Guest Blogger: Brandi Berry
When
I began teaching at a university, I thought I had an idea of how the student
would respond to my classroom environment. I suspected that the achievers would
care, the underachievers would not, and those in the middle would have a
mixture of good and bad days. My prediction seemed to be spot on until the last
three weeks of the semester. I observed a phenomenon that I call “The Hustle.”
The hustle to get extra credit, make up missed days, turn in late work and
produce documentation for excused absences. I asked myself, “Why would they
work so hard to catch up? Why do they care now? Did they always care?” The
catching up that they are no doubt doing for multiple classes is ten times
harder than staying on track. First, it's time-consuming. Meeting with each
professor, prepping a story, begging several times and falsifying documents is
stressful. If the student is granted a “yes,” then they have to pull
all-nighters or cheat to submit work. All this while also preparing for final
exams. It's illogical. Why not drop out and go home? Why work so hard each
semester to play catch up and be disappointed in their GPA? How come they
weren't learning from their past mistakes?
One
night I was watching a series of Ted Talks, and Angela Duckworth’s presentation
came on. As she talked, I stood as if I was listening to the National Anthem
and said, “That’s it.” At this time Duckworth’s research on Grit was fairly
new. Her April 2013 Ted Talk is only six minutes. In it, she defines Grit as
having the perseverance to stick with a goal day in and day out. Grit is seeing
life as a marathon, not a sprint. The way I connected these six life-changing
minutes with my students was by realizing as first-generation college students
they already met their goal. Their entire life people repeated the statement,
“You are going to college.” So now they made it. Tada, goal achieved! For them, the momentum
has slowed down. They can't go home because that equals “not going to college”
which means goal not met. But without a new long-term goal to sustain them
students were going through the motions. I believed that my students already
had Grit they just didn't know how to focus their ability to stick with a
long-term goal. So I decided to teach my students how to harness this
Superpower.
The
next semester I started using the Add/Drop period to teach Grit. I began with a
lecture that explained college is a short-term goal. I touched one wall in the
class and said, “This is the day you were born.” I pointed to the other wall
and said, “That is you. 100 years old, happy, fulfilled and surrounded by loved
ones.” Then I took one step away from the wall, point to the floor and said,
“This is college. This is not the place to slow down if you want that ending.”
I taught them about the brain, saying “Not Yet” instead of “I failed,” and how
this practice allows them to see that failure is not a fixed condition. Not Yet
is a concept mentioned in Duckworth’s Ted Talk and she credits Carol Dweck's
research. In other lectures that week I taught about being addicted to cell
phones, the power of meditation to strengthen the brain, and Amy Cuddy’s faking
it until you become it research.
My
Grit lessons have grown to include the psychological impact that stress can
have on attendance, being high functioning depressed, delayed gratification
(Marshmallow Test), and top-level thinking. Top level thinking is my newest
addition. In the documentary, “The Distracted Mind” Dr. Adam Gazzaley explains
why people lose focus. I learned from Carol Dweck's Ted Talk if you teach a
student how the brain works they are more likely to succeed. So I like to teach
students everything from “why they are addicted to their cell phones” to “why
they oversleep” but always in relation to the brain. Referencing the brain
means I am not attacking their character. It also gives them ownership of their
behavior, the ability to change and how to change. I always see immediate
changes in my students, and I am not surprised. I believe they want to be
successful not only in my class but for the long term. With these lessons
changing their behavior becomes the new long-term goal which puts them back on
track. Practicing the changes results in improving as a college student.
Do you think higher education should
incorporate mental well-being and self-care into the curriculum?
If you Google “Grit is bad for black
students” you will find a variety of articles that contradict my enthusiasm.
How do you feel about Grit at the HBCU?
Ted
Talks
Angela
Duckworth
Carol
Dweck
Amy
Cuddy
Distracted
Mind (Not the documentary but same lecture)
