Have you ever wondered what qualities help some people keep working through difficulties? Why do they persist long after others have given up, hanging on until they finally reach their goals? I just found some very useful articles about persistence and grit, and how to help our children or students develop the attitudes that enable them to persistently keep trying until they succeed.

Smithsonian Magazine discusses research on how babies can learn persistence from watching adults keep trying to do something that takes considerable effort. Babies were able to generalize what they observed (take the idea of effort and apply it to a new situation.) So parents can encourage their children by demonstrating effort and persistence themselves, when they keep working at a problem rather than quickly giving up.

Edutopia has a list of resources related to grit (determination) and resilience (being able to recover from difficult experiences). These resources can help teachers work with their students to develop these and related qualities.

Edutopia also has a blog post with more ideas for helping students with these qualities. It has an excellent 6+ minute video of a teacher showing his students an example of persistence—a younger student who had been willing to revise his drawing of a butterfly repeatedly to bring it closer to what he had been asked to draw.

Grit has become such a popular idea among educators that I found several articles questioning the way it is being taught. The one I thought was most helpful discusses the limits of teaching grit from the perspective of Angela Duckworth, the psychologist most famous for popularizing the idea. (This article also links to her great TED talk, which is worth watching to understand the idea of grit better.}

Ms. Duckworth is concerned that schools could harm children by misusing the research or using grittiness to judge students or their teachers. (The Edutopia blog post also urges teachers not to base students’ grades on their efforts as they practice persistence.)