found that it doesn't matter if a child is reared in an economically impoverished home or that in a wealthy neighborhood. What matters is limiting the stress that anyone can confront and stress can be found in within any socio-economic area or locality. All of that being said, it is likely that children in locations of high crime, poverty, broken homes and the like face greater stress obstacles.

If we are truly looking at helping children succeed then we need to examine current practices and look at other meaningful ways of assisting children as we school them.

Dick