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How Children Succeed and Jumpstart

      I recently read How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity and the Hidden Power of Character by Paul Tough. This book - which is split into sections ranging from “How to Fail” all the way up to “How to Succeed”, and closing off with a very powerful call to action labeled “A Better Path” – describes the importance of character, rather than cognitive skills, in education and student success. Tough flows beautifully between personal stories, observations, research, and economics based studies to frame what he feels is the major fault in the American education system: an obsession with IQ factors combined with disregard for character guidance in public school systems. With the help of colleagues, Chris Peterson – author of Character Strengths and Virtues, which is a comprehensive list of 24 character strengths in successful people – limited his list down to seven indispensible character traits associated with success: grit, self-control, zest, social intelligence, gratitude, optimism, and curiosity. These traits, Tough argues, are what the public school system lacks across all demographics, and across all levels of intelligence. How Children Succeed suggests that, with the proper tools, underperforming and undereducated students may close the academic gap between them and their better-educated peers, while over-protected students may achieve their full potential.

            What I found most interesting about this book, however, was the section of the book that discusses the importance of individual attention to young and developing students, particularly in poor areas. These students do not lack life experience, as many of the wealthy students he talks about do, but rather emotional support to foster optimism towards personal feats, rather than frustration towards life situations. Tough says, “…children who grow up in stressful environments generally find it harder to concentrate, harder to sit still, harder to rebound from disappointments and harder to follow directions. And that has a direct effect on their performance in school. When you’re overwhelmed by uncontrollable impulses and distracted by negative feelings, it’s hard to learn the alphabet.”

     This quote perfectly sums up where Jumpstart comes in. Although I believe that reading, writing, and learning how to apply classroom concepts to real life situations are extremely important aspects of schooling, I see myself having the most impact in the personal and social aspects of my partner children. I am teaching Elysse how to wait her turn, even when she knows an answer. I am teaching Adriel that just because he yawns and says he is tired, that does not mean that he can skip spelling his name on any given day. I watch as Curtis’ confidence grows every time he gets an answer right and then comes back to me to check if I was paying attention, and I teach him that when he guesses the wrong letter he should step back, take another look, and try again.

     We, as Jumpstart leaders, are being trained in how to educate when we go to Jumpstart reflections, but there is so much more actually happening. If I could require that every corps member read this book and reflect on it, I would without hesitation. Personally, I joined Jumpstart not only for the service and educational aspect, but also because I knew that contact with young children was something that would help my mental health during the stressful school year. This book helped me realize that, for the children I am helping, every day life (rather than school) is the stressful situation they need oasis from right now; I am just as responsible for a stress free sanctuary for them as they are a reprieve from college life for me. The difference is, not only am I and my peers providing a medium to help these kids de-stress in the present, but by peeling away the layers of stress associated with the outside world that our students know, we are revealing to them and developing in them the cores of their person that they may have otherwise neglected. Through this development, we are recycling the same patience and persistence many of us took advantage of unknowingly in our youth, and helping to level the field of education. This year, I may only end up teaching my children the difference between a ‘P’ and an ‘R’ is one diagonal line, but in the process I will surely expose to them the importance of slowing down and taking that one line into consideration before making their decision, and the roots of that pause may have the potential to redirect the growth of their lives beyond the classroom.