True Grit

For my kin and I, childhood summers were often spent on our grandparents’ farm.  I can remember 6 am peal of my grandfather’s cowbell rousing us from our slumber for another day of farm work.  Unlike Christopher Walken, I would have been fine with less cowbell.

Our grandparents had a simple and effective ways of motivating their grandchildren in their various work projects.  They paid a prorated salary, where workers got $2 dollars an hour and “shirkers” got 50 cents. It was a simpler time, before iPods and smartphones, and a couple weeks on the farm would provide a ten year old with enough cash to buy fireworks and bubble tape to last most of the year.  While they gave generous and unsolicited opinions about our wood stacking and fence building skills, it was (and is) clear that they cared about us and were more interested in our character development then our ability to rake gravel. Suffice to say $2 an hour was motivation for enough for all of us, and esteem as a “hard worker” was highest praise from our depression era grandparents.

I am part of the education team at BGI, and this quarter we are studying KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) schools, a non-profit charter network that seeks to increase college enrollment and completion for low-income students. It has been very successful. As of 2011, 94% of its students graduate from high school and 84% start college.  But this is only part of the problem.  Only 36% of its students complete their four-year degrees.  What is missing?

ONE Goal, is a Chicago based college persistence program that works with low-income high school students. It boasts a 95% college enrollment rate, and even more remarkably, 85% of its students graduate from college.

Like KIPP, ONE Goal, focuses on five principles of leadership: resilience, ambition, resourcefulness, integrity, and professionalism.

Paul Tough is researcher and writer who recently addressed the issue of student success in his fascinating book How Students Succeed.  He posits that while intelligence has historically believed to be the most powerful indicator of academic success, a growing body of research suggests that the intangible soft skills of perseverance, hard work, optimism and curiosity are actually more important. Much of his book is based on his research of similar program to KIPP, called ONE Goal.

The reason that this works, Tough says, is programs that are challenging and reward effort and encourage autonomy result in a heightened sense of personal agency.  In other words, if you are told given the resources to succeed, but also told that you are the architect of your future, your ability to do well is greatly improved.

Both KIPP and One Goal emphasize soft skills and qualitative criteria of character in addition to academic rigor. Why One Goal is so much more effective at securing college completion than KIPP is not entirely clear, as they seem to be similar programs.  At the same time, KIPP with its college completion rate of 38 percent is still higher than societal average of the United States. Perhaps we all could take a page from their book.

While it is hard to argue with the efficacy of the ONE Goal approach, many teachers balk at the prospect of becoming “character coaches” a role many belief outside the purview of educators.  In an era where teachers are feeling increasingly scrutinized and criticized, perhaps the onus for these things should be on parents or community leaders.   This is very valid concern, however, many students do not have the luxury of a stable home life. As a society, I believe it is time we recognize education as a holistic empowerment and equipping for life, rather than a dissemination of academic information.

That is one commonality that I have seen with our BGI education. I have found that the qualities that have served me best are persistence and endurance through the rewarding and arduous learning process here. I believe this renewed sense of self-direction and agency will be more valuable than the important knowledge I am learning.

Grandparents would approve. Though I no longer spend most of my wages on fireworks and bubble gum, I can appreciate the invaluable lessons that they taught me. Life is a gift and you get what you put into it. It is yours to live, and to have the means and agency to follow your passion is the greatest of privileges.