I was driving into Manhattan yesterday from the Lonely, Iggorant Boondox where I now live - (where kids are raised by tough, busy, often unfocused parents (often just one) who "Parent by BARKING": Get outta there! - Don't touch that! - I'm gunna smack your bum!, etc.)) - and I was happy when I found Leonard on the radio (listen often at home in the Boondox) during his interview with Paul Tough - which I found FASCINATING. Thank you, Leonard! Thank you, Paul. Loved hearing both of you while driving into the City (where I lived in a charming, sunny & quiet, rent-controlled, sixth floor walk-up in Greenwich Village for 44 years - until Landlord was able to get me out in 2008 - sadly - I miss the City every single day!!!) Interview was memorable. Perfect company during that drive. Thanks so much.

Paul Tough’s reporting on the growing interest in developing character strength is very encouraging. The most efficient, powerfully effective, and universally applicable way I know of growing inner strength is through seeing straight to the source of our character traits, the animating images by which we mirror nature and our parents becoming known scientifically as eidetic (eye-deht’-ic) images.

As we concentrate in a new way on letting these newly distinguished inner motion pictures play in front of our mind’s eyes, and see exactly how they touch and move our bodies, we go to the transformative level of consciousness we were familiar with as children. We spent day and night living, learning, playing and growing with these instructive, dramatically clear, ingenious, witty and growing images. Now, as adults, by looking inside, we can readily see that these lively images are not only the source of our attention spans, moods, performance, health, creativity and outlook, but also the vital means by which we can readily outgrow the deleterious aspects of our character.

Having taught eidetic imaging in schools, hospitals, and churches, in senior, environmental, therapy and art centers, and in prison, I see that people of all sorts and ages can now realize that it is within their power to see exactly how they can outgrow conditions they’ve felt stuck with, including depression, anxiety, panic, introversion, shyness, narcissistic blindness, sudden mood swings, compulsions, addiction, and schizophrenic tendencies.

I’ve also seen that documenting and sharing eidetic transformations in writing, drawing and enactments, as demonstrated at www.imagegrove.org, greatly enhances people’s natural potential for sustained coherence, empathy, cooperation and showing true grit. My students have said, “Everybody should be doing this.”

That would put us all on the healthy, healing and transformative footing that can spare us all much grief, waste of money and life.

"I am a doctor. Most people's response to that is that I must be a genius. Actually, the average IQ of a doctor is 125 (genius begins at 140). So how do all these 'non-geniuses' become doctors? delayed gratification, goal setting, perseverance, curiosity, conscientiousness, self-control, etc."
Oh really, anon?
You forgot something important, namely, LACK of CONSCIENCE.
Torturing of elderly to death only because one is ordered to do this (lucrative for the institution) requires a lot of character (yeah, sure). People with character in old-fashioned, non-Orwellian way don't become doctors in America.

So, Pablo, SKILLS are "character." Oh really? And which skills are "character?"
The fact the No Child, charter, Duncan and Obama are horrible doesn't necessarily mean Tough is wonderful.
Here, fro example, a possible definition of "character:"
"the combination of traits and qualities distinguishing the individual nature of a person or thing" - no mentioning of "skills"
Doesn't it look different from what Tough (and you) are promoting?

I was surprised to read the negative comments about Mr. Tough's book and the concept of teaching non-cognitive skills, which he has quantified under the catchphrase "character." I attended NYC public schools and now work for an organization that works to help Black and Latino kids who have shown promise into the best independent schools in the Northeast.

The idea and ideal of teaching "character" was the norm when I grew up. It was done at home and at school. Today, teaching non-cognitive skills and being mindful of building resilience and "stick-to-it-tiveness" seem to be lost because those who control the levers of power (meaning access to $$$) all look at flawed metrics. Much of this is related to the No Child Left Behind legislation, but Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is yet another disciple of the numbers-driven bureaucracy who misses the core value required of every high quality education: Inspiration. Children who are inspired will learn more effectively than those drilled in rote memorization skills.

The biggest difference between pubic and independent schools in my observation, is that the latter have the time and resources to focus on helping each individual child to learn how to learn. There is far less focus on standardized test scores and more on mastery of a given subject. Mr. Tough's book would seem to be a welcome addition to the subject of education reform because so much attention is given to standardized testing, charter schools, vouchers, and bashing teachers and their union.

"So what means is used to measure this character set?"
CK, marching corporate zombies are an ideal. You have "character" when you are ready to march 'zombily"
Recht, recht, recht. Schnell, schnell, schnell. Yawoll, yawoll, yawoll ...

This guy is a barbarian.
I missed the beginning, but the rest was enough.
Predictably, the guy isn't familiar with the word "society." He isn't also familiar with many other words, such as "ethics," "decency," "compassion."
We don't need more recommendation on "how to succeed," and how to turn normal children into marching, corporate zombies, but how to survive when most around us are already successful marching zombies.
Among many things, bright high school dropouts don't succeed, because they are PERCEIVED as regular high school dropouts. Yes, it matters.
Also, we don't need to reach out to every poor child to turn him into a successful crook and thief, but must create civilized conditions so a child can develop naturally even (oh horror) into a decent human being and .. survive (not being destroyed by successful monsters)"
I have much more to say, but it's too irritating.

You go, foodrago! Well spotted and well said. And Alex, genius post about the "smart" crack. They should have you on the show instead of this inauthentic and unconvincing fellow.

Hey character development makes sense in education. This is what separates us from computers.

Actually, anon, genius begins at insight, not 140. Intelligence inversely correlates with uncritically accepting the ideology that IQ tests can meaningfully or appropriately measure "intelligence" and "genius." Capiche?

I am an instructor at Traditional Okinawan Karate in Brooklyn.
http://tokarate.com

I think a practice in the martial art is good way to show grit is to introduce kids.

There is a good amount of grit required for the discipline, as well as an practical approach in our school to show kids [and adults] the value of following through on something.

Anon: that's funny, that people assume you're a genius because you're a doctor. I give you credit for the hard work, perseverance etc. Only one doctor that I know is a genius. The others are smart, hard working. The geniuses I know are mostly physicists, scientists. And many don't have great interaction skills. But they sure are smart.

Any associations with grit and athleticism?

I’m training for a couple marathons, and it’s really testing my resolve to stick with it, and it’s not like don’t like running. It’s the scheduled training that goes against my, let’s call it, “relaxed” personality.

Do professional athletes have more grit? Or any indication that athleticism develops grit?

SORRY FOR CAPS. GOING BLIND. WHAT YEAR HAD THE HIGHEST SATS SINCE THEY BEGAN? MY BROTHER GOT A MERIT SCHOLARSHIP BUT WENT TO SWARTHMORE RATHER THAN HARVARD, WHERE HE COULD HAVE GONE. I ASKED TWO NAVY ENGINEERS DURING FLEET WEEK WHY KIDS ARE DOING SO BADLY IN SCHOOL. THE INTERNET, THEY SAID IN UNISON. I VISITED A FRIEND WITH KIDS WHO WERE DOING THEIR HOMEWORK. EACH KID HAD FIVE OR SIX WINDOWS OPEN. NO ONE CAN MULTITASK, STUDIES SHOW.

WHY DOES NO ONE EVER PICK UP WHEN I CALL WITH THE RIGHT NUMBER. HAVE I BEEN BLACK BALLED. IF SO, WHY?

If Paul Tough doesn't live in Park Slope, his self-congratulatory little soul surely does.

I am a doctor. Most people's response to that is that I must be a genius. Actually, the average IQ of a doctor is 125 (genius begins at 140). So how do all these 'non-geniuses' become doctors? delayed gratification, goal setting, perseverance, curiosity, conscientiousness, self-control, etc.

Paul Tough, you give yourself away when you refer to these persistent, grit-ful chess players of Elizabeth's as being "not even the smartest kids in the school." What measure of "smart" are you using when you peremptorily sum up these children by reference to a scale of "smartness"? As someone whose research involves analyzing and evaluating IQ tests and other types of educational measures, I find your use of this term highly offensive, especially given the healthy dose of skepticism you purport to espouse with regard to conventional means of "measuring" "intelligence" in a "cognitive" sense. Not very smart of you. Not very smart at all.

The chess instruction sounds interesting: I noted that the teacher gives "more like 5 criticisms for every compliment." Not like the new "award everyone" efforts where everyone gets a medal for showing up. Sounds like kids need to earn the award, not get handed something for just being there. Maybe too much coddling of our youth?

If you lack "grit" per this U. Penn definition, can you develop it and how?

If someone didn't get the support to develop these qualities in childhood, is there anything they can do in adulthood to compensate?

So what means is used to measure this character set? How do you decide that someone's "got it" or not and how do you quantify that as it relates to their success and ability?