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I think it is easy to see that working hard contributes immensely to success.  Words like grit and determination pop up regularly in success books, and certainly, one measure of educational success can be found in a student’s willingness to work hard for a grade.

But many students who are unwilling to work hard for a grade, have succeeded immensely once leaving school.  For these individuals, academic success is less important than the success that comes from working with others in areas like manufacturing, plumbing solutions, or investment decisions; or in discovering a field that is immensely interesting; or in establishing an expertise that inspires; or even in enjoying the rewards of a healthy paycheck.  All of these (and many more) are incentives for working with persistence in non-academic arenas.

The sooner that children learn the value of persistence, the sooner they can learn that persistence alone does not guarantee success.  Persistence without some level of joy becomes self-defeating in the long run.  While there are individuals who have crafted careers and well-paying jobs with little joy, the stories of individuals who have walked away from oppressive jobs are numerous.

The challenge of a character report card is keeping it distinct from the academic components of the report card.  The character report card is not intended to recognize the qualities it takes to achieve academic success. Students who earn a grade of “C” in persistence are given the simple message that to become a success in school or in any other endeavor, they must be willing to work hard.  Once a child discovers that hard work can achieve success, the next element is to begin understanding that hard work must be backed by joy in order to maintain itself.

“C” grades in persistence can easily morph into “A” grades once a child understands that the teacher is asking for hard work.  And for those students who do not respond to the “C” prompt, all participants (the teacher, the students and the student’s parents) now have a clearer understanding of what is keeping the student from achieving better grades.  Note that I do not say that persistence alone will achieve “top grades”.  The “C” grade is not a message of failure at anything but the components of academic schoolwork.  The academic report card still exists and is especially fulfilling to those students who need academic grades to spur them on.

Students might be given feedback on the following points in order to establish a grade in persistence:

• • Turns in assignments;
  • Completes homework in a timely fashion;
  • Comes to class prepared;
  • Puts an appropriate level of time into assignments;
  • Works hard for academic success;
  • Shows persistence working in the classroom;
  • Shows persistence in assignments sent home

Teachers need to think hard about what constitutes “hard work” in their subject area.   Hard work in math might look different from hard work in social studies.  Yet the sooner students learn that an expectation of success in school and in life is determined by one’s willingness to work hard for success, the more likely that student will graduate with the sense that their challenge is to find a field in which working hard feels good.

We welcome you to the conversation.  Please let us know that you care by liking comments, forwarding posts, or joining in our dialogue at johnzurn.com.

Coming Next Wednesday- How to Grade for Positive Attitude

 From our first posting:

“As parents and teachers, we need to reclaim our traditional role as influencers of our children – not by shouting louder than the influencers our children discover online, but by stressing ideas that are more important than fancy shoes and snappy TikTok tunes. We need to emphasize traits that everyone agrees children will honor.  We need to convince our children that the people who are most important to them have a better understanding of what it takes to be successful in life.”

 #charactereducation #successtraits #parentingtips #homeschooling #teachertips