Teaching Kids to Think (14 page)

As we saw in
chapter 3
, today's parents experience tremendous anxiety over whether their child will get into a good college, and that worry can set in when children are still very young—even as young as preschool. To keep up with this pace, parents may jump in to help beef up their child's academic résumé with tutors, enrichment classes, and more. Often this results in children being overscheduled and stressed. We interviewed many teachers before writing this book, and they consistently reported that, as a group, students are more apathetic, dependent, and anxious than in years past. All parents want to help their children be prepared for the challenges of higher education, but in fact, the opposite is happening. If it is not a child's GPA, SAT/ACT scores, or the number of AP classes on the transcript that prepares him or her for college, what does?

What the Experts Say Makes a “Successful” Student

We asked teachers across the country to share the characteristics they have found to be the most predictive of a successful student. There is a very consistent theme of character traits:

Notice that the teachers did not report IQ, GPA, or “honors student” as being a predictive characteristic. In fact, not one teacher cited a specific score, number, or objective measure. Every teacher emphasized character qualities and skills necessary to deal with life's challenges. One teacher simply said, “Embrace failure and struggle as part of learning.”

One Southern California high school teacher reported that she had asked her students what characteristics they saw as most important in peers who are successful. The students' perspective was very similar to the teachers' view. They said being resilient, politely assertive, determined, and dedicated were the most important. They also reported time management, study skills, and social skills are critical for a student to learn to prepare for higher education or a job. Not one student said anything about IQ, GPA, or the ability to take advanced classes.

Not only do teachers and students find character qualities important, but the research also supports this conclusion. A study completed with a group of academically focused middle school students found that self-disciplined adolescents outperformed their more impulsive peers on every academic performance measure.
³
The measures included report card grades, standardized achievement test scores, admission to a competitive high school, and attendance. If the goal is to improve grades, test scores, and acceptance into a choice school, teaching children how to be responsible and confident in their ability to solve problems is a very strong predictor. That makes sense. Children who feel confident in their ability to solve a problem and work toward a goal will feel more comfortable finding answers rather than expecting answers to be provided to them. They will also be more diligent in completing quality work. On the other hand, children who are more impulsive and need the immediate solution to a problem are more likely to wait for others to tell them what to do, get stuck when a task is difficult, and complete unsatisfactory work. This does not bode well for a generation of students that is becoming so accustomed to instant gratification. This was further supported by a study that found that “conscientiousness” (defined as “a person who is organized, self-disciplined, and responsible”) was the strongest predictor of both high school and college GPA.
⁴
Parents who push their kids too fast or rescue them to ensure mistakes don't negatively impact their GPA aren't doing them any favors. In the end, it only undermines the character traits that the experts and research consistently find predict college success.

The teachers we interviewed reported that in this generation, students seem to be less self-disciplined and more eager to have an immediate answer, particularly when it comes to schoolwork. One high school English teacher said, “If it is not
Googleable
, they are lost.” He shared an instance when he asked his students for their ideas about a possible connection between two events in literature. He said there was no right or wrong answer and he simply wanted them to “think.” Instead, more than half of the class typed his question verbatim into Google on their tablet. It was an automatic reaction to a question about their opinion. They were unwilling (or unable) to think for themselves and depended on something else to provide the answer. Their need for instant answers is becoming as rampant in education as in other areas of their lives.

While research shows that self-disciplined adolescents outperformed their more impulsive peers on every academic measure, the phenomena of instant gratification, overparenting, and rescuing children contradicts this at every level. Instead, there is an assumption that intelligence is the top predictor of success. Research and our interviews with teachers, administrators, and employers show that is inaccurate.

How Intelligence Is Misunderstood

High school teachers continually told us that AP and honors classes are often thought of as a status symbol. They shared that some parents think it is in their child's best interest to be in advanced courses in high school even if the child has never displayed an advanced ability in the subject or if their schedules don't allow for the extra time needed to do the work. The result is that the student earns a lower grade in the advanced class, when they would most likely have earned a higher grade in the general class. So why is there such a push?

—Dr. Darlene and Dr. Ron

We find it very interesting that the words “intelligence” or “smart” were never used in our interviews with teachers, administrators, and parents as qualities they found most important in an emerging adult. However, they are words that children and parents often use when discussing school aspirations. Parents readily point out the smart kids and assume they are the ones who will be successful in college and life. There are so many assumptions attached to these words.

The term
smart
is commonly used to describe a personal attribute. It is also one of those words imbued with inferred meaning. Students may describe a group of kids as “the smart kids,” meaning they get good grades. An adult may describe a coworker's idea as “smart,” meaning original or effective. A parent may describe their child as “smart, even though her grades don't show it,” meaning it is not based on academic performance.
Dictionary.com
defines it as “having or showing quick intelligence or ready mental capability.”
⁵
Most people would consider smart to be synonymous with intelligent.

So what is intelligence and how is it measured? In the field of cognitive psychology, this question has been debated for decades. Many theories of intelligence have been developed over the years. Theorists have attempted to identify a single measure of intelligence, multiple abilities that interact to make up an overall intelligence, multiple types of different intelligences, and emotional intelligence.
⁶
When someone is described as smart, what does that really mean? Is she book smart, street smart, socially smart, all of the above, or something else altogether?

Whatever the outcome of the intelligence debate, children clearly hear the message that it is good to be smart, and kids who get good grades are the smart kids. Children regularly tell us that the smart kids are the ones who don't have to study, and that school is easy for them. Following this logic, does this mean that if a child encounters a challenge, he is
not
smart? Kids are sure getting that message.

Not only is this a detrimental message to convey to children, but it plays right into the Instant Gratification Generation. If a student has to study a lot to earn an A on a test, he is not described as one of the smart kids. This is a great example of how getting something easily, not waiting or working for it, is unintentionally rewarded. Getting the good grade is praised, rather than working hard for the grade.

Not only does the notion that “easy equals smart” support the desire for instant gratification, but it also contradicts the core ideas of executive functioning. Working hard for a good grade requires planning, initiative, motivation, and perseverance, which are all important components of executive functioning. Because the Instant Gratification Generation is so vulnerable to falling into the traps of ease and convenience, equating smart with having things come easily fits right into their perception. Unfortunately, this is an inaccurate and misleading perception.

Emphasize the Process of Learning

As we discussed in
chapter 3
, it is difficult for parents to resist stressing over the objective markers that assess their child's achievements—including reading level, test grades, standardized test scores, and number of advanced placement classes on the transcript. Yet those metrics are all
end products
. The effort, initiative, planning, problem solving, and the organization that it takes to meet goals are the
process
. These are the skills and abilities required to complete a task or learn. End products are clear and objective, and it seems easy to identify a child's level of accomplishment just by examining them. It's much more difficult to assess a child's planning, organization, initiative, and other learning skills in general, because those take time and effort to achieve. Children can become frustrated, discouraged, and anxious as they are learning these skills, especially if it doesn't look like they are being successful. Indeed, when they talk about the smart kids in their class, they often tell the story with a sense of admiration and awe. For parents, it feels more comfortable to say, “My child is in the advanced math class” than, “My child set up a meeting with her teacher after school to find out how to bring her grade up after she missed an assignment.” Yet the communication skills, planning, and initiative it takes to set up the meeting and do the extra work are very important life skills that will benefit her long after completing that single class. They also show the character traits experts found to be so important in predicting later success.

It is great to feel proud of children for an achievement measured by an objective marker, like getting an A on a test. However, it is the overarching assumptions that are made based on those markers that can negatively impact a child's view of himself or herself. For example, the State of California has a Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) program. If students score above a certain point on a single qualification test, they are classified in GATE and, depending on the school district, they can be offered higher level work. These students take only a single visual problem-solving test to qualify for GATE. In other words, a single score on one test leads to many assumptions on the part of parents, teachers, and students alike. It is assumed that students with this designation are brighter, more advanced, and more able to do more challenging work than their peers—but really, this test simply identifies visual problem solvers. Conversely, other gifted students who are not visual problem solvers (e.g., verbal or auditory learners) do not receive this designation. As a result, students are not encouraged to discover and capitalize on their different learning styles—instead they hear the message that they are not one of the smart kids. These students then learn it is the objective measure that defines their intelligence. It is really important that parents don't reinforce these messages in their interactions with their children. Instead, parents should explain to their children what each single score measures. For example, “The kids who are in the GATE program are really good at solving visual puzzles,” or “The kids in that program happen to have really good math skills.”

Elementary School