What if the Secret to Success is Failure?

What happens when a student who has always done well in school meets suddenly with failure or difficulty? If they are not used to encountering challenges, they may not have the ability to recover from it, says Dominic Randolph, Headmaster of the Riverdale County School in New York. The key, according to Randolph and his colleagues, is to teach them strong character traits, such as grit, zest and self-control. This article from the New York Times reports on the efforts of Randolph and others to teach and measure character, and explores the importance of failure in student achievement.

Click here to read this article in the New York Times.

Published in the New York Times by Paul Tough on September 14, 2011.