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it builds myelin in our neural pathways
at an astounding rate. Coyle estimates
that world class achievement in any field
involves 10,000 hours of deep practice
—
concentrated, focused…exhaust-
ing...and most importantly, marked by
continual failure. In fact, it is the failure
itself, when immediately recognized and
addressed, that builds myelin the fastest.
Coyle summarizes deep practice as “set a
goal; reach for the goal; evaluate the gap;
repeat.” And, myelin is the product of
that effort.
What does all of this have to do with
character development and scholastic
achievement, you may ask? Everything.
As modern norms of child-rearing and
education have shifted, we have become
culturally less discriminating. The very
notion of quality has devolved. Our
expectations for our children and our-
selves reflect the dominance of happiness
as a cultural value, and happiness has
been correlated frequently with mate-
rial acquisition and a lack of adversity.
Discomfort is unacceptable; failure is
unthinkable. And someone sells a pill to
treat every problem.
Much has been written about the
so-called “helicopter parents” who hover
over the schools and soccer fields, mod-
erating their children’s experiences and
attempting to mitigate any difficulties
and disappointments they might experi-
ence. This behavior prevents their kids
from learning the important character
lessons to be gained through failure...
lessons like persistence, resilience and
accountability. Every prep school teacher
can relate harrowing stories of panicked
children and furious parents who cannot
accept the fact of a failed test, poorly
executed assignment, or violated stan-
dard of conduct, and who often dispute
that their child should undergo the con-
sequences of those actions as a learning
tool. Schools are increasingly expected
to overlook, to give second, third and
fourth chances, and to ensure that every
student excels, even if the student him-
self is not excellent. Every child receives
a gold star on his report; every incorrect
answer is “interesting.”
Recall Paul Tough’s revela-
tion that character has been
clearly demonstrated to
correlate with achieve-
ment much more reliably
than aptitude. And we
have defined character
into two broad catego-
ries, the first of which are
most relevant to this argu-
ment: those aspects of per-
sonal behavior that lead to
successful scholarship, citizen-
ship, and productive lives. We
include in this category traits like
determination; persistence; resilience;
conscientiousness; courage; endurance;
tolerance for hard work; delayed gratifi-
cation; will-power; grit; zest; optimism;
self-discipline; self-reliance; self-control;
responsibility; and gumption. I contend
that in today’s world these notions are
profoundly counter-cultural, and these
traits increasingly rare.
And yet these are precisely the traits
that lead to high achievement. Could it
be that in our desire to provide the very
best, most indulgent upbringing for our
children we are actually robbing them of
their excellence? By eschewing struggle,
failure and accountability as educational
tools we inevitably teach the lesson that
success comes no matter how much
effort you invest. Success comes because
you deserve it…are entitled to it. For
one, I do not believe this is a good lesson
to teach, for the child or for the culture
at large. And furthermore, it is not true.
Research clearly demonstrates that excel-
lence and virtuosity derive from deep
practice, struggle and failure, not from
the indulgence of privilege.
And so this is why we play.
Why
sports and music and dance and theatre
and art and cleaning one’s room and
wearing one’s uniform and doing one’s
homework and being punctual and
respectful and truthful and responsible
are so much at the center of our school,
today and throughout Storm King’s
long history — to work hard in every
endeavor, to practice the behaviors of
good character until mastery is achieved
and lifetime habits are ingrained, and
ultimately, to become our best selves. At
SKS we are fond of saying, “Character
development remains at the center of
each student’s experience.” This is not
sanctimonious marketing spin. It is a
promise we make to our students and
to our parents that we will continue to
emphasize not only what will make our
kids better people, but what really works
in education. It is a promise to our
alumni that our school remains focused
on its core ideals and principles which,
articulated differently throughout
the years, have nevertheless remained
constant and true since 1867. And it is a
pledge to ourselves to evaluate thought-
fully the various educational trends
and fads which pop up and down, like
so many “whack a moles.” Scientific
research and sound discourse contrib-
ute to our educational philosophy, not
political mandate and not pop culture.
We stand apart and proud.
Opposite page (left to right): Bobby Cao ‘14,
Nadia Delisfort ‘15, Anne Fulton (faculty),
Moniesha Hayles ‘16 and Ashira Mayers
‘17,
practice lines from a Shakespeare play
for a theatre performance. Above: Recent
developments in neuroscience have proven that
complex mental and physical activity have been
found to be the critical neural component of
skill, talent and genius.
LIGHTWISE
