Grit, Optimism And Other Buzzwords In The Way Of Education

Angela Duckworth was recently awarded a $625,000 "no strings attached" MacArthur genius grant for her research on "Grit." Along with perseverance, initiative, and optimism, grit is one of the hottest buzzwords in K-12 education. Many teachers, policy makers, and reformers are shifting their focus from cognitive skills to character attributes. Supposedly, these "21st Century Skills" correlate more directly to an individual's long term success. Unrelated to new technologies, or digital literacy, 2...