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How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, And The Hidden Power Of Character (2012)

by Paul Tough(Favorite Author)

3.9 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0547564651 (ISBN13: 9780547564654)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

review 1: I know this looks like yet another book for overly-involved white parents worried about getting their children into the best preschool, but I assure you it is not. This is one of the most insightful and intelligent books I've ever read about public education in America. Paul Tough exposes the lies of meritocracy, standardized testing, education reform (a.k.a. teacher tenure reform), and racism that are often used to explain why some kids get a good education in this country, and others do not. While terms like "grit, curiosity," and "character" mean nothing in the abstract, Tough clearly defines these terms in the context of his argument. Kids who grow up in poverty are more than just disadvantaged. It's not as simple as simply "working harder."Spoiler alert: parents play ... morea huge role in the success of their children and systemic poverty makes it exceedingly hard to be a good parent. That's the heart of the issue. If you care about poverty and education (and Tough argues that the two are intricately linked), then you really need to read this book.
review 2: An interesting look at children succeeding through difficult circumstances. The arguements I found most interesting were about the SAT's and the fact that high school GPA is actually a much better predictor of college success than an SAT or ACT score. Sadly what it made me think was that what truely matters for college (and a large number of jobs today) is to do pointless work that you know doesn't really matter in the long run and doesn't take much thought. That the true thing that separates success from failure is the ability to make ourselves do the things we don't want to do (to wait for the long payoff). I don't necessarily disagree with the premise of the book but I very depressed about what I take away from it. less

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