When Grit Isn't Enough, by Linda F. Nathan

Dr. Linda Nathan, founding headmaster of the Boston Arts Academy high school, has seen her students, many of whom are minorities from poor households, come through her excellent high school with great dreams for college and career.  She would tell her incoming students that "all of you will continue on to either college or a career."  In When Grit Isn't Enough: A High School Principal Examines How Poverty and Inequality Thwart the College-for-All Promise she tells her students' stories and expresses her frustrations with the presumptions and failures of the American system of higher education.

In spite of the movement toward increasing college accessibility and additional college funding, college remains out of grasp for many poorer American students.  She writes that "elite colleges and flagship colleges enroll more students from the top 1 percent of the income bracket than the bottom half of the income distribution."  Even when enrollment opens up to poor students and scholarships are offered, they often don't have the additional financial assistance, family knowledge and support, or freedom of lifestyle to complete a degree.  The book is full of tough, sad anecdotes of promising students who were not able to finish college for these reasons.

One of the attitudes that many educators hold toward student success, especially among minorities and poor students, is that student success depends on grit.  It's true that grit is a necessary ingredient for student success.  But Nathan argues that "the grit approach . . . has taken on an importance for out of proportion to the many other traits that may be just as critical for student development and success."  She says that "the benefits of grit and lockstep learning may have been overinterpreted, and traits such as curiosity and creativity given short shrift."

The implication of emphasizing grit is that if a student does not succeed, it's because he or she didn't display enough grit.  But, as Nathan points out, "if we ignore race, poverty, and social class we continue to create false promises for too many young people."  There are "political or social or socioeconomic systems that work against students."

While demographics often work for against a student's success, obviously, I'm reluctant to embrace Nathan's criticisms of grit, of highly disciplined and structured schools, and demanding course work.  These elements may not be sufficient to guarantee success, but I would argue that they are necessary.  I appreciate Nathan's emphasis on alternatives to college.  She provides examples of vocational high school programs in which students not only gain valuable skills but also have opportunities to work in actual jobs and internships which can not only make them employable but can direct them to college tracks where they can cultivate their passions and skills.

Nathan has some great insight into preparing kids for their post-high-school lives, whether that means college or something else.  College for all sounds great, but "we have not, as a nation, committed to the career part in the mantra 'college and career for all.'"  Without diminishing the value of college, Nathan calls for more attention to be paid to alternatives.  The future of our students, particularly those who come from poor households, depends on it.


Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!