TED演講：成功的鑰匙？毅力

　　What struck me was that I.Q. was not the only difference between my best and my worst students. Some of my strongest performers did not have stratospheric I.Q. scores. Some of my smartest kids weren't doing so well.

　　我發(fā)現(xiàn)，我最好和最差的學(xué)生之間的差異 并不僅僅是智商。 有些非常優(yōu)秀的學(xué)生 智商并非特別得高 有些非常聰明的學(xué)生，學(xué)業(yè)也并非很好。

　　And that got me thinking. The kinds of things you need to learn in seventh grade math, sure, they're hard: ratios, decimals, the area of a parallelogram. But these concepts are not impossible, and I was firmly convinced that every one of my students could learn the material if they worked hard and long enough.

　　這引發(fā)了我的思考。 七年級數(shù)學(xué)要學(xué)的東西 確實挺難：比例、小數(shù)、 平行四邊形的面積。 但這些概念并不是不能理解， 我也堅信我的每一位學(xué)生 都能學(xué)會這些知識， 只要他們足夠認真、堅持用功。

　　After several more years of teaching, I came to the conclusion that what we need in education is a much better understanding of students and learning from a motivational perspective, from a psychological perspective. In education, the one thing we know how to measure best is I.Q., but what if doing well in school and in life depends on much more than your ability to learn quickly and easily?

　　教了幾年以后， 我得出一個結(jié)論： 我們的教育所需要的 是一種對學(xué)生、對學(xué)習(xí)更好的理解—— 從動機的角度、 從心理的角度去理解。 在教育領(lǐng)域，我們最擅長測試的指標 是智商， 但如果說在學(xué)校和生活中的表現(xiàn)好壞 不僅僅取決于 你是否能又好又快地學(xué)習(xí)呢?

　　So I left the classroom, and I went to graduate school to become a psychologist. I started studying kids and adults in all kinds of super challenging settings, and in every study my question was, who is successful here and why? My research team and I went to West Point Military Academy.

　　于是，我離開了課堂， 來到了研究所，成為了一名心理學(xué)家。 我開始研究兒童與成人 處于各種艱巨挑戰(zhàn)中的表現(xiàn)。 在每次研究中，我關(guān)注的是： 誰會成功?爲什麼會成功? 我和我的研究團隊去了西點軍校。

　　We tried to predict which cadets would stay in military training and which would drop out. We went to the National Spelling Bee and tried to predict which children would advance farthest in competition.

　　我們試著預(yù)測哪些學(xué)員 能通過軍事訓(xùn)練，哪些會放棄。 我們?nèi)タ慈珖醋直荣悾?試著預(yù)測哪些孩子能在比賽中 笑到最后。

　　We studied rookie teachers working in really tough neighborhoods, asking which teachers are still going to be here in teaching by the end of the school year, and of those, who will be the most effective at improving learning outcomes for their students?

　　我們研究在非常艱苦的環(huán)境下 工作的新教師， 預(yù)測哪些教師在學(xué)年末時 還能堅持在崗位上。 當然還有，哪些教師教出的學(xué)生 成績的提高最為顯著?

　　We partnered with private companies, asking, which of these salespeople is going to keep their jobs? And who's going to earn the most money? In all those very different contexts, one characteristic emerged as a significant predictor of success. And it wasn't social intelligence. It wasn't good looks, physical health, and it wasn't I.Q. It was grit.

　　我們和私人公司合作， 預(yù)測哪些銷售人員能保住工作?誰能賺最多錢? 在這些非常不同的背景下， 我們發(fā)現(xiàn)有一個特質(zhì) 能夠很好地預(yù)測成功。 它不是社交能力。 不是美麗的外貌，不是健康的身體，也不是智商。 而是意志力。

　　Grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future, day in, day out, not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years, and working really hard to make that future a reality. Grit is living life like it's a marathon, not a sprint.

　　意志力是面對長遠目標時的熱情和毅力。 意志力是有耐力的表現(xiàn)。 意志力是日復(fù)一日依然對未來堅信不已 不只是這周、 不只是這個月， 而是年復(fù)一年。用心、努力工作 來實現(xiàn)所堅信的那個未來。 意志力是將生活看作是一場馬拉松，不是短跑。

　　A few years ago, I started studying grit in the Chicago public schools. I asked thousands of high school juniors to take grit questionnaires, and then waited around more than a year to see who would graduate. Turns out that grittier kids were significantly more likely to graduate, even when I matched them on every characteristic I could measure, things like family income, standardized achievement test scores, even how safe kids felt when they were at school.

　　幾年前，我在芝加哥公立學(xué)校 開始研究意志力。 我請數(shù)以千計的高中生 填寫關(guān)于意志力的問卷。 然后等了大約一年多 看看誰會畢業(yè)。 結(jié)果發(fā)現(xiàn)，意志力越堅定的孩子 畢業(yè)的可能性明顯越高， 其他所有可能的影響因素都被考慮并排除了 比如家庭收入， 標準化測驗的分數(shù)， 甚至孩子們在學(xué)校時的安全感。

　　So it's not just at West Point or the National Spelling Bee that grit matters. It's also in school, especially for kids at risk for dropping out. To me, the most shocking thing about grit is how little we know, how little science knows, about building it. Every day, parents and teachers ask me, "How do I build grit in kids? What do I do to teach kids a solid work ethic? How do I keep them motivated for the long run?" The honest answer is, I don't know.

　　所以意志力并不只是在 西點軍校或全國拼字比賽中 非常重要。在學(xué)校， 尤其是對有輟學(xué)危險的孩子來說， 意志力同樣重要。 關(guān)于意志力，最令我吃驚的事情 是我們以及科學(xué)界 對于如何鍛煉意志力知之甚少。 每天，家長和老師都會問我， "如何鍛煉孩子們的意志力? 我怎么教會孩子堅實的職業(yè)道德? 怎樣才能讓他們有長遠的動力?” 最誠實的回答是，我不知道。

　　(Laughter)

　　(笑聲)

　　What I do know is that talent doesn't make you gritty. Our data show very clearly that there are many talented individuals who simply do not follow through on their commitments. In fact, in our data, grit is usually unrelated or even inversely related to measures of talent.

　　我所知道的是，有才華不意味著就有意志力。 我們的資料非常清楚地揭示 有很多才華橫溢的人 并不能堅持到底，實現(xiàn)承諾。 事實上，我們的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)， 意志力通常與才華無關(guān)， 有時甚至成反比。

　　So far, the best idea I've heard about building grit in kids is something called "growth mindset." This is an idea developed at Stanford University by Carol Dweck, and it is the belief that the ability to learn is not fixed, that it can change with your effort. Dr. Dweck has shown that when kids read and learn about the brain and how it changes and grows in response to challenge, they're much more likely to persevere when they fail, because they don't believe that failure is a permanent condition.

　　關(guān)于鍛煉孩子們的意志， 到目前為止，我聽過的最好的方法 叫做“成長型思維模式”理論。 這是史丹福大學(xué)的 Carol Dweck 的研究的成果。 這個理論相信 學(xué)習(xí)的能力不是一成不變的， 它會由于你的努力發(fā)生變化。 Dweck 博士已證明，當孩子們 閱讀和學(xué)習(xí)大腦的相關(guān)知識 以及大腦在面對挑戰(zhàn)時 會怎樣變化和成長時， 他們更有可能在失敗時繼續(xù)堅持， 因為他們不相信 他們永遠會失敗。

　　So growth mindset is a great idea for building grit. But we need more. And that's where I'm going to end my remarks, because that's where we are. That's the work that stands before us. We need to take our best ideas, our strongest intuitions, and we need to test them. We need to measure whether we've been successful, and we have to be willing to fail, to be wrong, to start over again with lessons learned.

　　所以，成長型思維模式是 一種鍛煉意志力的好方法。 但我們還需要更多這樣的理念。 而今天我的演講就到此為止， 因為這就是我們當下的認知。 這就是擺在我們面前的任務(wù)。 我們需要拿出我們最好的想法、最強的直覺 對他們進行檢驗。 我們需要衡量我們是否取得了成功， 我們必須愿意失敗、愿意犯錯、 愿意吸取教訓(xùn)并從頭開始。

　　In other words, we need to be gritty about getting our kids grittier.

　　換句話說，在加強我們孩子意志力這件事上， 我們自己也要有不懈的意志。

　　Thank you.

　　謝謝。

　　(Applause)

　　掌聲