Talent, luck or grit?

When someone tell us that he or she is successful, the first things that come to our minds are that he or she is very talented or has a lot of luck. This can be also applied to education as, for example, when one student has a really good marks she becomes a talented lucky scholar for her family. This way of thinking was also mine until I started to teach private lessons and, especially, after this week's lesson.

I've listen and read some papers about the growth of mindset by Dr. Carol Dweck but I had never heard of the term grit. After the class, I saw Angela Duckworth's Ted Talk about the concept grit and I have to admit that it totally changed my mind about learning and motivating the students. Grit is about having a purpose in the future and fight for it, trying to achieve it in a passionate way (Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance | Angela Lee Duckworth, 2013). Thus, grit seems to be more important to me than just talent or luck.

Angela Duckworth

One of the statements that really affected me was "grit is living life like it's a marathon, not a sprint" (Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance | Angela Lee Duckworth, 2013). This assertion made me thought about how important is grit in education and how could I as a future teacher encourage grit in my students. Moreover, it actually made me contemplate the viability of cheering up grit in the Spanish educative system. Could it be possible to do it? I think so.

During my student life I have had different teachers that really encouraged us to be gritty about their subjects. Moreover, I could say that I was gritty in some of them as I really wanted to have a good mark in order to enter in the degree I wanted or just because I really liked the matter.

I am very glad to have discovered Angela Duckworth's work (thank you, teacher!) because I have found this talk very interesting and I am even considering reading her book!

Indeed, I will try to be gritty with my future and, for now and especially, with the Master!

Sources

Grit: the power of passion and perseverance | Angela Lee Duckworth. (2013, 9 mayo). [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H14bBuluwB8&ab_channel=TED