In education, the one thing we know how to measure best is IQ, but what if there is more to your child’s success than his/her ability to learn quickly and easily?

Dr. Angela Lee Duckworth, from the University of Pennsylvania looked at who is successful and why. Researchers looked at West Pointe Military Academy cadets, National Spelling Bee participants, rookie teachers in tough neighborhoods, and private company salespeople to explore who had the most staying power; most advancement; highest sales performance; most likelihood to still be teaching after the school year and who will be most effective with learning outcomes.

One characteristic emerged as a predictor of success – GRIT! Grit means having a passion and perseverance for those long-term goals; having stamina; sticking with your future day in, day out, for years; and working really hard to making that future a reality; living life like a marathon instead of a sprint.

We need to help our children work through problems and solutions. Every issue they have is not, in fact, “Google”able. Teaching them to stop, think, draw on their prior knowledge, and stick with something to its end is the kind of teaching that lasts a lifetime.

Dr. Duckworth built upon another idea called “Growth Mindset,” developed at Stanford University by Dr. Carol Dweck. It is the belief that the ability to learn is not fixed; it can change with effort. When kids read and learn about the brain and how it changes and grows in response to challenge, they are more likely to persevere when they fail, because they recognize that failure is NOT a permanent condition. “Growth mindset is a great idea for building grit, but we need more,” says Dr. Duckworth. “We need to take our best ideas and strongest intuitions and we need to test them and measure whether we’ve been successful. We need to fail and start again. We need to be gritty about helping our kids get grittier.”