One Sibling Works for B’s; One Gets Easy A’s

The New York Times:

Two weeks ago, I was hanging out after a speaking engagement, answering questions and chatting with some parents, when two women approached me with a great Parent-Teacher Conference question.

These moms wanted to know how to parent siblings with differing talents and academic abilities. Specifically, one of the mothers wanted to know how she could best support one of her children, who works herself to the bone for B’s, while the other sibling seems to earn A’s with very little effort. As a parent of two boys with very different personalities, interests and skills, this is a question I’ve been itching to research myself.

…

According to the work of the research psychologist and recent MacArthur Foundation fellow Angela Duckworth, the child who is earning B’s may just be in a much better position to succeed in life than the child who is not working very hard for those coveted A’s. According to Dr. Duckworth, “grit,” or the combination of self-control required to stay focused on a task from moment to moment and sustain the effort toward long-term goals, is more predictive of success than I.Q., academic achievement or test scores.

Read the whole story: The New York Times