It’s happened to me twice now. Both in September and November, as my husband and I are flying home from visiting family, he takes his nose out of the newspaper and says to me: “you’ve got to read this.” I love when he does this because the two articles he shared really gave me food for thought. Both articles were from the Wall Street Journal weekend edition.
In September, “Opting Out of the ‘Rug Rat Race’” was Paul Tough’s adaptation of his new book How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity and the Hidden Power of Character. Tough contends that parents are overly concerned about their preschool children’s intellectual skill set, what he calls the “cognitive hypothesis.” Rather, Tough says what matters most in young children’s development is a totally different set of qualities such as persistence, self-control, curiosity, conscientiousness, grit and self-confidence. Tough cites a study conducted with GED recipients who, while demonstrating the same knowledge and skills as high school graduates, did not have the same positive outcomes in life because they lacked the essential ‘non-cognitive” skills. I surely agree with Tough that motivation and perseverance are essential, as are the qualities that contribute to character. I happily bought the book.
