Katie Osgood works in a psychiatric hospital for adolescents. She weighs in here on the debate, if there is one, about “grit.” Grit meaning perseverance, determination, character.
The kids she works with are in terrible trouble, and Katie says it is not their fault.
She writes that:
“…. the hyper-focus on individual character traits like “grit” is incredibility dangerous and damaging.
“I think of my students at the psychiatric hospital where I teach. My students are overwhelmingly students of color and many are students coming from the most debilitating poverty. And the oppression, neglect, and abuses they’ve experienced often manifest as significant mental health problems. Many have severe depression, suicidal ideation, debilitating anxiety, aggressive outbursts, or self-harming behaviors. According to Duckworth fans, these are kids significantly lacking in “grit”.
“And my kids are often very quick to give up on academic tasks. I work with many students who shut down, refuse to come to class at all at times, and instead sleep the day away. Some students act out aggressively-throwing chairs, making threats, storming out of the classroom-as a way to avoid difficult tasks. Others may act the class clown, disrupting the flow of the lesson.
“But there is always a reason behind these behaviors. I would never begin by assuming they lack perseverance, but would always look to why students are acting the way they are. Are they overloaded with their personal problems often including trauma and abuse? Have they been told repeatedly through test scores, grade retention, and frequent detentions/suspensions that they are no good and have internalized that they are “failures”? Is that student experiencing PTSD symptoms affecting their ability to concentrate and to persevere?
“The hopelessness these kids often feel is not a character flaw, but a normal human reaction to unconscionable circumstances. In fact, given the trials many kids have faced, they have shown amazing perseverance and grit in their lives.
Now I am not saying there are never times when kids just need some encouragement to persevere through a task. Good teachers use their relationships with students and expertise to decide if a little extra grit is what’s needed or if the task at hand should be modified or perhaps to discover if the student requires some other more pressing need be met first. Teaching grit is secondary at best in this process. The idea that this trait is a key ingredient missing in our students leading to low educational outcomes is preposterous. In fact, given the difficult life obstacles we do not protect so many children from in this country, this narrative is downright offensive.
“When we acknowledge how our society has utterly failed low-income communities of color through purposeful disinvestment, brutal police tactics, mass incarceration disparately impacting people of color, the lack of affordable housing, the criminal shortage of any jobs (much less living wage jobs), the gutting of a quality welfare system and other public services, and the destruction and dismantling of public education opportunities through school closures, turnarounds, and privatization efforts, we see entire populations thrown into abusive conditions.”
There is much more to read and think about here.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Shame on us, heartbreaking really. A similar school in the Albany area is floundering: reduced services and aide, inadequate programs to really support a human being coming up through poverty.
“Grit” is just another trendy phenomenon embraced by the reformers that deflects attention away from the real issues that affect students achievement. Middle and upper class kids get better results than poor kids. Is it because they have more “grit” than kids in poverty? Of course not, but don’t bother telling that to the educrats.
As an inner city public school teacher, I found some deeply troubled youngsters with problems caused at least in part by a vast array of injustices and inequities that Ms. Osgood describes.
Having read some work by progressive educators, I also learned about advisory programs and project based approaches that helped many (not all but many) of the angriest, most challenging youngsters graduate from high school and continue their lives in positive ways. Project based approaches and advisory programs that helped each teacher in our (district) public school learn more about each youngster and her/his family were not enough. We worked closely with other professionals, sometimes in our building, sometimes outside, to help families obtain services and support.
That was years before people described as “grit” what we were trying to help youngsters learn.
Minnesota New Country and some other progressive schools have learned they can help young people develop greater persistence.
None of this ignores the real, vital effort to reduce or eliminate injustice and inequity that affects far too many families and youngsters. But I think schools can play a role in helping many young people achieve far more than they thought possible when they initially walked in the door.
Joe Nation,
I’m relatively new to the Ravitch blog. Most commenters, here, are typical people, not famous. Some won’t divulge their names for fear of retribution. But, you’re famous? Are you the pension critic from California? Are you connected with SIEPR, which was retitled, by critics as, the Stanford Institute to Eviscerate People’s Retirement? Did California State Treasurer, Bill Lockyear, resign from an advisory pension panel at SIEPR and, did his press secretary, referring to the pension studies, say, “SIEPR clearly has a public agenda and it doesn’t include legitimate research”? When you ran for office, were your backers, PAC’s associated with the pharmaceutical, insurance, real estate development and/or oil companies?
If so, kudos to Diane. Her blog merits the attention of John Arnold’s allies.
Typical Person, Joe Nathan speaks for the charter movement. He is a good guy who helped to start it many years ago in Minnesota, and he doesn’t understand that the movement has been taken over by Wall Street, ALEC, the Walton Family Foundation, the Gates Foundation, the Broad Foundation, the John Arnold Foundation, and rightwing governors like Scott Walker, Bobby Jindal, Rick Scott, Tom Corbett, etc. Joe still imagines that charters are progressive, but can’t explain why the far-right has embraced them or why they have become bastions of 21st century segregation.
Hi Typical person. No I’m not the person you described. I live in Minnesota.
To further answer your question (since I just read Diane’s answer) , I’ve been an inner city public school teacher and administrator in Minnesota, our 3 kids attended urban non-selective public schools, I was a PTA president as well as on the state PTA board.
Our organization has and is working with both district & charter public schools. I agree that people across the political spectrum support charters (that’s why Phi Delta Kappan, hardly a supporter of the charter idea, found about 2/3 of Americans support the charter idea in their latest national poll.
Some of the things that happen in charters are upsetting – I’d say the same about some district schools.
We try to honor schools and educators who are doing terrific things. I write a weekly column for a number of suburban and rural papers where you’ll see lots of examples of good work by educators and some occasional criticisms:
http://hometownsource.com/tag/joe-nathan/?category=columns-opinion
However debilitating their mental condition might be, the likes of Adam Lanza and James Holmes didn’t spring from this category of underprivileged kids but , rather, from the wealthy and the well cared for. So who seems to have more grit?
“The hopelessness these kids often feel is not a character flaw, but a normal human reaction to unconscionable circumstances.”
Exactly. Sometimes insanity is the only sane response to an insane world.
As always, Katie, beautiful and heartbreaking. Keep fighting the good fight.
Did the category of the underprivileged produce the likes of Adam Lanza and James Homes? To me, as an outsider from a different country, American kids whether from rich or poor backgrounds seem to be in serious trouble to a frightening extent.
For many individuals, relying on “grit” to overcome obstacles is like encouraging a blind person to read a page of plain text, or asking a deaf person to describe the sounds around them: clearly impossible tasks given the conditions of the individuals. Setting expectations for anyone depends on knowing from where they are starting: intellectually, emotionally and physically. The education system as we know it chooses to ignore the obvious when it places children and young adults in age cohorts and expects them all to perform similarly. The most egregious error of this approach is to punish failure while these young people are learning a new task. I wonder just how fast a baby would learn to speak, if at all, if the parent constantly demanded perfect grammar, pronunciation, and syntax every time the baby attempted to express themselves? Please consign Paul Tough’s gritty thesis to the trash where it justifiably belongs. Spend your time applying the excellent approach discussed by Tim Harford in his book “Why Success Always Starts With Failure.”
We agree that success often starts with failure. Using your example, youngsters do learn to walk and talk with lots of encouragement and support, along with modeling. No one is relying on “grit’ to solve all the problems. But effective schools do help many youngsters learn to work together and accomplish a good deal.
Activities like music, band, drama and sports can be extremely valuable parts of an overall strategy to help young people learn the value of persistence – without denying for a moment that there are major inequities and injustices in the society.
“Activities like music, band, drama and sports can be extremely valuable parts of an overall strategy to help young people learn the value of persistence….”
Yes, and those are all activities that public schools are losing because their funding is being pulled to pay for charters.
I think the point of the focus on failure is to put failure in its proper perspective. Every success is preceded by attempts which, if graded on the highest standard, are failures. These attempts, however, are a necessary step to producing a more developed result/success. Creativity and innovation demand an acceptance of “failure” as an opportunity to correct mistakes and improve with the next attempt. Our fascination/obsession with testing with the intent of ranking (and punishing) certainly does not encourage people to take risks and subverts the developmental process of learning.
It has become apparent that “broken” children are increasing in our overall society, and not just in the low income areas. “Scapegoating” children seems to be a national trend resulting from a nation suffering from fear and economic chronic stress for several decades. Unfortunately, the punitive school environment from Common Core seems to be adding to the problem of “punishing” children rather than supporting their holistic needs.
Children are our most precious resource, and their mental and physical health is “endangered” by the neglect of our society. A good public school system is our best hope for keeping our children strong. How do we turn the tide to change the school environment from callous and punitive to nurturing?
My suggestion is to get rid of the Dept of Education and Common Core and implement Montessori methods into all elementary schools via the Dept of the Interior. Let the National Park System develop outdoor studies and nature nurture.
Katie Osgood wrote a powerful description of the complexity of human experience.
The Gates photo ops in Africa, white washed a predatory reputation. An estimated $2 billion spent on Common Core led to the Pearson/Microsoft opportunity for a monopoly business. Despite the Gates philanthropic largesse and concomitant rhetoric, they seem unable to stay off, top billing, on to the Forbes richest list. If I was serious about helping the world, I think I could find a way to spend down to say number 10 or so, on the list, how about you?
“students of color”
Do these students by any chance wear jeans of blue and eat beans of green? I suspect that I am like most normal people in that, as soon as I see the oh-so-PC “of color” descriptor, my eye-roll reflex kicks in.
Jack Talbot, I used to be bothered by descriptions that I didn’t agree with. I got over it.
I guess I’m not there yet. 🙂
Reblogged this on Middletown Voice.
I am reminded in this discussion of a comment made on this blog some time ago.
When young people endure grinding poverty, health problems, fear, abuse, and too many other debilitating difficulties to mention, the self-styled “education reformers” that lead the “new civil rights movement of our time” fall all over themselves, practically declaring how fortunate those kids are—faced with these “challenges,” they now have the opportunity to build “character” and “persistence” and “determination.”
In other words, lucky are those who are disadvantaged—and luckier still those most disadvantaged!—because they can prove to their present and future social superiors and bosses that they are worthy of a few crumbs.
This is the attitude taken by, and promoted by the enablers of, those leading the charterite/privatizer movement. It’s part of their self-image as do-gooders, salvaging the few worthy remnants of the unworthy vast majority in their eduvanity projects, the modern BBC equivalent of noblesse oblige. As for the rest, Rahm Emanuel’s “uneducables” and Michael J. Petrilli’s “non-strivers” —
Remember the proven mismanagement practice of “you can’t manage what you can’t measure”? Well, you don’t have to account for those that don’t count, so you’re not accountable to or for the vast majority who haven’t ‘made the grade.’
Sounds cruel? Appears exaggerated? Just read and hear what the education establishment is doing to public education and teaching staff and students and parents.
😡
Lastly, I cannot end without a heartfelt thanks to Ms. Katie Osgood. She was just the kind of person Mother Teresa was thinking of when she said:
“Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”
Most Krazy props.
😎
Katie’s comments really hit home. It is time to recognize the complexity of a changing world and now we are required to have a deeper understanding of what students go through. I know students from poverty have a significant burden to bear. However, I also know students who seem to have it all suffer from societal pressure as well. Students of any race, creed, disadvantaged or advantaged, have burdens to bear which are distinctive and new when related to other generations.
I add this perspective to the comments above. Education had better rise to the occasion and provide meaningful opportunities for students to experience learning. This means flipping the educational focus. Educators must start with students pursuing their passion and/or interest and let learning of content stem from this journey. The pursuit of someone else’s definition of what to learn does not inspire feelings of excellence. Instead, it fosters millions of students who compliantly learn what they must so they can prepare for more of the same in college, or it distills the elements of rebellion manifesting in poor behavior, dropping out, or, as Katie writes, a sense of hopelessness. The missing ingredient for today’s student is not “grit.” What is needed is an education meeting the needs of students who must prepare for a future Nostradamus can’t predict.
And how do we provide more jobs?
Harlan,
Respectfully, more jobs are provided when there is greater demand for goods and services. No matter how beneficial conditions are for business, no job growth occurs, without an increase in spending by consumers.
The verbiage about regulation, deterring “job creators” from investment, is one of many red herrings. Given sufficient demand, businesses have a history of investing, even in the riskiest of situations. Valid economic research provides irrefutable evidence of the beneficial effect of regulation on the growth of GDP. One example is, the expectation of a level playing field, which encourages entrepreneurs to enter markets.
When Walton heirs or Gates have the same income as 90 million Americans combined, it’s impossible for them to spend money fast enough to fuel the economy.
How else can we explain why Bill and Melinda Gates, even after all of the touting about their “philanthropy”, remain as the richest people in the world? Either, proportionally they aren’t spending much or, they’re gaining income, at a distortionary rate.
One of the points made by Katie, the author, is that the students who are oppressed in many areas of their life seem to have some measure of choice in choosing not to be oppressed by the curriculum or testing fever — by shutting down and/or acting out. She says that “she would always look to why students are acting the way they are.” This ability is part of what makes a (presumably) trained teacher qualified to meet children where they are at and effective in bringing them to the next level, at a pace that is right for them.
Obviously, she would not punish them for the inability to move with the pack by psychologically intimidating or shaming them. I think that we can make the case that the neglect of children can happen in the classroom if teachers aren’t give the time and resources to do that. Oppressive top-down methods may be just as debilitating for children as neglect or abuse they may be experiencing at home.
That said, it is important to remember that neglect at home happens in a variety of socio-economic stratas. My experiences have shown that some (but not all) children from large blended families, those who never know who will be picking them up after school or if their grandparent or parent is really in charge experience lots of uncertainty and are constantly distracted in the classroom. Slipping through the cracks at home can generate the need to be seen at school, beyond what is normal impulsive behavior, to get basic human needs met before advanced cognition takes place.
Children from wealthy, icily polarized broken homes can have some very choppy waters to navigate as well. Much of class face time can be spent crying out for boundaries, navigating the social, and receiving attention with no ulterior motives. The lesson becomes just a side show. Drug/alcohol addiction happens on every child-filled street in America but, perhaps, the rich can hide it better.
To a well-trained teacher, having had an teacher education rich in pedagogy and behavioral science, this is the meat of his work. Finding what each child needs to find joy and interest in their education is key. To slash resources needed to support these children and to oppress the teachers is a sign of Poverty of the Mind of a Nation and its Lawmakers.
I hope we are making the case for supporting teachers as much as we are for the eradication of poverty. At the end of the day, extenuating circumstances aside, you can’t tell parents how to parent in the same vein that you can’t measure grit. You can only provide resources to the community and to the schools.
PS An ipad does not count as a “resource.”