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

Translator: Joseph Geni Reviewer: Morton Bast

翻译人员: Shane Wang 校对人员: Gao Begon

When I was 27 years old,

在我27岁的时候，

I left a very demanding job in management consulting

我辞去了一份非常有挑战性的职业—企业管理咨询，

for a job that was even more demanding: teaching.

转而投入了一份更加具有挑战性的职业：教育。

我来到纽约的一些公立学校

I went to teach seventh graders math

in the New York City public schools.

教7年级的学生的数学。

和别的老师一样，我会给学生们做小测验和考试，

And like any teacher, I made quizzes and tests.

I gave out homework assignments.

我会给他们布置家庭作业。

当这些试卷和作业收上来之后，我计算了他们的成绩。

When the work came back, I calculated grades.

What struck me was that IQ was not the only difference

让我震惊的是，IQ的高低并不是

between my best and my worst students.

我最好的和最差的学生之间唯一的差别。

一些在课业上表现很好的学生

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

并不具有非常高的IQ分数。

一些非常聪明的孩子反而在课业上表现的不那么尽如人意。

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

And that got me thinking.

这引起了我的思考。

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

当然，学生们在7年级需要学习的东西

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

是有难度的，像比率，小数，

平行四边形的面积计算。

But these concepts are not impossible,

但是这些概念是完全可以被掌握的，

and I was firmly convinced that every one of my students

我坚信我的每一位学生

could learn the material

都可以学会教材内容，

只要他们肯花时间和精力的话。

if they worked hard and long enough.

After several more years of teaching,

经过几年教学之后，

I came to the conclusion that what we need in education

我得出一个结论，我们在教育方面所需要的是

从学习动力的角度和心理学的角度，

is a much better understanding of students and learning

from a motivational perspective,

对学生和学习行为

from a psychological perspective.

进行一次更为深刻的理解。

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

在教育体系中， 我们都知道评价优秀学生的标准

就是IQ， 但如果在学校和生活中的优秀表现

But what if doing well in school and in life

depends on much more

远不仅仅依赖于

than your ability to learn quickly and easily?

你轻松高效学习的能力呢？

So I left the classroom,

所有我离开了讲台，

and I went to graduate school to become a psychologist.

回到学校继续攻读心理学硕士学位。

I started studying kids and adults

我开始研究孩子和大人，

在各种非常具有挑战性的情况下，

in all kinds of super challenging settings,

and in every study my question was,

以及在各项研究中，我的问题是

who is successful here and why?

谁才是成功者，为什么他们会成功？

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

我和我的研究团队前往西点军校展开调研，

We tried to predict which cadets

我们试图预测哪些学员

would stay in military training and which would drop out.

能够耐得住军队的训练，哪些会被淘汰出局。

We went to the National Spelling Bee

我们前去观摩全国拼字比赛，

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

同时也试着预测哪些孩子会晋级到

最后的比赛。

We studied rookie teachers working in really tough neighborhoods,

我们研究在恶劣的工作环境下工作的，

刚入行的老师，询问他们

asking which teachers are still going to be here in teaching

哪些老师决定会在学年结束后

by the end of the school year,

继续留下来任教，

and of those, who will be the most effective

以及他们之中谁能最快地

at improving learning outcomes for their students?

提高学生的学习成绩。

We partnered with private companies, asking,

我们与私企合作，向他们询问

which of these salespeople is going to keep their jobs?

哪些销售人员可以保住工作，

And who's going to earn the most money?

哪些可以赚钱最多？

In all those very different contexts,

在所有那些不同的情境下，

one characteristic emerged as a significant predictor of success.

一种性格特征凸显了出来，

这种特征在很大程度上预示了成功。

And it wasn't social intelligence.

而且它并不是社交智力。

It wasn't good looks, physical health,

不是漂亮的外表，强健的体魄，也不是很高的IQ，

and it wasn't IQ.

It was grit.

它是毅力。

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

毅力是对长远目标的激情和坚持，

Grit is having stamina.

毅力是拥有持久的恒劲，

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

毅力是你对未来的坚持，日复一日

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

不是仅仅持续一个星期或者一个月，

but for years,

而是几年甚至几十年努力奋斗着

and working really hard to make that future a reality.

让自己的梦想变为现实。

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

毅力是把生活当成一场马拉松而不是一次短跑。

几年前，在芝加哥的公立学校里，

A few years ago,

I started studying grit in the Chicago public schools.

我开始研究毅力。

我对上千名初中生进行了

I asked thousands of high school juniors

to take grit questionnaires,

关于毅力的问卷调查，

and then waited around more than a year

然后等候了一年多，

to see who would graduate.

来看最终哪些学生能毕业。

Turns out that grittier kids

结果证明那些更具毅力的学生

were significantly more likely to graduate,

在毕业的概率上占绝对优势，

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

即使是在同样可以量化的外在因素下

things like family income,

像家庭收入，

标准化成绩测验的分数，

standardized achievement test scores,

even how safe kids felt when they were at school.

甚至是孩子们在学校能获得多少安全感之类，仍是有毅力的学生更容易毕业

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

所有不仅仅是在西点军校里或者全国拼字比赛上

that grit matters.

才需要毅力。在学校亦是如此，

It's also in school,

especially for kids at risk for dropping out.

尤其是对于那些徘徊在辍学边缘的孩子们。

To me, the most shocking thing about grit

对于我自己来说，关于毅力最让我震惊的事情莫过于

对于毅力，我们知之甚少，

is how little we know,

how little science knows, about building it.

在培养毅力上，科学对理解的认识又是何等贫乏。

每天都有家长和老师来问我，

Every day, parents and teachers ask me,

"How do I build grit in kids?

“我怎样做才能培养孩子的毅力呢?

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

该做些什么才能教授给孩子们真正的职业道德？

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

又该怎样调动他们长期的积极性呢？”

The honest answer is,

老实说，我不知道。（笑声）

I don't know.

(Laughter)

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

我所知道的是，才华并不能使你坚韧不拔。

Our data show very clearly

我们的数据十分清楚地表明，

that there are many talented individuals

有许多才华横溢的人，

他们都无法坚持兑现自己的承诺。

who simply do not follow through on their commitments.

In fact, in our data, grit is usually unrelated

事实上，根据我们的数据来看，毅力通常与其他因素无关，

甚至与才华的衡量标准背道而驰。

or even inversely related to measures of talent.

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

到目前为止，我所听说过的在孩子身上培养坚韧品质最有效的方法

is something called "growth mindset."

叫“成长型思维模式。”

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

斯坦福大学卡洛杜威克提出过一个观点，

他相信

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

人的学习能力是可变的，

that it can change with your effort.

它随着你的努力程度而变化。

Dr. Dweck has shown

杜威克教授表示，当孩子们阅读和学习有关大脑的知识

that when kids read and learn about the brain

以及它在面对挑战时

and how it changes and grows in response to challenge,

所发生的变化和成长情况，

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

他们失败之后更容易坚持下去，

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

因为他们

不相信会一直失败下去。

因此，成长性思维模式对培养毅力大有裨益。

So growth mindset is a great idea for building grit.

But we need more.

但是我们需要更多。

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

我决定在此结束我的评论，

because that's where we are.

因为我们正在经历着这一切。

这是眼前所面临的工作。

That's the work that stands before us.

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

我们要拿出最好的想法和最强的直觉，

and we need to test them.

我们要对他们进行实践。

We need to measure whether we've been successful,

我们需要估量这一切是否成功

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

同时还要渴望对失败和错误，

to start over again with lessons learned.

要从这些失败中汲取经验重新再来。

换句话说，我们只有自己变得更有毅力

In other words, we need to be gritty

about getting our kids grittier.

才能让我们的孩子变得更有毅力。

Thank you.

谢谢大家！

(Applause)

（掌声）