Lauren Anderson: Grit, Galton and Eugenics
Guest post by Lauren Anderson.
Last September, a headline caught my attention: "MacArthur Foundation announces 24 fellows."[1] In an historical moment characterized by heated debate about education research and reform, I thought to check whom, if anyone, in our broad field had been selected for the prestigious "genius" award.
Among awardees I found one: Angela Duckworth, Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. As I read the biographical sketch, curiosity gave way to resignation. I was unsurprised to find that the areas of focus were "grit" and "self control" - now popular concepts celebrated in mass-market texts like Paul Tough's How Children Succeed and Jay Mathews's Work Hard, Play Nice, and an appealing policy target for those who believe that if we could just cultivate the "right" qualities among the "low-achieving" then they would be able to transcend conditions of poverty and other obstacles in their way. Couched in the language of