BOOK REVIEW

Matthew S Short
Doctor of Education
University of Mary Hardin-Baylor

With his book titled "How Children Succeed" Author Paul Tough a native of Montauk,
New York has provided its readers with a powerful look into the "new generation of
researchers and educators who, for the first time, are using the tools of science to peel
back the mysteries of character." As a writer for the New York Times Magazine, Tough
has written significantly about education, parenting, poverty, and politics with His writing
often appearing in publications such as the New Yorker, the Atlantic, GQ, Esquire, and on
the op-ed page of the New York Times.

I believe the overall goal of "How Children Succeed" is to offer its readers a replacement
for the belief that success today depends primarily on cognitive skills the kind of
intelligence that gets measured on I.Q. tests, which includes the abilities to recognize
letters and words, calculate, detect certain patterns and that the best way to develop these
skills is to practice them as much as possible, beginning as early as possible.. It is clear
that Tough has set out to replace this assumption with something he has called the
"character hypothesis" which is the idea that the noncognitive skills such as persistence,
self-control, curiosity, conscientiousness, grit, and self-confidence play a more crucial
role than sheer brainpower in achieving success.

Throughout the book, Tough has gathered scientific data and personal observations from
sources among educational researchers and practitioners, which all support the idea that
what determines success is a child's "character and perseverance rather than raw
intelligence and book learning." While Tough is discussing this topic, he also shows his
readers that a horrible early upbringing including neglect can truly handicap a child. The
term that is used for situations such as neglect and horrible early upbringing that cause
permanent psychic damage is ACE which stands for Adverse Childhood Experiences.
ACE, which by now is a well-attested finding that stands as the best argument for the
intrusion of outsiders such as child protective services and law enforcement officials into
the homes of neglectful or cruel caregivers as well provides the best explanation for why
poverty accompanies lower achievement all over the world.

Diving into the content of the book we arrived at Chapter one which is titled How To
Fail (And How Not To) from the very beginning of this chapter it is clear that this is
what connects the parts of the book that deal with the Adverse Childhood Experiences.
Moving forward into Chapter two which is titled How to Build Character the content
takes off with a discussion regarding the successfulness of The Knowledge is Power
Program or also known as KIPP schools and the emphasis on good manners and
perseverance that these schools have for their students. Chapter two continues to talk
about a certain kind of test, which requires a student to have no academic knowledge,
only a willingness to persist in a boring task. Chapter three which titled How to Think
plants its main focus in the minds of the readers quickly as Tough talks about how a

middle-school chess player from a low-income school manages to beat students that
come from an advantaged school consistently. Throughout the book, the main focus
seems to be on Focus and practice, or you could also say, perseverance and hard work are
how to think. Moreover, How to Succeed which by the way is the title of the fourth
chapter.

Tough has clearly stated his views on The Cognitive Hypothesis stating that it is an
idea that has failed, with little progress made toward closing the achievement gap
between advantaged and disadvantaged students during the "No Child Left Behind" days
I find it hard not to sympathize with his views. What Tough calls The Cognitive
Hypothesis about academics might be better being called the how-to hypothesis,
which is running side by side with his how-to approach about character. While reading
this book, I could not help to notice that there seems to be a lack of citation from the
work of Jerome Kagan and others which shows that many fundamental character traits
tend to be distinctive and unchangeable.

Even though the title of this book wants to lead you into believing that this is a how-to
manual for parents and educators, it turns out to be a reflection of the income inequality
in the United States. This reflection becomes a very dominant theme throughout the book
often portraying the United States as a country with both very privileged children and
children with immense poverty, both of these types of children seem to have a
deprivation from experiences with emotions and intellect, which both of these
characteristics often define a strong character.

Tough cleverly hooks his audience by sharing a reflection on his decision to drop out of
college stating that It has not escaped my attention, for which I believe he means that
this ruling is something he is faced with each day. Tough also notes that many researchers
that he has written about have identified dropping out of high school or college as a
symptom of substandard noncognitive ability: low grit, low perseverance, and bad
planning skills. Tough brings a positive twist to his election by talking about how After
leaving Columbia in the fall of his freshman year, he bicycled alone from Atlanta,
Georgia to Halifax, Nova Scotia in persecute of another aborted attempt at college, after
which he took an internship at Harpers Magazine in New York and embarked on a
successful career as a writer and editor.

In closing after reading How Children Succeed is has become more and more apparent to
me that Fewer and fewer young people are getting the character-building combination of
support and autonomy that Tough was fortunate enough to receive. This is a worrying
predicament for who will have the conscientiousness, the persistence, and the grit to
change it?

(Click for video)