Grit: the power of passion and perseverance | Angela Lee Duckworth

Translator: Joseph Geni Reviewer: Morton Bast

Translator: Morten Kelder Skouboe Reviewer: Anders Finn Jørgensen

When I was 27 years old,

Da jeg var 27 år,

I left a very demanding job in management consulting

forlod jeg et krævende job som ledelseskonsulent

for a job that was even more demanding: teaching.

for et job, der var endnu mere krævende: undervisning.

Jeg underviste syvende klasser i matematik

I went to teach seventh graders math

in the New York City public schools.

i New Yorks folkeskoler.

Og som enhver lærer lavede jeg quizzer og test.

And like any teacher, I made quizzes and tests.

I gave out homework assignments.

Jeg gav opgaver for.

Da opgaverne kom tilbage, beregnede jeg karakterer.

When the work came back, I calculated grades.

What struck me was that IQ was not the only difference

Det slog mig, at intelligenskvotienten ikke var den eneste forskel

between my best and my worst students.

mellem mine bedste og værste elever.

Nogle af dem, der klarede sig bedst,

Some of my strongest performers did not have stratospheric IQ scores.

havde ikke en stratosfærisk intelligenskvotient.

Nogle af mine kvikkeste børn klarede sig ikke så godt.

Some of my smartest kids weren't doing so well.

And that got me thinking.

Det fik mig til at tænke.

The kinds of things you need to learn in seventh grade math,

De ting man skal lære i syvende klasses matematik,

sure, they're hard: ratios, decimals, the area of a parallelogram.

ja, de er svære: forhold, decimaler,

et parallelograms areal.

But these concepts are not impossible,

Men de er ikke umulige,

and I was firmly convinced that every one of my students

og jeg var fast overbevist om, at hver af mine elever

could learn the material

kunne lære materialet,

hvis de arbejdede hårdt og længe nok.

if they worked hard and long enough.

After several more years of teaching,

Efter flere års undervisning

I came to the conclusion that what we need in education

kom jeg til den konklusion, at hvad vi behøver i uddannelse,

er en meget bedre forståelse for elever og læring

is a much better understanding of students and learning

from a motivational perspective,

fra et motivationsperspektiv,

from a psychological perspective.

fra et psykologisk perspektiv.

In education, the one thing we know how to measure best is IQ.

I uddannelse er det, vi er bedst til at måle,

er intelligenskvotienten, men hvad hvis det at klare sig i skolen og livet

But what if doing well in school and in life

depends on much more

afhænger af meget mere,

than your ability to learn quickly and easily?

end ens evne til at lære hurtigt og let?

So I left the classroom,

Så jeg forlod klasseværelset,

and I went to graduate school to become a psychologist.

og jeg tog på universitetet for at blive psykolog.

I started studying kids and adults

Jeg begyndte at studere børn og voksne

i alle slags superudfordrende miljøer,

in all kinds of super challenging settings,

and in every study my question was,

og i hvert studie var mit spørgsmål,

who is successful here and why?

hvem får succes her og hvorfor?

My research team and I went to West Point Military Academy.

Mit forskningshold og jeg tog til West Point Military Academy.

We tried to predict which cadets

Vi prøvede at forudsige, hvilke rekrutter

would stay in military training and which would drop out.

ville blive i militærtræning, og hvilke ville droppe ud.

We went to the National Spelling Bee

Vi tog til den Nationale Stavekonkurrence

and tried to predict which children would advance farthest in competition.

og prøvede at forudsige, hvilke børn ville nå

længst i konkurrencen.

We studied rookie teachers working in really tough neighborhoods,

Vi studerede nyklækkede lærere,

der arbejdede i udsatte kvarterer, og spurgte,

asking which teachers are still going to be here in teaching

hvilke lærere vil stadig være her og undervise

by the end of the school year,

ved slutningen af skoleåret

and of those, who will be the most effective

og af disse, hvem vil være de mest effektive

at improving learning outcomes for their students?

til at forbedre læringsudbyttet for deres elever?

We partnered with private companies, asking,

Vi slog os sammen med private firmaer og spurgte,

which of these salespeople is going to keep their jobs?

hvilke af disse sælgere beholder deres job?

And who's going to earn the most money?

Og hvem kommer til at tjene mest?

In all those very different contexts,

I alle disse forskellige sammenhænge

one characteristic emerged as a significant predictor of success.

dukkede ét træk op,

der kunne forudsige succes.

And it wasn't social intelligence.

Det var ikke social intelligens.

It wasn't good looks, physical health,

Det var ikke et godt udseende, helbred, og det var ikke intelligenskvotient.

and it wasn't IQ.

It was grit.

Det var viljefasthed.

Grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals.

Viljefasthed er lidenskab og vedholdenhed for meget langsigtede mål.

Grit is having stamina.

Viljefasthed er at være udholdende.

Grit is sticking with your future, day in, day out,

Viljefasthed er at kæmpe for sin fremtid dag ind, dag ud,

not just for the week, not just for the month,

ikke bare denne uge, ikke bare denne måned,

but for years,

men i årevis og at arbejde virkeligt hårdt

and working really hard to make that future a reality.

for at gøre den fremtid til virkelighed.

Grit is living life like it's a marathon, not a sprint.

Viljefasthed er at leve som var livet et maraton, ikke en sprint.

For et par år siden begyndte jeg at studere viljefasthed

A few years ago,

I started studying grit in the Chicago public schools.

i Chicagos folkeskoler.

Jeg bad tusindvis af niende klasser

I asked thousands of high school juniors

to take grit questionnaires,

besvare spørgsmål om viljefasthed

and then waited around more than a year

og ventede så mere end et år

to see who would graduate.

for at se, hvem ville bestå.

Turns out that grittier kids

Det vise sig, at viljefaste børn

were significantly more likely to graduate,

havde væsentligt større sandsynlighed for at bestå,

even when I matched them on every characteristic I could measure,

selv da jeg matchede dem på ethvert træk jeg kunne måle,

things like family income,

som familieindkomst,

standardiseret test scorer,

standardized achievement test scores,

even how safe kids felt when they were at school.

selv hvor trygge børn følte sig, når de var i skole.

So it's not just at West Point or the National Spelling Bee

Så det er ikke blot på West Point eller Stavekonkurrencen,

that grit matters.

at viljefasthed betyder noget. Også i skolen

It's also in school,

especially for kids at risk for dropping out.

især for børn, der risikerer at droppe ud.

To me, the most shocking thing about grit

For mig er det mest chokerende ved viljefasthed,

hvor lidt vi ved,

is how little we know,

how little science knows, about building it.

hvor lidt videnskaben ved om at opbygge det.

Hver dag spørger forældre og lærere mig,

Every day, parents and teachers ask me,

"How do I build grit in kids?

"Hvordan opbygger jeg viljefasthed i børn?

What do I do to teach kids a solid work ethic?

Hvordan lærer jeg børn en solid arbejdsetik?

How do I keep them motivated for the long run?"

Hvordan holder jeg dem motiverede på den lange bane?"

The honest answer is,

Det ærlige svar er, det ved jeg ikke. (Latter)

I don't know.

(Laughter)

What I do know is that talent doesn't make you gritty.

Hvad jeg ved, er, at talent ikke gør dig viljefast.

Our data show very clearly

Vores data viser meget tydeligt,

that there are many talented individuals

at der er mange talentfulde individer,

der simpelthen ikke følger deres forpligtelser til dørs.

who simply do not follow through on their commitments.

In fact, in our data, grit is usually unrelated

Faktisk er viljefasthed i vores data uden relation til

eller omvendt proportional med talent.

or even inversely related to measures of talent.

So far, the best idea I've heard about building grit in kids

Den bedste idé jeg endnu har hørt om at opbygge viljefasthed hos børn

is something called "growth mindset."

er noget, der hedder "væksttænkning."

This is an idea developed at Stanford University by Carol Dweck,

Det er en idé udviklet på Stanford Universitet

af Carol Dweck, og det er opfattelsen,

and it is the belief that the ability to learn is not fixed,

at evnen til at lære ikke er fastlagt,

that it can change with your effort.

at den kan ændres ved din indsats.

Dr. Dweck has shown

Dr. Dweck har vist, at når børn læser og lærer

that when kids read and learn about the brain

om hjernen, og hvordan den ændrer sig og vokser

and how it changes and grows in response to challenge,

når den møder udfordringer,

they're much more likely to persevere when they fail,

er det mere sandsynligt, de rejser sig igen, når de fejler,

because they don't believe that failure is a permanent condition.

for de tror ikke på, at det at fejle

er en permanent tilstand.

Så væksttænkning er en god idé til at opbygge viljefasthed.

So growth mindset is a great idea for building grit.

But we need more.

Men vi behøver mere.

And that's where I'm going to end my remarks,

Og det er, hvor jeg vil slutte mine kommentarer,

because that's where we are.

for det er, hvor vi er.

Det er det arbejde, der står foran os.

That's the work that stands before us.

We need to take our best ideas, our strongest intuitions,

Vi er nødt til at tage vores bedste idéer, bedste intuitioner,

and we need to test them.

og vi må teste dem.

We need to measure whether we've been successful,

Vi må måle, om vi har haft succes,

and we have to be willing to fail, to be wrong,

og vi må være villige til at tage fejl,

to start over again with lessons learned.

at starte forfra med lektier lært.

Med andre ord må vi blive viljefaste

In other words, we need to be gritty

about getting our kids grittier.

om at gøre vores børn mere viljefaste.

Thank you.

Tak.

(Applause)

(Bifald)