Importance of Perseverance for Students: Angela Duckworth's Message

Introduction

In this TED Talk, Angela Lee Duckworth, a psychologist studying at the University of Pennsylvania, delivers a six-minute speech on the topic 'Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance.' Duckworth emphasizes the importance of perseverance for students and asserts that 'grit' serves as a predictor of success. In the beginning, Duckworth recounts a phenomenon she discovered during her time as a math teacher at New York City public schools when she was twenty-seven years old. Through observing students' homework and papers, Duckworth comes to realize that high IQ does not necessarily correlate with high performance, nor does low IQ necessarily lead to poor performance.

Discovering Grit: Passion and Perseverance

In order to study what kind of person can succeed, Duckworth chose to pursue a master's degree in psychology. Duckworth has investigated the students of the West Point Military Academy, the players of the National Spelling Competition and the sales staff of the company. After passing their investigation, Duckworth discovered that the key to success is grit. In order to verify this conclusion, she conducted a survey on perseverance for thousands of high school students. This experiment also confirmed her conclusion that grit is the key to success.

In Angela Lee Duckworth’s speech, she uses her personal experience and experiments to prove that perseverance is the key to success. After Listening to half of her speech, I thought she wants to influence students to develop strong perseverance. However, when I listened to all of his speeches, I found that she hopes that the parents of the children also have the perseverance that can influence their children.

Duckworth's Study of Perseverance

First, Duckworth exemplified a lot of investigations about perseverance she had done. For example, her research team and her did a research about what kind of cadets can stay in military training which are not. She uses the results of these scientific experiments to strongly prove her point of view.

Second, Duckworth said that “Grit is living life like it's a marathon, not a sprint”. She likened life to a marathon, this analogy is very appropriate, because our life is very long. She also said “Grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future”. Duckworth uses three sentences of the same structure to express her definition of grit. This way of expression make these sentences more powerful.

Third, in the process of the speech, her expression sometimes serious and sometimes relaxed, and there is a lot body movements. This increases the influence and appeal of the speech.

Conclusion

In conclusion, from the speech’s content, rhetoric and her actions, students and their parents can recognize grit is the key to success. Students will focus on developing their grit, and parents of students will become grittier to influence their children.

References

1. Angela Lee Duckworth. 'Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance.' TED, May 2013, https://www.ted.com/talks/angela_lee_duckworth_grit_the_power_of_passion_and_perseverance