Schoolchildren to be taught the value of grit

[noblegiraffe]

https://www.thetimes.com/article/f322725a-40fc-426a-b3ca-57a833df5733?shareToken=6e23cc4f03f4747464b920e50a4cdddf

Oh fuck off. Why is it always on schools to solve all of society's ills?

But anyway, don't relentlessly focus on academics while destroying schools' ability to provide extra curricular activities, sports, music, drama and then moan that 1) kids don't want to go to school and 2) they don't have the life skills that all those activities support them in developing.

I don’t disagree but I suppose somebody has to if the parents won’t 😒

This article, quoted from The Telegraph, I note drily, isn't even really about grit in the sense of positivity and determination. It seems to suggest Streeting and Phillips on just plan for children to be told to snap out of it.

British children are the unhappiest children in Europe. They need to seriously start looking at why. Sue Palmer wrote about the schoolification of childhood years ago .

Great, so there isn't even agreement about what grit is? They don't want to address why kids aren't coming to school?

And if our kids are the unhappiest in Europe, it doesn't seem like a bit of grit will cheer them up.

This has been a thing in schools for ages hasn't it? When my DC was in primary school a decade ago he would come home with stickers for specified categories of positive behaviour, and one of them was 'resilience'.

Isn't the value of grit in it's results?

How do you teach grit? Surely it's something that's modelling and intrinsic to lots of different areas of life. It's not something you could read in a book and then just apply.

If there even is an accepted definition of grit.

https://www.apa.org/topics/resilience/bounce-teens

It is the classic resilience. Starts with emotional regulation. Embrace a challenge and enjoy it. Practise self awareness and self knowledge. Understand diversity. Celebrate difference and community.
We do need to start telling kids that making a mistake is good, not doing well is OK if we learn from it, doing more for ourselves is great.
But the biggest contradiction is that kids need self belief and independence to build resilience and the Health and Safety gone mad practised in school from an early age counters most of that. As well as all the testing and trying to get top grades for as many as possible.
Education should be self discovery of your own talents, your place in a community, all forms of achievement should be celebrated.

At work, in business, when we have Resilience as a key value, we have to also focus on what each team member brings to the table and actually celebrate the fact that we have different roles and talents. So you cannot have a one size fits all education system if you actually want to build resilience.

How are they going to teach grit? Its something that's learned through experience, disappointment, getting through tough situations, and independence. Some of that can be learnt in the classroom I suppose, disappointment especially! But its mostly learnt by them doing things for themselves without help and no adults, that ain't happening in schools.

Yes, resilience has been a buzzword for years.

Can you teach grit?
I have resilient kids who are now young adults but I suspect that a lot of it is down to luck and personality rather than something I specifically taught.
FWIW I had a child with very low attendance at school because he was on a very long NHS waiting list for treatment for physical issues so school couldn’t do anything about it.

Where is the support for kids who need help now ? I am not convinced that “grit” would solve things and it’s investment in services like CAMHS and more special school places and permission for schools to come up with flexible solutions without being punished by OFSTED that would make a bigger difference. I’ve read many heartbreaking stories on here and it seems like the system is happy for kids to “disappear” off the registers when their educational needs are different to the majority and however pushy you are, it’s impossible to get help.

Its going to get harder too

https://inews.co.uk/news/250000-send-pupils-lose-ehcps-extra-support-3696336?srsltid=AfmBOoqkEvMaopUkXVzDTGF1CYDAez_-dM39ElTuXDGHq7gvDib6Owff

Start by teaching some of the parents, then perhaps they could pass it on?

There seem to be a lot more overprotective / over-anxious parents these days, which can’t be helping the kids.

I don’t think it’s for schools to do, but it is a valuable skill, so if parents can’t / won’t, someone has to help children develop resilience if it doesn’t come naturally to them.

Are they still hot on grit - I'm amazed. It was the big word 10 plus years ago when my kids were in school. I'd have thought they'd have moved onto another educational fad.

I have 3 children. One of them was like a poster child for resilience - knew how to pick herself up, cope with hard things, do hard work, recover from disappointment. she did well academically and socially.

my middle child struggled hugely - nothing was easy for her, not academics or social stuff. She struggled with even going into school - was the poster child for whatever is not grit. Personally I think she showed far more grit and resilience in just getting by and finishing school and then universtity. If you are a kid who isn't ever going to get an A grade or be the one everyone wants to sit next to, then just going into school is pure grit.

I think there’s something in this.

Some kids are more capable at school compared to at home because the expectations placed on them are higher but age appropriate where as some parents are overprotective out of “kindness”. Pushing some independence skills is good for the self esteem and makes the growing up process easier because you’re not rushing to learn it well after your peers have mastered them.