Paul Tough on Character Education

How much do character traits like zest, self-control, optimism, and curiosity matter when it comes to success in school and in life? And are these traits just as important to success as cognitive ability and concrete knowledge?

That was the topic of last weekend’s New York Times Magazine feature by Paul Tough, “What if the Secret to Success Is Failure?” Tough chronicles the quest of the leaders of two vastly different schools—Dominic Randolph, headmaster of the Riverdale Academy, a prestigious private school in the Bronx, and David Levin, superintendent of the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) schools, a national charter network serving mostly low-income students—to find out what character traits matter most for students’ academic and life success, and how best to foster the development of those traits in school.

Randolph and Levin, who were separately grappling with the issue of character education, met at a meeting with Martin Seligman, professor of psychology and director of the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania. They had each contacted Seligman separately to discuss his book Learned Optimism.

Building character had always been part of the KIPP model, hence its motto: “Work Hard, Be Nice.” But as Tough describes, Levin felt a new urgency to study character after watching how the first cohort of KIPP alumni performed in college. Tough writes: “Students who persisted in college were not necessarily the ones who had excelled academically at KIPP; they were the ones with exceptional character strengths, like optimism and persistence and social intelligence.”

After six years of reviewing the research on character, Randolph and Levin together came up with a list of the traits that seem to correlate most with success: zest, grit, self-control, social intelligence, gratitude, optimism, and curiosity. (Read the full article for more on each school’s character education program.)

When it comes to character development, the entire K-12 education system could learn from the example of the best early-childhood programs, which focus attention on multiple domains of learning and development. Fostering social emotional development, for example, helps young children learn to work in groups and resolve conflict. Effective early childhood teachers develop children’s curiosity, self-control, ability to tackle challenging tasks, and social intelligence--the ability to understand and relate to others. The need to develop such skills doesn’t end when a child enrolls in elementary, middle, or high school—“character” education should remain a constant throughout the education system.

Read Paul Tough’s article here.