What is anybody doing to help children born into poverty to get through school, the elusive first stepping stone to success?
Every variation of this question seems to have been asked before, and there is no use hitting on a nail that’s already stuck an inch deep in the wall. Paul Tough’s new book dives straight into answers about what can be done; his message is grounded in clear argument, while providing thorough anecdotes that deconstruct society’s assumptions about education. He details the subtlety of defining “success,” examines the real predictors of success, and debunks our reliance on measures such as ACT scores, which many assume is the end-all be-all of upward mobility. This book offers a new way of seeing education. And all this in good, page-turning nonfiction.
The groundbreaking documentary, Waiting for Superman, came out in 2010. This book, to me, is the crucial next step in the conversation about education. Rather than focusing on structural changes that could, in theory, work, Paul Tough details stories of schools, charismatic students, and charismatic educators that he has spent time with firsthand. His background is in journalism, and he weaves in supplemental evidence from a myriad of fields with the analysis of his fieldwork with children and educators. He makes points that are so obvious as to be often ignored; for instance, he reminds us that even children who are “privileged” in the traditional sense often lack the character traits that predict successful college graduation and fulfilling vocation. If all that schools need is more money, why are many rich kids also dropouts? Never failing to consider the specific details and pitfalls of the research he calls on, Tough makes fresh points. Unlike some writing, though, it doesn’t seem that Tough is making this point just for the sake of making a point about something; this is real reporting and valid skepticism about education researchers’ and reformers’ understanding of education itself.
Tough argues both movingly and convincingly that character traits, and not results taken from tests of any kind in existence or use today, are “how children succeed.” But the message is hopeful. He shows that skills like confidence and resourcefulness can be developed in schools, even for children who missed out on basic nurturing and attention from their parents. There are things that schools and teachers can do to provide a background of capability that is missing for so many children due – very often – to poverty.
Beyond opening my eyes to fresh possibilities for the future of education, this book really helped to distill for me the types of character traits that I need to develop in myself. To sort of paraphrase Tough, these traits are grit, curiosity, confidence and resourcefulness, optimism, and the belief that even when it seems like you can’t face up to the challenge in front of you, intelligence and character can be learned and developed. The argument for what needs to happen within schools can be taken as doubly hopeful: if children can develop skills that were perhaps absent at the beginning of their time in school, then perhaps U.S. schools themselves can develop, too, at this time when the system can seem so hopelessly inefficient.
How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character by Paul Tough, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $27.00
By Whitney
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