Unfolding Success: Grit by Angela Duckworth

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At Success Academy, we love launching a school year by reading a book together as a staff. One of our favorites is Grit by Angela Duckworth. Grit focuses on how to work through challenges and bounce back from setbacks. It defines grit as a balanced mix of passion, perseverance, and resilience. We believe that cultivating grit is essential to long term success in school and beyond! Read on to learn more about how the principles of Grit apply to our work with kids, teachers, and families. 

At Success Academy, we believe that educators are tasked with a critically important mission: teaching rigorous content and the life skills scholars need to succeed in college and beyond. One of the most important skills we teach is grit, the ability to feel calm and confident in the face of adversity and bounce back from failure. In our schools, we work to cultivate grit in our communities by setting goals, giving many opportunities to face challenges, and celebrating growth. 

“I think a lot of teachers have a misconception that their sole job is to ensure content mastery of the subject that they are teaching by the end of the year. The number one role that we play as educators is ensuring that our scholars have the life skills that they need to be successful throughout their K-12 education and beyond.” – Jen Haynes, former Success Academy principal

Setting Goals

At Success Academy, set a high bar for our scholars and their teachers. We believe that, when expectations are lofty, people can and will rise to the challenge. It’s not easy to achieve excellence. We know there will be bumps along the way. Inspiring kids and staff to stay gritty and not give up is key to creating a strong school community. 

Watch experienced Success Academy school leaders talk about building a gritty school culture here.

Facing Challenges

Each day, students grapple with challenging tasks in their classes. We give them lots of space to work through questions on their own and encourage them to take academic risks. Our goal as educators is to build kids’ confidence and stick-to-itness. 

“We all know that kids are going to face challenges throughout their careers. We want them to be able to face these with confidence and the ability to say: I got this! This might be hard but I can get through this and I know what I need to do in order to get through this.” former Success Academy principal, Francesca Vanin shared. 

Watch experienced Success Academy school leaders talk about how complex tasks grow grit in kids here.

Celebrating Growth 

It’s important that kids and teachers are acknowledged and celebrated for their growth and ability to bounce back when things get hard. Life is filled with challenges. What sets successful people apart from the rest is their ability to learn from failure and keep going. 

Watch experienced Success Academy school leaders talk about why celebrating growth is so important here.

We highly recommend reading Angela Duckworth’s Grit. Let us know how you are working to build grit in your school communities!