Can Perseverance Be Taught?
This was featured as a Parent Teacher resource in Weekly Newsletter Week 19. Each newsletter offers a tip, tool or research to help parents who work in the classroom feel more grounded in their classroom experience.
“This question is motivated by two everyday intuitions, both of which have been confirmed in empirical research: First, some people are, in general, more persistent and passionate about long-term goals. Second, grit predicts success. Grit is not the only determinant of success – opportunity and talent matter, too. But on average, grittier individuals are more successful than others, particularly in very challenging situations”. Read Dr. Duckworth’s article, here.
How can you implement this in your Parent Teaching?
- Maintain high expectations (relative to the student)
- Don’t loosen your expectation to make things easier/speed things up.
- Share your value of working through the challenge; model determination.
- Encourage absolutely. Words like “you can,” “look at what you are doing,” and “i will be here while you work on this,” make the goal feasible in the face of adversity.
- Empower a child to practice the things they are just able to do for themselves without intervention.