Brian Cohen
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Book Review: How Children Succeed by Paul Tough

3/1/2013

1 Comment

 
Thanks to all those who participated in February's book club on How Children Succeed. For March I will be reading Trusting Teachers with School Success. It is a book of 11 case studies in which teachers have more autonomy and authority within schools. I look forward to your comments. Now, on to February's book:
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As a lover of all education research I found this book to be insightful and applicable when it comes to my daily practice as a teacher. The first half explores a lot of the information garnered by researchers relating to how trauma and life experiences affect the brain and the capability of students to learn. Approximately 22% of all children grow up in poverty (page 5 of the US Census Bureau's official brief), a fact that many education reformers gloss over in their "no excuses" attitude towards schooling. Unfortunately, the effects of living in low-income neighborhoods, not knowing where the next meal is coming from, and more are affecting the cognitive functioning of our country's youth. 

The second half of the book strays a bit from the topic of grit in general and focuses on some specific examples, including the chess team from I.S. 318 in New York (featured in the documentary Brooklyn Castle). While the stories are impressive, they seem more anecdotal than research-based; I would have preferred to read more analysis of the metrics used to define "traumatic experiences" and how that affects brain chemistry. 

One of the specific things he mentions in the first half that intrigued me was the idea of the human stress-response system likened to firefighters. When people react to stressers (lack of food, neighborhood gang violence, etc), their system goes into superdrive, and "simply respond quickly with every tool they need. This might be the right strategy for saving lives in fires, but it can also result in a dozen trucks pulling up to put out a single smoldering trash can - or worse, responding to a false alarm" (p. 14). This constant waste of energy and misuse of bodily resources becomes draining on the brain of a human and results in less cognitive ability overall.

That being said, one of the most important things Trough brings up in his book is the idea that resiliency and grit - two factors highly correlated with later success - are more malleable than IQ. "Pure IQ is stubbornly resistant to improvement after about age eight. But executive functions and the ability to handles stress and manage strong emotions can be improved, sometimes dramatically, well into adolescence and even adulthood" (p. 48). If this is true, then we need to refocus our energies in low-income high schools across the country to ensure they understand and implement some of this research. 

Over the past year I have been thinking more and more about the idea of a useful homeroom/advisory period that stretches beyond the 12-20 minute timing usually provided in Philadelphia schools. Instead, have a 45 minute class period twice a week to focus on issues like grit, resiliency, listening to student needs, and more. Perhaps this would create better outcomes for our students in the future.

1 Comment
Joe K.
3/5/2013 10:53:12 pm

Brian--Somehow you have missed the entire point by giving NY SEMBLANCE OF CREDENCE TO THE S.D. PROPOSAL. They know it is unacceptable jibberish and is designed to be nonsense. They don't expect any thinking person to take that seriously. The real deal is that they want to end unions, end Public Education, End the Middle Class and increase profits for the charter liars who are business people, kickbacks flying in all directions. It has nothing to do with an accident or misunderstanding. It is all designed and scripted pure and simple.

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    I am a math teacher in the New York Department of Education. I infuse technology and real-world problems into my curriculum in order to prepare my students for the future. I would love for people across the country to recognize we teachers can't do it alone. If you don't believe me, come visit my classroom!

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