How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character
Author: Paul Tough
華人家長最關心的育兒項目，大概除了健康，就是如何栽培孩子成為一個成功的人。無論你對成功人生的定義是什麼，這本書將幫你重新釐定對教育成功孩子的方向。
作者 Paul Tough 一開首就引用多個社會科學研究報告來指出，在現今高壓力和競爭殘酷的社會裡，只有擁有成功人格特質的人，才能克服挑戰，成為有成就的人，這些特質包括：自律，耐性，堅忍，樂觀，毅力和好奇心等。
作者也說，家長不應僅僅將眼光放在純粹量化的標准考試成績（像SAT和IQ數字），而是要啟用更有效的教育方法，培養子女的這方面個性發展。雖然在孩子剛出生的幾年，緊密的親子連結是非常重要，但父母必須知道什麼時候該退後一步，讓孩子學會用自己的腳步，在挫折和錯誤中學習走自己的人生路。
收聽 NPR 國家廣播電台與作者 Paul Tough 的專訪
Click here to listen to the NPR Interview with Paul Tough about his new book
Why do some children succeed while others fail?
The story we usually tell about childhood and success is the one about intelligence: success comes to those who score highest on tests, from preschool admissions to SATs.
But in How Children Succeed, Paul Tough argues that the qualities that matter most have more to do with character: skills like perseverance, curiosity, conscientiousness, optimism, and self-control.
How Children Succeed introduces us to a new generation of researchers and educators who, for the first time, are using the tools of science to peel back the mysteries of character. Through their stories—and the stories of the children they are trying to help—Tough traces the links between childhood stress and life success. He uncovers the surprising ways in which parents do—and do not—prepare their children for adulthood. And he provides us with new insights into how to help children growing up in poverty.
Early adversity, scientists have come to understand, can not only affect the conditions of children’s lives, it can alter the physical development of their brains as well. But now educators and doctors around the country are using that knowledge to develop innovative interventions that allow children to overcome the constraints of poverty. And with the help of these new strategies, as Tough’s extraordinary reporting makes clear, children who grow up in the most painful circumstances can go on to achieve amazing things.
This provocative and profoundly hopeful book has the potential to change how we raise our children, how we run our schools, and how we construct our social safety net. It will not only inspire and engage readers, it will also change our understanding of childhood itself.
Source: NPR, Amazon.com