By Bob Whelan P ’24
Head of School
In the book, Season of Life, author Jeffrey Marx describes an exchange between a parent and a high school coach about the prospects for the team that season. How successful did the coach think the kids were going to be? The coach replied that he had no idea and that he really wouldn’t know for 20 years. He was not trying to be cute with his response. “I really don't know how successful they’re going to be until they come back to visit in 20 years. Then I’ll be able to see what kind of adults they are. I’ll be able to see what kind of parents they are. I’ll see what they’re doing in the community.”
Preparing our students for a life of purpose requires the development of interpersonal character strengths, or “strengths of the heart,” such as empathy, integrity, and gratitude. It also requires the development of intrapersonal character strengths, or “strengths of will” — academic self-control, delay of gratification, optimism, and a growth mindset. Dr. Angela Duckworth studies those strengths at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research on grit drew a great deal of attention several years ago and she noted in an interview recently that some of her ideas, like those of Dr. Carol Dweck’s in her research around growth mindset, are sometimes misapplied in schools. As Dr. Duckworth noted recently:
“I think the misunderstanding is an easy one, which is that growth mindset and grit are about the individual, and therefore not about society and culture and structural change. Nothing could be farther from the truth. In fact, what does give a kid the hope is that they can change and learn, and what does give a kid resilience and passion, are their experiences. There's a responsibility for society, classroom teachers, superintendents, headmasters to create the circumstances under which growth mindset and grit and other aspects of character can grow.”
We talk about the long view a fair amount at Greens Farms Academy, with talented educators carefully developing and implementing a curriculum that is based on cultivating the kind of timeless skills — critical thinking, confident oral and written expression, creative problem solving — that will serve our students well in an unwritten future. We’re equally passionate about the character development of our kids: how they learn to work together and their capacity to put in the requisite hard work required to achieve excellence. We create the conditions for the development of these character strengths daily and across disciplines throughout GFA.
I marvel at our Lower School students working on self-control during their morning meetings. Their every fiber practically insists that they leap up and chime in with a connection they’ve made while a classmate is sharing about a family pet during morning meeting. In concert with patient educators, they are developing the essential habit of active listening.
In our Middle and Upper School athletic and performing arts programs, our students tread the pathways of character development. They develop and display perseverance and teamwork through the growth of our fall sports teams, progression in our music practice rooms, and as the fall musical begins to take shape. We see this too in their work around Harkness tables, art studios, and labs, as they work together, debate passionately, and tackle complex problems with integrity and skill.
We’re looking forward to the month of November here at GFA. We have a lot to be grateful for, and some wonderful opportunities to reflect that gratitude as a community. I’m reminded daily, as both a parent and a professional, how thankful I am for our faculty’s commitment toward achieving a careful balance for our children. In an atmosphere of warmth and joy, they establish high expectations, never losing sight of the individual development of each child.
Postscript
A few notes from Dr. Duckworth’s research related to grit:
- The importance of skill as a function of deliberate practice. When kids are working on a skill, they need repeated opportunities to practice and refine their performance (i.e., intentional practice through purposeful homework; curiosity alone is not enough).
- The ability to focus on what one is doing, versus longing for what one is not doing.
- The importance of an optimistic mindset – someone who explains negative events in a way that locates the specific causable changes.
Related to self-control:
- Dr. Duckworth discusses strategies that are important for children to cultivate in advance of adolescence, acknowledging how challenging impulse control becomes during adolescence.
- Homework is not going to be as appealing as Angry Birds or Fortnite (and that’s okay!).
- Self-control is a better predictor of report card grades than IQ.
Dr. Duckworth offers a strategy she uses in her own family — the “Hard Thing Rule” — wherein everyone picks an activity that requires deliberate practice and effort (violin, yoga, gymnastics) — and commits to working on it for a significant period of time.