Grit: The power of passion and perseverance
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0:01 - 0:03When I was 27 years old,
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0:03 - 0:06I left a very demanding job
in management consulting -
0:06 - 0:10for a job that was even more
demanding: teaching. -
0:11 - 0:14I went to teach seventh graders math
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0:14 - 0:16in the New York City public schools.
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0:16 - 0:19And like any teacher,
I made quizzes and tests. -
0:19 - 0:21I gave out homework assignments.
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0:21 - 0:24When the work came back,
I calculated grades. -
0:25 - 0:29What struck me was that IQ
was not the only difference -
0:29 - 0:32between my best and my worst students.
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0:33 - 0:38Some of my strongest performers
did not have stratospheric IQ scores. -
0:38 - 0:42Some of my smartest kids
weren't doing so well. -
0:42 - 0:44And that got me thinking.
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0:44 - 0:47The kinds of things you need
to learn in seventh grade math, -
0:47 - 0:52sure, they're hard: ratios, decimals,
the area of a parallelogram. -
0:53 - 0:55But these concepts are not impossible,
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0:55 - 0:59and I was firmly convinced
that every one of my students -
1:00 - 1:02could learn the material
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1:02 - 1:04if they worked hard and long enough.
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1:05 - 1:07After several more years of teaching,
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1:07 - 1:11I came to the conclusion
that what we need in education -
1:11 - 1:15is a much better understanding
of students and learning -
1:15 - 1:17from a motivational perspective,
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1:17 - 1:19from a psychological perspective.
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1:20 - 1:25In education, the one thing
we know how to measure best is IQ. -
1:26 - 1:30But what if doing
well in school and in life -
1:30 - 1:32depends on much more
-
1:32 - 1:36than your ability to learn
quickly and easily? -
1:36 - 1:38So I left the classroom,
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1:38 - 1:41and I went to graduate school
to become a psychologist. -
1:42 - 1:44I started studying kids and adults
-
1:44 - 1:47in all kinds of super
challenging settings, -
1:47 - 1:49and in every study my question was,
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1:49 - 1:52who is successful here and why?
-
1:52 - 1:56My research team and I went
to West Point Military Academy. -
1:56 - 1:58We tried to predict which cadets
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1:58 - 2:02would stay in military training
and which would drop out. -
2:02 - 2:05We went to the National Spelling Bee
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2:05 - 2:09and tried to predict which children
would advance farthest in competition. -
2:10 - 2:14We studied rookie teachers
working in really tough neighborhoods, -
2:14 - 2:17asking which teachers are still
going to be here in teaching -
2:17 - 2:19by the end of the school year,
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2:19 - 2:22and of those, who will be
the most effective -
2:22 - 2:25at improving learning
outcomes for their students? -
2:26 - 2:28We partnered with private
companies, asking, -
2:28 - 2:31which of these salespeople
is going to keep their jobs? -
2:31 - 2:32And who's going to earn the most money?
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2:33 - 2:35In all those very different contexts,
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2:35 - 2:40one characteristic emerged
as a significant predictor of success. -
2:40 - 2:42And it wasn't social intelligence.
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2:43 - 2:46It wasn't good looks, physical health,
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2:46 - 2:47and it wasn't IQ.
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2:48 - 2:49It was grit.
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2:50 - 2:55Grit is passion and perseverance
for very long-term goals. -
2:55 - 2:57Grit is having stamina.
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2:57 - 3:01Grit is sticking with your future,
day in, day out, -
3:01 - 3:05not just for the week,
not just for the month, -
3:05 - 3:06but for years,
-
3:06 - 3:10and working really hard
to make that future a reality. -
3:11 - 3:15Grit is living life
like it's a marathon, not a sprint. -
3:16 - 3:18A few years ago,
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3:18 - 3:21I started studying grit
in the Chicago public schools. -
3:21 - 3:23I asked thousands of high school juniors
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3:23 - 3:25to take grit questionnaires,
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3:25 - 3:27and then waited around more than a year
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3:27 - 3:29to see who would graduate.
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3:30 - 3:32Turns out that grittier kids
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3:32 - 3:35were significantly more
likely to graduate, -
3:35 - 3:39even when I matched them
on every characteristic I could measure, -
3:39 - 3:41things like family income,
-
3:41 - 3:44standardized achievement test scores,
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3:44 - 3:47even how safe kids felt
when they were at school. -
3:47 - 3:50So it's not just at West Point
or the National Spelling Bee -
3:50 - 3:51that grit matters.
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3:51 - 3:53It's also in school,
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3:53 - 3:56especially for kids
at risk for dropping out. -
3:57 - 4:00To me, the most shocking thing about grit
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4:00 - 4:02is how little we know,
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4:02 - 4:05how little science knows,
about building it. -
4:05 - 4:07Every day, parents and teachers ask me,
-
4:07 - 4:09"How do I build grit in kids?
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4:10 - 4:12What do I do to teach kids
a solid work ethic? -
4:13 - 4:15How do I keep them motivated
for the long run?" -
4:16 - 4:18The honest answer is,
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4:18 - 4:19I don't know.
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4:19 - 4:20(Laughter)
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4:20 - 4:23What I do know is that talent
doesn't make you gritty. -
4:24 - 4:26Our data show very clearly
-
4:26 - 4:28that there are many talented individuals
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4:28 - 4:31who simply do not follow through
on their commitments. -
4:32 - 4:36In fact, in our data,
grit is usually unrelated -
4:36 - 4:39or even inversely related
to measures of talent. -
4:40 - 4:45So far, the best idea I've heard
about building grit in kids -
4:45 - 4:47is something called "growth mindset."
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4:47 - 4:51This is an idea developed
at Stanford University by Carol Dweck, -
4:51 - 4:56and it is the belief that the ability
to learn is not fixed, -
4:56 - 4:59that it can change with your effort.
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4:59 - 5:01Dr. Dweck has shown
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5:01 - 5:04that when kids read
and learn about the brain -
5:04 - 5:07and how it changes and grows
in response to challenge, -
5:07 - 5:11they're much more likely
to persevere when they fail, -
5:11 - 5:16because they don't believe that failure
is a permanent condition. -
5:17 - 5:20So growth mindset
is a great idea for building grit. -
5:21 - 5:22But we need more.
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5:23 - 5:25And that's where I'm going
to end my remarks, -
5:25 - 5:26because that's where we are.
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5:26 - 5:28That's the work that stands before us.
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5:29 - 5:32We need to take our best ideas,
our strongest intuitions, -
5:32 - 5:34and we need to test them.
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5:35 - 5:37We need to measure
whether we've been successful, -
5:37 - 5:41and we have to be willing
to fail, to be wrong, -
5:41 - 5:44to start over again with lessons learned.
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5:44 - 5:47In other words, we need to be gritty
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5:47 - 5:50about getting our kids grittier.
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5:50 - 5:51Thank you.
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5:51 - 5:54(Applause)
- Title:
- Grit: The power of passion and perseverance
- Speaker:
- Angela Lee Duckworth
- Description:
-
Leaving a high-flying job in consulting, Angela Lee Duckworth took a job teaching math to seventh graders in a New York public school. She quickly realized that IQ wasn’t the only thing separating the successful students from those who struggled. Here, she explains her theory of “grit” as a predictor of success.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 06:12
Brian Greene commented on English subtitles for The key to success? Grit | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for The key to success? Grit | ||
Camille Martínez edited English subtitles for The key to success? Grit | ||
Krystian Aparta commented on English subtitles for The key to success? Grit | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for The key to success? Grit | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for The key to success? Grit | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for The key to success? Grit | ||
Thu-Huong Ha approved English subtitles for The key to success? Grit |
Krystian Aparta
The English transcript was updated on 3/19/2015.
Brian Greene
The headline for this talk was changed on May 31, 2016.
The new headline is: Grit: The power of passion and perseverance