In the last few years I have seen several articles and interviews about the importance of grit in determining a child’s success later in life. Grit is in fashion at the moment as the missing ingredient for our country’s educational woes. If we only can find a way to bottle it and force feed it to every child, then America will be at the top of the world’s educational rankings and we can all rest easy.

The most recent interview I came across was on WBUR’s On Point radio show heard across the country on NPR radio stations as well as online at www.wbur.org/onpoint. The interview was with Angela Duckworth, professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and author of Grit: The Power and Passion of Perseverance.

One of the things I enjoyed about this interview was that grit, while important, wasn’t portrayed as a perfect quality and that it does have a down side. For example, when grit crosses over into stubbornness, success goes down. You still need qualities like creativity, open-mindedness, vision, social skills, intelligence, etc. to be successful. A very interesting interview that you can listen to here.