OceanofPDF.

com
OceanofPDF.com
Copyright © 2013 by Garamond Press. Garamond Press is an imprint of Callisto Media, Inc.

A NOTE TO THE READER: You should purchase and read the book that has been reviewed.
This book is meant to accompany a reading of the reviewed book and is neither intended nor
offered as a substitute for the reviewed book.

This review is unofficial and unauthorized. This book is not authorized, approved, licensed, or
endorsed by Paul Tough or Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Garamond Press and the Garamond Press logo are trademarks of Callisto Media, Inc. and may
not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their
respective owners. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, Garamond Press is not associated with
any individual, organization, or product mentioned in this book.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in

any form or by any means, except as permitted in accordance with the 1976 United States
Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Requests to the publisher
for permission should be sent to permissions@callistomedia.com.

For general information on our other products and services or to obtain technical support,
please contact our Customer Care Department at info@callistomedia.com.

The publisher makes no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or

completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaims all warranties, including,
without limitation, warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created
or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may
not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher
is not engaged in rendering medical, legal, or other professional advice or services. If
professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought.
The publisher shall not be liable for damages arising herefrom.

The fact that an individual, organization, or website is referred to in this work in a citation
and/or as a potential source of further information does not mean that the publisher endorses
the information the individual, organization, or website may provide or recommendations
they/it may make. Further, readers should be aware that websites listed in this work may have
changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read.

ISBN: 978-1-62315-123-2 Print | 978-1-62315-124-9 eBook

OceanofPDF.com
Contents

Introduction: At a Glance

Understanding How Children Succeed

About the Book
About the Author
Critical Reception
Synopsis

Key Concepts of How Children Succeed

I. The Cognitive Hypothesis
II. The Power of Character
III. Cultivating Character

Conclusion: A Final Word

Key Terms

Recommended Reading

Bibliography
OceanofPDF.com
INTRODUCTION

At a Glance

This book is an extended review of How Children Succeed: Grit,

Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character, a best seller whose author,
Paul Tough, explains the defining characteristics that encourage
children to grow academically and intellectually and develop the
fortitude to endure in even the most challenging situations. To uncover
what determines children’s success, Tough uses interviews with
educators, economists, psychologists, and neuroscientists in addition
to academic studies and longitudinal studies comparing students from
a variety of economic, familial, and educational backgrounds.
The review begins with a brief introduction to How Children
Succeed. Next comes a section that includes information about the
book and the author, a summary of readers’ responses to the book—
the good and the not so good, from professional reviewers as well as
from bloggers and other interested readers—and a synopsis of How
Children Succeed. That section is followed by a detailed discussion of
the book’s key concepts. Finally, the main points of this review are
briefly restated, in a way that may well inspire you to get your own copy
of Paul Tough’s book and see for yourself why How Children Succeed is
such a favorite with readers. Also included are a list of key terms used
in How Children Succeed and recommendations for further reading
about how to build character and resilience in the children in your life
so they can become successful adults.
OceanofPDF.com
Understanding
How Children Succeed

ABOUT THE BOOK

During the summer of 2009, Paul Tough spent a day observing a group
of prekindergartners in a classroom at an elementary school in New
Jersey. The preschoolers were enrolled in a research-based early-
childhood curriculum called Tools of the Mind, based on the work of
the Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky (1896–1934). The curriculum’s
educational approach focuses not on teaching reading and
mathematics, commonly referred to as cognitive skills, but on helping
children learn a variety of what are often called soft or noncognitive
skills, such as controlling impulses, staying focused on tasks, avoiding
distractions, organizing ideas, and controlling emotions. Tough
noticed that none of the four-year-olds he observed were acting out,
crying, or throwing tantrums. They were all engaged in what he calls
“mature dramatic play.”
When Tough, a new father, reflected on the prospects of his own
infant son, he realized that he wanted to understand more specifically
what makes a child happy and successful. He learned through research
and countless interviews that noncognitive skills like persistence, self-
control, curiosity, conscientiousness, grit, and self-confidence—said to
be traits that constitute a person’s character—are what matter most in
a child’s development. He learned, in short, that the strength of a
child’s character is what will have the strongest impact on the child’s
overall happiness, success, and achievement later in life.
 Looking more closely at the Tools of the Mind curriculum’s
unconventional approach to education, Tough became acquainted with
the research of James Heckman, an economist at the University of
Chicago. Since 2008, Heckman had been regularly gathering with
select economists and psychologists to discuss which skills and
character traits lead to success, how these skills and traits develop in
children, and what can be done to boost children’s academic
performance. The findings of Heckman and his colleagues, eventually
published in 2010—that curiosity, self-control, and social fluidity are
key determinants of a child’s success—echo the philosophical
approach of the Tools of the Mind curriculum. Heckman’s research
also showed Tough that the ability to persist through a boring task and
delay gratification is central to a rewarding life. It was Tough’s own
continued research into the power of character that led him to write
and publish How Children Succeed.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Paul Tough was born in Toronto, Canada, in 1967 and attended the
preparatory University of Toronto Schools. Before writing How Children
Succeed, published in 2012, Tough worked as an editor at the New York
Times Magazine. His writing, which largely focuses on education,
poverty, and politics, has appeared in Slate, GQ, Esquire, and The New
Yorker. He has written cover stories for the New York Times Magazine
on the No Child Left Behind Act, charter schools, post-Katrina
conditions in the New Orleans school system, and the Harlem
Children’s Zone Project. That project became the subject of Tough’s
first book, Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada’s Quest to Change
Harlem, published in 2008. The book detailed a comprehensive effort
to better the lives of parents and children living in that ninety-seven-
block area of New York City, and it stirred debate over the intersection
of poverty and parenting in urban America.
As a teenager in Canada, Tough cohosted the Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation’s youth radio show Anybody Home? He first
moved to the United States in 1988 and worked for Harper’s magazine.
In 1996 he became senior editor of Ira Glass’s weekly NPR show This
American Life, to which he still contributes. In 1998 he returned to
Canada to work as an editor for the magazine Saturday Night, but he
returned to the United States in 2000 and founded the online daily
magazine Open Letters, which he edited and published from June 19,
2000 to January 5, 2001. Tough currently lives in New York with his wife
and their son.

CRITICAL RECEPTION

The Upside
In her review for the New York Times, Anne Murphy Paul describes How
Children Succeed as an “absorbing and important book.” Geraldine
Brennan, writing for the Guardian, praises the book for being much
more than the “straightforward ‘grow clever children’ manual it
appears to be.” At the Huffington Post, Linda Flanagan writes that the
book “sings with humanity” while also incorporating science and
research into its conclusions. Kirkus Reviews proclaims How Children
Succeed as “well-written and bursting with ideas,” not to mention
“essential reading for anyone who cares about childhood in America.”
Booklist’s Vanessa Bush echoes that assessment, calling the book “a
very hopeful look at promising new research on education.” Jay
Matthews of the Washington Post also applauds Paul Tough: “A
wonderfully written new book reveals a school improvement measure
in its infancy that has the potential to transform our schools.” In fact,
most reviewers for mainstream media outlets have celebrated Tough’s
book as an absorbing account of the perils America’s children face and
of the power that character has to reconstruct their likely futures.
Writers for parenting blogs and other online resources—for
example, the blogger Sunshine of Sunshine Parenting and Natasha
Burgert of the KC Kids Doc website—have described How Children
Succeed as a must-read for parents seeking practical advice on how to
nurture success in their children. Some of these writers on parenting
even herald the book as a manual for bringing up the next generation,
whereas others look to it for insights into the types of relationships
they should forge with their own children.
In his review of How Children Succeed for Global Atlanta, Doug
Shipman, CEO of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights,
notes the book’s relevance to his own children and describes how he
has been inspired by the successful programs highlighted in the book.
“If you care about children’s development or education policy,” he
writes, “How Children Succeed is worth a read.”

The Downside
Criticism of the book, where it exists, has been quite mild. For example,
Claudia Gold, in a thoughtful and otherwise very positive review of
How Children Succeed on the Child in Mind blog at the Boston Globe,
says learning that the obviously successful Paul Tough never graduated
from college left her wishing “that more of the book had been devoted
to exploration of the definition of success.” And Joseph Cotto, in his
review for the Communities blog at the Washington Times, writes that he
doesn’t agree with all of Paul Tough’s conclusions, particularly those
related to IQ scores, but that “any social or financial observer, as well
as those who are compelled by human-interest stories, would be wise
to hear what Tough has to say.”
Perhaps the strongest and most cogent criticism of How Children
Succeed comes from E. D. Hirsch, founder of the Core Knowledge
Foundation: “I sympathize with Tough’s judgment that ‘the cognitive
hypothesis’ (in his view of it) has failed. . . . Yet [in] recent reform
efforts ‘mere information’ has been disparaged in favor of how-to
strategies and test-taking skills. What Tough calls ‘the cognitive
hypothesis’ with regard to academics might better be called the ‘how-
to hypothesis,’ paralleling his own how-to approach with regard to
character.” Hirsch also criticizes Tough for not citing the psychologist
Jerome Kagan and others whose research has demonstrated “that
many fundamental character traits tend to be innate and unchanging”
rather than malleable and learnable, as Tough claims.

SYNOPSIS
In five chapters, Paul Tough explores the essence of success. He looks
at the roles of failure, character development, creative thinking, and
exterior support in creating happy and productive people. Finally, he
examines character and failure as they relate to his own success as a
journalist and father.
Chapter 1 discusses the destructive impact of “adverse childhood
experiences,” or ACEs, such as violence and neglect, and offers a
startlingly simple resolution—close, nurturing parental relationships.
Tough explains that ACEs cause intense levels of stress, which strains
the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (AHP) axis, the body’s stress-
regulating system. Children who grow up in high-risk homes where
drugs, abuse, and neglect run rampant are particularly susceptible to
this type of damage. In this exaggerated state of stress, executive
functions—the higher-order mental abilities that allow people to deal
with confusing and unpredictable situations—are impeded. Tough
suggests that the damage to children from neurological, physiological,
and psychological impacts of ACEs will be much less acute if we can
teach children to develop executive functions.
Chapter 2 takes a close look at two schools. The first, a middle
school in the South Bronx area of New York City that is affiliated with
the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP), enrolls Hispanic and African
American children from low-income families and immerses them in
long days of intense classroom instruction, which includes training in
behavior and attitude modification. The second, Riverdale Country
School, is a prestigious private school in a much more affluent area of
the Bronx and serves a predominantly upper-middle-class population.
Leaders at both schools believe that character is the ultimate
determinant of future success, and they strive to develop grit, self-
control, zest, emotional intelligence, gratitude, optimism, and curiosity
in their students. Through the lens of these two institutions, Tough
examines these seven strengths and their correlations with success
and achievement.
Chapter 3 explores the power of thinking. Using chess as the
ultimate example of successful thought, he follows the students of
Intermediate School (IS) 318, a middle school in Brooklyn, as they
compete in tournaments and vie for national recognition. Through
cognitive self-control and flexibility, the students are able to look at
individual chess moves, evaluate them, and make innovative choices
that they might otherwise have overlooked. Chess players from IS 318
also learn to resist the temptation to opt for an immediately attractive
move over a subtler, ultimately more successful choice. These students
learn from their mistakes and use that knowledge to improve.
Chapter 4 examines the deplorable rate at which students are
dropping out of college in the United States. Tough says it’s character,
not SAT or ACT scores, that determines whether a student completes
college. He also explores the role of mentors, claiming that any
student, with the proper scaffolding and support, can graduate from
college. He highlights organizations like OneGoal, where one teacher
is assigned to a group of twenty-five underperforming high school
sophomores and remains with them for three years. According to
Tough, programs like OneGoal are successful not only because they
provide academic coaching but also because they supplement it with
even more valuable services in support of character development.
Chapter 5 recounts Tough’s own path to success. The author
discusses having dropped out of Columbia University as a freshman to
pursue an uncertain goal rife with the potential for failure—traveling by
bicycle from Atlanta, Georgia, to Halifax, Canada. He also explores the
travails of parenting and the importance of developing children’s
character strengths by providing discipline, limits, and, most
important, the opportunity to fail. Tough closes the book by discussing
what he believes are problems in the American educational system,
which he talks about in terms of the “politics of disadvantage.”
OceanofPDF.com
Key Concepts of
How Children Succeed

Since the mid-1990s, Americans have subscribed to the idea that a

child’s cognitive skills and intelligence quotient (IQ) are the most
important factors in determining his or her future. But the cognitive
hypothesis ignores what current research is uncovering—the power of
character. Studies show that cultivating character has a more dramatic
impact on future success than anything else, and that without
character, IQ scores are largely irrelevant.

I. THE COGNITIVE HYPOTHESIS

In 1994, the Carnegie Corporation published a report titled Starting
Points: Meeting the Needs of Our Youngest Children, which noted an
alarming decline in the cognitive development of American children.
The report claimed that children during the first three years of life were
receiving too little stimulation of their cognitive skills—that is, skills
related to the ability to recognize letters and words, and to calculate
and identify patterns—and that the situation was due to a rise in the
numbers of single-parent homes and working mothers. As a result,
children were arriving at kindergarten unprepared. In the same year,
Charles Murray and Richard Herrnstein published The Bell Curve and
proclaimed a child’s IQ score the most important marker of his or her
future success. These two publications sparked intense focus on
cognitive skills as the critical determinants of success later in life, and
the cognitive hypothesis became popular.
 But How Children Succeed—the product of much research and
many studies—tells a far different story. Among other studies, Tough
cites one by William G. Bowen, Matthew M. Chingos, and Michael S.
McPherson, who found that high school grade-point average (GPA),
not SAT score, was the best predictor of college graduation. These
three researchers claim that standardized test scores reflect IQ scores,
whereas GPA reflects self-control, motivation, and perseverance.
Intelligence is not enough, the newest research is saying. Character
matters more.
Tough argues that cognitive skills play some role in future
outcomes but have little impact on whether a child will rise to
adversity, exhibit a curious spirit, or stay motivated to complete a task.
Attributes related to a child’s personality and integrity are not
cognitive; they come from a different source entirely, and their
importance as primary determinants of success is increasingly
recognized. Character shapes children’s social fluidity, the way they
handle failure, and their ability to solve problems creatively and think
outside the box. It determines whether they are able to delay
gratification, exhibit self-control, and persist in completing a task
regardless of whether its completion will lead to an external reward.
Tough claims that even the highest IQ score is not sufficient to predict
future success without the incredible power of character.

Examples from How Children Succeed

• In the late 1990s, James Heckman and his colleagues analyzed data
from the General Educational Development (GED) testing program.
The program, designed as an alternate route to college, offers high
school dropouts the opportunity to demonstrate proficiency in
secondary-level academic skills. Heckman found that among high
school dropouts who had taken the GED tests, a passing score and
even a high score had no positive correlation with better life
outcomes than the outcomes for high school dropouts who had not
taken the GED tests, and this was the case across a variety of factors,
 including annual income, unemployment, divorce, and illegal drug
use. Intrigued by these findings, Heckman looked beyond cognitive
ability and turned his attention to data regarding the psychological
traits of high school graduates. He determined that what was most
crucial to success in and graduation from high school—being able to
persist at an unrewarding task, delay gratification, and follow through
on a plan—was also exactly what it took to become a college
graduate, embark on a career, and generally live a successful life.
Heckman eventually concluded that high school dropouts who
complete the GED are essentially “wise guys”—every bit as bright as
high school graduates, but deficient in the character traits associated
with the graduates’ positive outcomes in adulthood.

• In the mid-1960s, psychologists and researchers recruited low-

income, low-IQ parents in Ypsilanti, Michigan, to enroll their three-
and four-year-old children in the town’s Perry Preschool. The
students were divided into two groups: a control group that was left
in its neighborhood environment, and a treatment group that was
admitted to the school. Both groups, now in their forties, have been
tracked since the inception of the study and will continue to be
tracked. Although the project failed as a case for early-childhood
intervention as a means to raise IQ scores, there were other notable
results. It was found, for example, that more people in the treatment
group had graduated from high school, found employment by the
age of twenty-seven, and earned more than $25,000 a year by the age
of forty; in addition, fewer people in the treatment group had been
arrested or received welfare benefits. Further analysis showed that
noncognitive factors like curiosity, self-control, and social fluidity
were responsible for the majority of the benefit that Perry offered its
students.

Applying the Concept

• Read to your children to teach character. If you’re not convinced that
the cognitive hypothesis should be replaced by a new character-
 driven approach, try combining the two. Reading with your children
will build their fluency and vocabulary, and it’s a great opportunity to
talk about character: Does Junie B. know how to control herself ? Why
are Jack and Annie so curious, and what do they do when they’re scared?
How did Violet, Jessie, Henry, and Benny survive all by themselves, and
what makes them such great friends?

• Start a conversation. Does your child’s school subscribe to the power

of character? Talk to the principal or guidance counselor about
incorporating character development into the curriculum. Make a
presentation at a PTA meeting to help other parents and teachers
consider the tremendous impact character has on future success.
Offer to teach a lesson to a class, or bring in a guest speaker.

• Do you checkmate? Chess is a phenomenal way to teach children

self-control and cognitive flexibility. If you’ve never learned to play,
you and your child can learn the game together. You can help your
child by modeling ways to analyze mistakes and look for different
solutions. There are also many online programs and applications
that teach children chess strategies and allow them to play against
the computer.

II. THE POWER OF CHARACTER

According to Paul Tough, the most dramatic determinant of a child’s
later success is character. Tough names seven positive character traits
—grit, self-control, zest, social intelligence, gratitude, optimism, and
curiosity—that he sees as the soundest predictors of life satisfaction
and high achievement. Grit, or intense and unwavering dedication to a
defined goal, has been shown to determine success in scenarios such
as spelling bees, military training, and college achievement. Children
who exhibit grit don’t give up when things get difficult. They persevere,
seeking out new and creative ways to attain their goals. As for
optimism, it allows people to see past their immediate circumstances
and imagine a better future. For Tough, children who demonstrate
these seven traits become the happiest and most successful adults,
regardless of whether they grow up in affluence or poverty, and
independent of their IQ scores.
Executive functions, a collection of higher-order mental abilities
located in the prefrontal cortex, are essential to self-control. Two
important executive functions are cognitive flexibility and cognitive self-
control. The first allows children to see alternate solutions to
problems, think outside the box, and deal with new situations. The
second determines how well a child can avoid the impulse to make
familiar or tempting choices and instead opt for a choice that is more
effective or likely to lead to future, if delayed, success. In combination,
these abilities help children analyze their mistakes and understand
their decision-making processes. But ACEs, the adverse childhood
environmental factors mentioned earlier, can cause stressful reactions
that impede executive functions, including the ability to concentrate,
follow directions, sit still, and be resilient.
So what happens to people who do not display depth of character?
Are they doomed to lead unhappy, disastrous lives? Fortunately, no.
Probably the most important discovery Tough made about character is
that it is malleable—it can be taught to children of all ages, and it gets
stronger with practice.

Examples from How Children Succeed

• In the late 1960s, Walter Mischel, then a professor at Stanford,
developed an experiment that tested children’s willpower and ability
to delay gratification. Each child who was a subject in the experiment
was left alone in a room after the experimenter had placed a
marshmallow on a nearby table and told the child that he or she
could eat it. A child who wanted to eat the marshmallow simply had
to ring a bell on the table, but a child who waited until the
experimenter returned would be allowed to have two marshmallows.
Mischel found that children were able to wait much longer when they
either didn’t look at the marshmallow or were able to distract
 themselves from wanting to eat it by singing to themselves. In
addition, the more abstractly they were able to think about the
marshmallow, the longer they were able to wait. In 1981, Mischel
tracked his subjects down and found that the children who had
delayed gratification for fifteen minutes later scored, on average, 210
points higher on the SAT than the children who had chosen to ring
the bell and eat the marshmallow before the experimenter returned.

• More than 60 percent of the students at Brooklyn’s IS 318 come from

families poor enough to make their children eligible for federal lunch
subsidies. In addition, most students’ parents are employed but lack
college degrees. In short, most of the students come from low-
income, minimally educated families. Nevertheless, according to
Paul Tough, the chess program at IS 318 is the best in the nation, not
just among middle schools but at all grade levels. The reason for the
program’s success is Elizabeth Spiegel, whose character-driven
approach teaches her students to resist the temptation of making
immediate plays and to analyze their weak moves so they can
understand why they failed and what they could have done differently.
This approach teaches them to evaluate mistakes at a deep level, a
practice leading to greater self-awareness and greater ability to think
creatively. One of Spiegel’s students, a sixth grader named James,
had not mastered the equivalent of a third-grade curriculum, and yet
he showed incredible intelligence when he successfully beat some of
the best chess players in the country, including a grand master. Chess
provides children like James with countless opportunities to fail and
then try again. Spiegel says, “I try to teach my students that losing is
something you do, not something you are.”

Applying the Concept

• Do you overindulge your children? Giving in to your children’s every
whim could affect their future success. Teach them to practice
delayed gratification, and you may see improvement in their
academic performance. Urge them to save their money for the toys
 or games they want, and reinforce how good it feels to have saved
the money to buy those things. Model this kind of behavior, too,
because children learn through imitation.

• Everyone is not a winner. These days everyone gets a trophy just for
competing, and children are repeatedly told how smart and
wonderful they are. Instead of showering laurels on your child just for
participating in an activity, encourage her to stick with something she
enjoys and to work hard at improving her skills. Help her learn
optimism by showing her how failure can be an opportunity to find a
better way. Help her accept that she will not always be successful and
will not always be the best, and teach her that what we learn from our
mistakes is at least as important as what we gain from a big win.

• Help your child see that brains are only one part of the equation. Turn
your child’s focus from who’s the smartest in the class to who
exhibits the most grit and self-control. Make a game of identifying
character strengths in your day-to-day life. Take your examples from
people your child sees on the news, people he meets at the park, and
characters he reads about in books. Join him in searching for
examples of sports figures or favorite musicians who exhibited
tenacity in order to succeed. Help your child understand the
importance of character so that it becomes something he values, too.

III. CULTIVATING CHARACTER

According to Paul Tough, the research he conducted reveals a
promising piece of news for future generations: character can be
cultivated. Tough says that helping children build optimism, grit, and
self-control can be the determining factor in whether they drop out of
high school or eventually graduate from college.
Tough describes how students at a KIPP school are learning to
“CBT themselves,” which means using skills and insights drawn from
cognitive-behavioral therapy to recognize and challenge their own
negative or self-destructive thoughts in order to gain a more positive
perspective or make room for more optimistic interpretations of
circumstances. In broader terms, this means using metacognition, or
thinking about thinking, to learn ways of talking about their character,
thinking about their character, and evaluating their character. As a
result of these efforts, Tough says, the KIPP students learn to recognize
when it’s time to control impulses and emotional outbursts that can
interfere with their learning and with their ability to form positive
relationships. In addition, through mental contrasting—the practice of
concentrating on a desired outcome and simultaneously concentrating
on obstacles to that outcome so that creative ways of overcoming the
obstacles can be devised—the students develop tools for achieving
self-control and demonstrating grit.
Tough cites studies showing that students who believe it’s possible
for them to increase their intelligence do better academically than
students who see intelligence as an inborn, unchanging quality. It’s a
question of mind-set, Tough says, and he stresses the importance of
developing a growth mind-set in students because the message that
intelligence can be increased with mental work is one that carries
incredible power. Students who are able to internalize this message
come to believe in their ability to grow, Tough says, and they show
noticeable academic improvement. Similarly, he says, if students see
character traits as susceptible to constant development, they also
become inspired to improve in that area. Tough sees these messages
as particularly beneficial for students who have not been brought up to
believe that they’re smart or that their futures hold the promise of
success.
At the same time, Tough says, students who have grown up with
confidence in their abilities and with feelings of security about their
futures aren’t necessarily guaranteed successful outcomes, and they
face their own challenges. For instance, he notes that affluent students
seem particularly lacking in grit, a quality that comes with the
experience of overcoming obstacles and disappointments and climbing
mountains to attain a goal. On this point, Tough cites Dominic
Randolph, headmaster at Riverdale Country School. Randolph says his
students—who achieve high scores on the SAT, are told that everything
they do is wonderful, and believe that their wealth and connections will
automatically bring them a life of affluence and success—do not know
how to pick themselves up after a failure and have trouble recovering
from setbacks. Among low-income students, however, strong character
traits become a safety net when family members, schools, and the
culture in general can’t offer the built-in protection from failure that
affluent kids enjoy. This is one reason why Tough believes that
character may hold the key to bridging the education gap between
wealthy and poor students.

Examples from How Children Succeed

• In the late 1990s two research psychologists, Suniya S. Luthar and
Chris C. Sexton, performed a study comparing more than two
hundred mostly white and wealthy suburban tenth graders with their
mostly African American and low-income urban counterparts. The
researchers were surprised to discover that the affluent students
suffered much higher incidences of depression, anxiety, substance
abuse, and academic difficulty. Luthar and Sexton were then asked to
conduct another study, this one at a middle school, where they
followed a cohort of affluent students and determined that outcomes
for these students were decisively influenced by their relationships
with their parents. For affluent as well as low-income students, they
found delinquent behavior and mood disorders positively correlated
with low levels of maternal attachment, high levels of criticism from
parents, and minimal after-school supervision. Among wealthy
students, excessive academic pressure and feelings of isolation were
identified as the main causes of distress.

• The Knowledge Is Power Program, with headquarters in San

Francisco, is the country’s largest network of college-preparatory
charter schools in low-income communities. The program’s schools
are free and operate on the basis of open enrollment. The KIPP
approach was developed as an immersive style of public education.
The program, which features longer-than-average school days and
 engages students in a combined curriculum of intense core subjects
and character-driven attitude and behavior modification, has had
impressive results. For example, only four years after KIPP Academy
New York opened its doors in the South Bronx, this middle school’s
predominantly Hispanic and African American students earned
higher scores on citywide tests than students at any other school in
the Bronx, and the fifth highest scores in all of New York City. These
students graduated from middle school with outstanding academic
records and earned scholarships to the most prestigious private high
schools. Surprisingly, however, six years later only 20 percent of these
students had earned a four-year college degree. Tough attributes the
discrepancy to the rough transition from the close-knit KIPP
community, where everyone was invested in these students’ success
and supported them at every step, to environments where the
students were on their own.

Applying the Concept

• How well do you bounce back? According to Paul Tough’s research,
the best way to deal with a failure is to analyze why it occurred and
come up with creative ideas about what could have been done to
produce a different outcome. Recognize that failures and your ability
to move past them will strengthen your grit and teach you to
persevere, and that both qualities will lead you toward a happier and
more successful future.

• Become an engaged parent. As the researchers Luthar and Sexton

discovered, children’s relationships with their parents are critical to
children’s successful outcomes. Make sure your children know that
you are invested in their success by supporting them through failures
and helping them raise their self-awareness. Model metacognitive
strategies, and help them visualize alternatives when a choice
presents itself. Avoid putting pressure on them to shine
academically. Instead, celebrate the course of their development.
 Remind them that their intelligence can be increased and that they
can continuously strengthen their character.

• Do not come between children and failure. Challenge your children to

push their limits with familiar activities or to try something new. For
example, invite them to play a board game, and don’t lose on
purpose so they can “win.” When they come up with wild ideas, don’t
quash their enthusiasm with limits or realistic expectations. Instead,
give them full rein to explore, and let them have their full experience,
failures and all.

Key Takeaways
• In the United States, developments in the mid-1990s gave rise to the
cognitive hypothesis, or the idea that a child’s cognitive abilities and
IQ score are the most significant determinants of the child’s future
success. This idea in turn sparked intense focus on making sure that
children were “book smart.” Parents turned their attention to
building their children’s vocabulary and drilling them on math facts,
confident in the idea that proficiency in these areas would ensure
great accomplishments and lifelong happiness for their kids.
According to Paul Tough, however, emerging research shows that
these parents’ confidence in the cognitive hypothesis was misplaced.

• Tough sees character traits like grit and self-control as having the
potential to close the education gap between affluent and low-
income students and pave the way for great discoveries and
innovations. These are traits that help children accept their failures,
evaluate their mistakes, and create new solutions, Tough says, and he
points to research showing that bright, affluent students who lack
these traits may be incapable of resilience and vulnerable to
depression and even addiction. The power of character rests in part
on two messages—that intelligence is not a flxed, inborn quality but
 can be increased, and that positive traits of character can be learned,
practiced, and strengthened.

• To give the next generation the tools needed for a successful and
happy adulthood, we must cultivate children’s character today, Tough
says. Children must learn to persevere in spite of setbacks, focus
intently on desired goals, control their impulses and emotions, and
accept defeats. They should be encouraged to risk failure by trying to
do things that are difficult. When they succeed, they will soar, Tough
says, and when they fail, they will learn valuable lessons.

OceanofPDF.com
CONCLUSION

A Final Word

In How Children Succeed, Paul Tough draws on studies, interviews, and

the expertise of economists, psychologists, and educators across the
country to deliver a compelling argument for the power of character to
create resilient, innovative, socially fluid, and conscientious children.
He argues that the noncognitive skills reflected in that string of
adjectives are the keys to developing happy and successful adults. He
even goes so far as to suggest that the benefits of a high IQ,
heightened cognitive skills, and affluence are more or less irrelevant
without strength of character.
Cultivating our children’s character, Tough argues, is the most
important way we can affect their futures. In the simplest terms,
character can be cultivated in a child from his first moments as a
newborn—through securely attached parental relationships, a stable
environment free of adverse childhood experiences, and a healthy,
supportive adult presence. When any or all of these are not available,
all is not lost, he says, as long as character is cultivated, and he
believes that children at later ages and stages can reverse the effects of
adverse experiences, poor attachment, and lack of support by
developing character.
Tough pays particular attention to the role of character in helping
children overcome the past when they’ve suffered traumatic
experiences or grown up abused and neglected. Tough cites studies
showing that lack of character is as damaging to a child as the
presence of character is beneficial. According to Tough, learning to fail
is invaluable because children also learn to assess their mistakes and
devise new and creative solutions to problems. Equally important are
children’s ability to persevere and their belief in their ability to change
and grow. If life were safe and predictable, Tough says, cognitive
intelligence might be enough, but in today’s uncertain world of
challenges and hardship, strength of character is essential to keeping
children afloat and allowing them opportunities to shine.
This review has offered you a glimpse of Paul Tough’s How Children
Succeed. To learn more about the role of character in shaping futures,
and about the studies and interviews that helped Tough build his
argument, satisfy your curiosity by buying and reading the book.
OceanofPDF.com
Key Terms

ACEs acronym for adverse childhood experiences. ACEs may include

physical and sexual abuse, physical and emotional neglect, and family
dysfunction. Vincent Felitti, co–principal investigator of the Adverse
Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study, a continuing program of
collaborative research between the Kaiser Permanente Medical Care
Program and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
named the concept of ACEs in a 2002 report titled The Relationship
Between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Adult Health: Turning Gold
into Lead. Felitti found a strong correlation between the number of
ACEs experienced in childhood and the number and types of negative
outcomes experienced in adulthood, including addiction and chronic
disease. According to Bruce S. McEwen, a neuroendocrinologist at
Rockefeller University, ACEs are harmful because they overload the
body’s stress-management systems.
attachment theory the theory, jointly developed in the 1950s and
1960s by the British psychoanalyst John Bowlby and the American-
Canadian developmental psychologist Mary Ainsworth, that secure
attachment in early childhood leads to self-reliance. Paul Tough cites
the work of Bowlby and Ainsworth as well as the psychological research
of Clancy Blair and his colleagues, who have found that highly
responsive mothering can negate the effects of ACEs.
character a set of noncognitive strengths that, according to Paul
Tough, can be learned, practiced, and taught. Tough mentions
Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman’s Character Strengths and
Virtues, a virtual taxonomy of positive character traits. Tough believes
that character, particularly with respect to the traits of
conscientiousness, grit, resilience, perseverance, and optimism, is the
most valuable antipoverty tool that students can be given.
cognitive hypothesis Paul Tough’s term for the notion that success in
childhood and later in life is primarily dependent on cognitive skills.
According to Betty Hart and Todd R. Risley, two strong proponents of
this hypothesis, the size of a child’s vocabulary by the time the child
has reached the age of three is the single most important determinant
of the child’s future. In the mid-1990s, intense focus on the cognitive
hypothesis encouraged a parenting style that emphasized children’s
academic preparation and readiness for standardized tests. Tough
believes that the cognitive hypothesis values the wrong factors when it
comes to determining a child’s success later in life, and that a child’s
character is a much stronger determinant of his or her outcomes in
adulthood.
conscientiousness the ability to stay focused on a task, whether or not
its completion brings a reward. The research of Brent Roberts and his
colleagues shows that subjects who were conscientious as students
got better grades in high school and college and committed fewer
crimes, stayed married longer, and lived longer than subjects who were
not conscientious as students.
executive functions higher-order mental abilities, located in the
prefrontal cortex of the brain, that make it possible to deal with
confusing and unpredictable situations and information. According to
Paul Tough, the two most important executive functions are cognitive
flexibility, which enables new and creative solutions to problems, and
cognitive self-control, which makes it possible to inhibit instinctive
responses and take more effective paths of action.
grit Angela Lee Duckworth and Patrick G. Quinn, research
psychologists at the University of Pennsylvania, define grit as “a
passionate commitment to a single mission and an unswerving
dedication to that mission.” Using measures they devised themselves,
Duckworth and Quinn showed that people who had high scores on the
character trait of grit persisted longer and were more successful in
completing difficult tasks than were people who had low scores on that
trait. Paul Tough sees grit as a crucial character trait for students living
in poverty and/or adverse circumstances because it gives them the
power to commit themselves to a better future and work steadfastly
toward that end.
mental contrasting the practice of focusing on a desired positive
outcome while simultaneously identifying possible obstacles to its
attainment. Psychological research published in 2010 by Angela Lee
Duckworth, Heidi Grant, Benjamin Loew, Gabriele Oettingen, and
Peter Gollwitzer shows that mental contrasting creates an association
between current reality and goals for the future, and that it ignites the
desire to overcome potential obstacles to those goals. Tough cites
David Kessler, pediatrician and former commissioner of the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration, who says that making self-imposed rules
activates the prefrontal cortex of the brain, which is responsible for
willpower and self-control. Students make the most successful use of
mental contrasting when they construct if-then statements that link
obstacles with solutions.
OceanofPDF.com
Recommended Reading

In addition to Paul Tough’s How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and

the Hidden Power of Character (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012), the
following books are recommended for anyone who wants to learn more
about the impact of character and the power it has in overcoming
economic, physical, and psychological barriers to success.

Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman, NurtureShock: New Thinking About

Children (Twelve, 2009)
In this book, which offers a revolutionary new perspective on children
that unravels conventional wisdom, Bronson and Merryman
demonstrate that many of modern society’s strategies for nurturing
children are backfiring because key components of science have been
overlooked in children’s education and upbringing.

Kenneth R. Ginsburg, M.D., Building Resilience in Children and Teens:

Giving Kids Roots and Wings, 2nd ed. (American Academy of
Pediatrics, 2011)
Through seven critical “Cs”—competence, confidence, connection,
character, contribution, coping, and control—Ginsburg offers concrete
strategies to families, schools, and communities for teaching children
to overcome the demanding stresses and challenges of school, peer
groups, and family dysfunction. He claims that when we bring children
up to be emotionally and socially intelligent, we give them their best
opportunity to reach their full potential.
Kenneth R. Ginsburg, M.D., and Susan FitzGerald, Letting Go with
Love and Confidence: Raising Responsible, Resilient, Self-Sufficient
Teens in the 21st Century (Avery Trade, 2011)
Navigating the teenage years can be difficult, particularly for a
teenager’s parents. Letting go and allowing children to grow up can be
emotional. Parents are not always certain about the appropriate time to
let a child have a cell phone, stay home alone, or discuss topics like sex
or drugs. Ginsburg and Fitzgerald offer strategies and advice on these
difficult topics. They counsel parents on nurturing their children’s
independence and establishing boundaries, and they teach parents
how to speak openly and honestly with their children about important
topics.

Madeline Levine, Ph.D., The Price of Privilege: How Parental Pressure

and Material Advantage Are Creating a Generation of Disconnected
and Unhappy Kids (Harper, 2006)
In this book, a practicing psychologist explores rising rates of
depression, substance abuse, and anxiety disorders among affluent
teenagers. Levine suggests that the pressures of materialism, success,
and perfectionism have combined with feelings of isolation to create
this startling epidemic. She examines a variety of parenting practices,
highlighting the damaging effects of some of the most popular and
well-intentioned strategies, and offers advice on helping these children
reclaim their identities and self-worth.

Madeline Levine, Ph.D., Teach Your Children Well: Parenting for

Authentic Success (Harper, 2012)
Using her vast experience as a clinical psychologist along with current
research, Levine explores the debate that hinges on the differences
between intelligence and character. She encourages parents to divorce
themselves from the idea that their role is to produce children with
perfect grades and test scores, and instead to embrace the value of
character.
Wendy Mogel, The Blessing of a B Minus: Using Jewish Teachings to
Raise Resilient Teenagers (Scribner, 2010)
With real-life examples and humor, Mogel compares the teen years to
the Old Testament Jews’ journey from Egypt to the Promised Land and
urges parents to look on the bright side when helping their teens use
tough situations as learning moments and opportunities for true
growth.

Andrew Solomon, Far from the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search
for Identity (Scribner, 2012)
National Book Award–winning author Andrew Solomon offers a book
about accepting differences. Discussing traits from dwarfism to
schizophrenia, and groups from prodigies to transgender people,
Solomon explores the forces of love and empowerment, encouraging
parents to embrace their children and help them become the best
versions of themselves. As he documents the courageous stories of
real people, he uncovers the natural bonds that challenges create in
families and communities.

Tony Wagner, Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who

Will Change the World (Scribner, 2012)
Tony Wagner, an education expert, explores the power of adults to
spark and develop creativity in children. Highlighting collaboration,
interdisciplinary problem solving, and intrinsic motivation, he
examines the path that children take from early play to passionate
purpose. He outlines what parents, educators, and employers should
do to inspire and nurture innovation in young minds.
OceanofPDF.com
Bibliography

Clancy Blair, Douglas A. Granger, Katie T. Kivlighan, Roger Mills-

Koonce, Michael Willoughby, Mark T. Greenberg, Leah C. Hibel, and
Christine K. Fortunato, “Maternal and Child Contributions to Cortisol
Response to Emotional Arousal in Young Children from Low-Income,
Rural Communities”
Developmental Psychology 44:4 (2008), 1095–1109

William G. Bowen, Matthew M. Chingos, and Michael S. McPherson,

Crossing the Finish Line: Completing College at America’s Public
Universities
(New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2009)

Geraldine Brennan, “How Children Succeed by Paul Tough: Review”

The Guardian, January 19, 2013 (accessed March 13, 2013)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jan/21/how-children-succeed-
tough-review

Inge Bretherton, “The Origins of Attachment Theory: John Bowlby and

Mary Ainsworth”
Developmental Psychology 28 (1992), 759–75 (accessed March 19, 2013)
http://www.psychology.sunysb.edu/attachment/online/inge_origins.pd
f

Natasha Burgert, “Book Review: How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity,

and the Hidden Power of Character”
KC Kids Doc, January 14, 2013 (accessed March 13, 2013)
http://kckidsdoc.com/book-review-how-children-succeed-grit-curiosity-
and-thehidden-power-of-character.html

Vanessa Bush, “Review: How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the
Hidden Power of Character”
Booklist, September 15, 2012

Carnegie Corporation of New York, Starting Points: Meeting the Needs

of Our Youngest Children
(Carnegie Corporation of New York, 1994)

Joseph Cotto, “Book Review: ‘How Children Succeed’ Is More About

Persistence and Self-Confidence Than IQ”
Communities, Washington Times, November 28, 2012 (accessed March
16, 2013)
http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/life-
stories/2012/nov/28/book-review-how-children-succeed-more-about-
persis

Angela Lee Duckworth, Heidi Grant, Benjamin Loew, Gabriele

Oettingen, and Peter Gollwitzer, “Self-Regulation Strategies Improve
Self-Discipline in Adolescents: Benefits of Mental Contrasting and
Implementation Intentions”
Educational Psychology 31:1 (2010), 17–26

Angela Lee Duckworth and Patrick G. Quinn, “Development and

Validation of the Short Grit Scale (Grit-S)”
Journal of Personality Assessment 91:2 (2009), 166–74
Vincent J. Felitti, “The Relationship Between Adverse Childhood
Experiences and Adult Health: Turning Gold Into Lead”
Permanente Journal 6 (2002), 44–47

Linda Flanagan, “Character Is Destiny in How Children Succeed”

The Huffington Post, October 26, 2012 (accessed March 13, 2013)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/linda-flanagan/education-gap-
economics_b_2024311.html

Claudia Gold, “Paul Tough Speaks at Harvard: How Children Succeed”

Child in Mind, Boston Globe, September 3, 2012 (accessed March 16,
2013)
http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/health/childinmind/2012/09/paul_to
ugh_speaks_at_harvard_h.html

Abby Goodnough, “Structure and Basics Bring South Bronx School

Acclaim”
New York Times, October 20, 1999 (accessed March 17, 2013)
http://www.nytimes.com/1999/10/20/nyregion/structure-and-basics-
bring-south-bronx-school-acclaim.html

Betty Hart and Todd R. Risley, Meaningful Differences in the Everyday

Experiences of Young American Children
(Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes, 1995)

James Heckman, Seong Hyeok Moon, Rodrigo Pinto, Peter Savelyev,

and Adam Yavitz, “The Rate of Return to the High/Scope Perry
Preschool Program”
Journal of Public Economics 94:1,2 (2010)
Richard J. Hernstein and Charles Murray, The Bell Curve: Intelligence
and Class Structure in American Life
(New York: Free Press, 1994)

E. D. Hirsch, “E. D. Hirsch on Paul Tough’s How Children Succeed”

The Core Knowledge Blog, September 26, 2012 (accessed March 13,
2013) http://blog.coreknowledge.org/2012/09/26/e-d-hirsch-on-paul-
toughs-how-children-succeed

“How Children Succeed: Rethinking Character and Intelligence”

Kirkus Reviews, May 1, 2012

David Kessler, The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable

American Appetite
(New York: Rodale, 2009)

Suniya S. Luthar and Chris C. Sexton, “The High Price of Affluence”

Advances in Child Development 32 (2004), 125–62

Jay Matthews, “Forget Rating Teachers. Think Grit 101.”

Washington Post, September 13, 2012 (accessed March 16, 2013)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/class-struggle/post/forget-
rating-teachers-think-grit-101/2012/09/12/ad81d432-fd39-11e1-8adc-
499661afe377_blog.html

Bruce S. McEwen, “Protection and Damage from Acute and Chronic

Stress: Allostasis and Allostatic Overload and Relevance to the
Pathophysiology of Psychiatric Disorders”
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1032 (2004), 1–7
Walter Mischel, “From Good Intentions to Willpower,” in Peter M.
Gollwitzer and John A. Bargh, eds., The Psychology of Action: Linking
Cognition and Motivation to Behavior
(New York: Guliford Press, 1996)

Anne Murphy Paul, “School of Hard Knocks”

New York Times, October 20, 1999 (accessed March 17, 2013)
http://www.nytimes.com/1999/10/20/nyregion/structure-and-basics-
bring-south-bronx-school-acclaim.html

Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman, Character Strengths and

Virtues: A Handbook and Classification
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2004)

Brent Roberts, Nathan R. Kunce, Rebecca Shiner, Avshalom Caspi, and

Lewis R. Goldberg, “The Power of Personality: The Comparative
Validity of Personality Traits, Socioeconomic Status, and Cognitive
Ability for Predicting Important Life Outcomes”
Perspectives on Psychological Science 2:4 (2007), 313–45

Doug Shipman, “Book Review: How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity,

and the Hidden Power of Character”
Global Atlanta, January 1, 2013 (accessed March, 13, 2013)
http://www.globalatlanta.com/bookreport/18/how-children-suceed

Sunshine, “Book Review: How Children Succeed”

Sunshine Parenting, November 1, 2012 (accessed March 13, 2013)
http://sunshineparenting.wordpress.com/2012/11/01/how-children-
succeed
OceanofPDF.com