In a school year quite unlike any other, there is one skill that the children of the world most certainly have leveled up on substantially: grit. Grit is a word often used to describe that certain quality which differentiates one person from another, the ability to push through a challenge, to follow one’s gut decisions and transform adversity into opportunity. The school-age children of the pandemic, along with their teachers and parents, have had to navigate unprecedented changes in the experience of education, often on a path with no map.
The impact of closing schools, virtual and hybrid learning and social isolation is not yet fully known and will be studied for years. But as we conduct these studies, we should take time to observe and celebrate what has been obtained. We are tougher and more adaptable than we may have known, and so are our kids.
Grit is by definition the ability to persevere and resolve For some, grit is not a choice; it is survival. For many children in the United States, much of their life is hyper-scheduled and activities are structured around connecting students to winning. In fact, some activities ensure that all participants are winners, the so-called Trophy Generation. But each time a child is not given the opportunity and space to lose, an opportunity to develop grit is lost.
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The 2020-2021 school year created the opportunity to develop grit in ways we could not have imagined. Kids were asked to learn in a virtual or hybrid environment, in isolation from their peers, often times alone with a device. They had to muster self-motivation to make sure they were getting assignments done, and parents had to manage both careers and education oversight while also experiencing the same isolation and learning curves. Kids had to adapt and learn to be bored as the cadence of their days shifted from schools and activities to screens and free time. Some families had to figure out how to participate in e-learning without the basic tools to do so. English language learners and their parents had to navigate this in multiple languages.
In my own home I watched with amazement as my children took to the new technology at first with some struggle, and then soon with ease. I saw how they are different types of learners and need different things from their teachers and my wife and me. We struggled together to understand how to socialize safely with friends and family, especially during the harsh Chicago winter. And we tried to reassure ourselves that if we just stuck to it and stayed the course, we would be OK — while knowing that this was an option that many families would not have.
American schools are quickly moving toward opening back for full-day, in-person instruction, and only time will tell the true academic impact of the pandemic. Students will transition back to the school life they once knew, to familiar faces, environments and schedules. But as we make this important transition and watch anxiously and carefully as our children go back to “normal,” let us see in our children a new sense of perseverance and resolve. No matter what their experience was this school year, they all will be receiving an A+ in grit. That will be part of them for the rest of their lives. In a year where we have counted and measured so much loss, let us allow ourselves to celebrate the attainment of the essential quality of grit.
Robert Davis has worked in education for 25 years and is a specialist in world languages and U.S./China education partnerships. He is the father of 11- and 8-year-old daughters.
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