Grit Over Smarts for Success

This Sunday's Ideas section in the Boston Globe contains an article about research on an underappreciated mental quality that Angela Duckworth, a psychologist at the UPenn, has termed "grit". Grit is a quality of stick-with-it-ness that seems to be common to those who are successful in life. More specifically, researchers are accumulating evidence that grit is a better predictor of future success (not explicitly defined in the article) than more conventional measures of aptitude or potential such as IQ. Indeed, some researchers argue that focusing on IQ may not only be misleading, but may in fact set a person up for failure. The implications for education are, of course, important.

The value of understanding grit seems quite practical. The article spends some time on the search for ways of better measuring grit, and more importantly, ways to encourage or instill it. There are at least two implications from this article, however, that I find a little disturbing.

• Implication #1: Success is achieved through narrow and sustained focus, while lack of success happens from wandering interests. The article states: "While parents and teachers have long emphasized the importance of being well-rounded - this is why most colleges require students to take courses in all the major disciplines, from history to math - success in the real world may depend more on the development of narrow passions."

This issue is at the heart of the debate on the purpose and value of a liberal arts education. If one sees a college or university education as simply job training with the objective of higher pay and status, then yes, one might be better served by simply choosing a subject and studying only that: no science for English majors, and no Literature or History for Biology majors. Of course, one should still ask: is this form of 'success' the purpose of education? It's interesting to note that the article suggests that MCAS and similar tests may be missing the point by focusing on IQ, but I think that the point is still being missed.

• Implication #2: Success in life is based on an individual's traits, not political or social circumstances.

This one is always a doozy. The second half of this implication is never actually stated in the article, but it should be clear enough. More importantly, I think this implication deserves more scrutiny because it is something that too easily resonates with the American myth of "pulling yourself up from your bootstraps," and is therefore more likely to be embraced uncritically. Social and political context are certainly not everything, but there is too much evidence from history and the social sciences demonstrating, repeatedly, that for the vast majority of human beings, the social and political hand you are dealt is most important. If anything, it is important to recognize ideas or perspectives that may serve to de-politicize important social issues. We already give ourselves and our political representatives too many excuses to duck and cover from complicated things.

My point is not to dismiss or even diminish the idea of 'grit' as an important ingredient for success. Rather, I hope that we can extract its more useful possibilities without stretching the meaning to justify other, less constructive, agendas.

You can you can take the 'grit survey' at www.gritstudy.com to get a measure of your own grittiness.