Grit In The Classroom Has To Be A Dialogue - 3 views
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John Evans on 20 Jul 14"The rush to grit is pretty intense, but so is the push-back. I've been writing about grit in articles and a book (Fostering grit) and giving lots of presentations on the subject. I've spoken to schools and parents; presented at conferences; and have been a guest on NPR. Universally, grit is embraced. Everyone sees the merit in teaching our kids to accept challenges, step out of their comfort zones, and know how to respond to failure. So far, so good. grit is hanging in and never giving up, but it's more than that. grit is being comfortable when you are outside of your comfort zone, and it's forging ahead when you hit the wall because you know that you'll get up and continue moving forward. grit is a life skill! But sometimes teachers are uncomfortable with the notion of fostering or teaching for grit. They're uneasy with the role they must play and I get that. We went into education because we wanted to help students: we like it when they succeed and it gratifies us when our class is filled with smiles. When our kids do well, it tells us we've done a good job!"