I have no grit with my studies these weeks. If you don’t have strong self-control, it is a very challenging thing to choose to have online courses during the summer. I was always thinking about the holidays and rest and didn’t study hard. Rest took up a lot of my time every day, which caused me not to spend much time on my studies. Many unnecessary trifles always attract my attention and prevent me from studying wholeheartedly. Sometimes it takes me a lot of time to eat out with my roommates or go to the supermarket to buy necessities. So, my schedule had to change again. I have to face a question: where did my grit go? I seem to have lost grit because I felt depressed when I saw that my grades were not satisfactory. I watched the TED talk at the beginning of the assignment this week. When I was browsing the TED website, I found a video about learning and grit. When I saw the video regarding education and grit, I realized that this speech seemed to change my current state. The video talks about the importance of grit for learning, which reminds me of my lack of grit, which led to my failure in summer courses. I began to wonder how grit works in education.
It's a severe problem that many students and schools don't value grit. First of all, students don't know grit. For example, grit is the ability of students to keep studying every day. However, this does not fully explain grit. Grit should also include students who dare to face difficulties and challenges again if they fail. In other words, they are fearless. Students will encounter various challenges in their study and life. In an environment where intelligence is fundamental, students may choose to give up and continue the challenge if they cannot solve it with intelligence. On the contrary, after being taught grit and courage, students dare to face difficulties and continue to face challenges when they fail. Students think they can change after failure because they know they have grit. The most important thing in learning is grit because grit helps students improve their learning ability in their studies, and they will not give up facing failure. Students all over the world can get help from grit. Grit not only helps their life in the study but also helps them suffer more setbacks in the future. The article “Grit and the Information Systems Student: A Discipline-Specific Examination of Perseverance and Passion for Long-Term Goals” shows that college students are greatly influenced by grit in their studies and employment. Grit affects not only learning but also a sense of responsibility in life. Career decisions are not only influenced by external influences (such as income) but are also an essential part of grit (Brooks, Scott).
The difference between the top students and the bottom students is determined by grit rather than intelligence (Duckworth). In other words, the gap between each student is not significant because the difference in intelligence can be closed with time, but students with grit will perform better than other students. Duckworth brings up the idea that students' learning patterns grow with grit, so students do not fail all the time. Gaining experience through failure is an essential skill, which helps students with grit can continue to grow through failure. For example, I used to be afraid of failure, and I didn't learn anything from failure so I would make the same mistake many times. Just like when you are walking, there is a wall in front of you, but you keep hitting the wall instead of turning. Students who fail in learning, and then continue to learn in failure, can ultimately bridge the gap with other students' intelligence, and then surpass them.
In study and life, it is better to exercise grit as early as possible. Thomas Hoerr discusses that when we go through life, we inevitably face failure. Failure is inevitable. We need to teach students how to respond to failure before they experience it. Grit is not only helpful to the students behind but also to the students in front. Students who follow will encounter frequent failures in their studies, so they need the grit to develop a strong inner which can help them continue to challenge themselves. The students in front will have a smooth journey in their studies, but they also need the grit to prevent future failures. It is a severe problem in society that many talents cannot recover after a small setback.
Students cannot practice grit by only themselves. Students need help from parents and schools to practice grit. First, parents need to get students out of their comfort zone. Challenging activities allow students to prove that they can accomplish anything on their own. Cultivating students' self-confidence is the first step to grit. Second, parents should encourage students instead of helping them. Some help is not harmful, but too much help to students to solve difficulties will make them feel dependent, which will prevent them from solving difficulties by themselves in the first place. Third, parents and students should discuss the process rather than the result. The results are only good and bad; students don't learn anything from it. On the contrary, a discussion of good results may lead students to aim too high. Only in the process of discussion can students gain experience and prepare for the future. Third, parents and students should discuss the process rather than the result. The results are only good and bad; students don't learn anything from it. On the contrary, a discussion of good results may lead students to aim too high. Only in the process of discussion can students gain experience and prepare for the future. School education is also essential. It is the right way for students to work together, which is to learn and help each other. Students are more likely to have a sense of purpose if teachers lead by example. Schools can help students develop courage with their parents by creating “Grit Day” (Thomas).
Grit is the most important to students in their whole lives, and it can make failure less terrible so that people will not be discouraged by failure. Also, students will have a stronger heart in their future life and work. Grit is so necessary for learning, but previous teachers, students, and parents ignored it. It is simple to have grit, but everyone needs to be able to pay energy and time to get grit. No pain, no gain.
I once ignored grit, believing that grit was no help to my study. However, when I contacted grit and understood its importance, I found that I was wrong before. Grit helps students' education and life as well as their future. After understanding the importance of grit, I want to know whether grit has different effects on different people (e.g., gender, age, etc.). Also, is the effect of grit exaggerated, and can it help the whole society?
Works Cited
Duckworth, Angela. “Grit: The power of passion and perseverance.” TED, April 2013, https://www.ted.com/talks/angela_lee_duckworth_grit_the_power_of_passion_ and_perseverance#t-68767 April 2013.
Brooks, Nita G., and Scott J. Seipel. “Grit and the Information Systems Student: A Discipline-Specific Examination of Perseverance and Passion for Long Term Goals.” Information Systems Education Journal, vol. 16, no. 1, Feb. 2018, pp. 21–32. EBSCOhost, ezproxy.madisoncollege.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=cookie,ip,cpid&custid=s6246812&db=eric&AN=EJ1173722&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
Hoerr, Thomas. “Why Must We Teach Grit?” ASCD Inservice, 7 May 2014, inservice.ascd.org/why-must-we-teach-grit/.