Grit on Exhibition: Four Young Women and a Trail

Last test of the school year.  

1. What are you going to do the week after school ends?  

A.  Sleep late  
B.  Catch a movie with friends  
C.  Hang out at the pool  
D.  Hike 26 miles on one of the most difficult single-track trails in the US

Two days ago, I had the privilege of supporting four Carolina Day School women who chose “D.”  Emily, Elizabeth, Natalie, and Sydney arrived at campus at 7:30 AM last Thursday and began walking soon after.  Their course took them down the Mountains to Sea Trail from school, across the French Broad River, up the Shut-in Trail, and finally to the top Mt. Pisgah in a cool rain shower almost twelve hours later. With an elevation gain of around 3000 feet, this hike is a lot more than your average marathon.

Elizabeth, Emily, Sydney, and Natalie crossing the French Broad River

When I asked them why they would do such a thing, these are the responses from Emily, Sydney, and Elizabeth. "I love the challenge and the sense of achievement at the end of the hike. It is also a great time to appreciate the mountains and where we live." (Emily) I did it to challenge myself and I wanted the feeling of accomplishment after finishing. (Sydney)  "Although the Mount Pisgah Challenge was physically strenuous, it was spiritually and emotionally rejuvenating. Being out in nature and trying to complete the challenge made me feel really happy and energized. After I completed the challenge, I felt ready to embrace the coming changes in my life." (Elizabeth)  Okay, these are some deep girls.  While they all had a high level of intrinsic motivation, I contribute a lot of their success to grit -- the ability to persevere to do something really hard.

Over 4 million people have watched this short Ted Talk by Angela Duckworth on grit.  We know that what Duckworth describes as grit is a great predictor of success -- a better predictor than IQ or talent.  If you haven’t seen it or watched it in a while, take a few minutes:

In this talk, Duckworth references the work done by Dr. Carol Dweck on growth mindset as being aligned with developing grit.  Simply put, if you know and believe that you have the potential to grow, you are much more likely to work to grow.  All of our faculty will be reading Dweck’s book, Mindset:  The New Psychology of Success, over the summer, and we invite parents or anyone interested in this topic to engage in some discussions of the topic next fall.  

It is my belief that having a growth mindset is not only closely aligned to personal success but also institutional success.  As good as we are at Carolina Day School, we have a collective belief that we can and will grow.  We constantly look for new ways to teach, to engage, to inspire, to support, and to challenge our students.  As a school, we have grit: the long term motivation to do something of immense importance because there is nothing as important as helping our children grow into adults who will have meaningful lives.

I know that Emily, Elizabeth, Natalie, and Sydney will continue to challenge themselves to grow in meaningful ways.  They have grown up in an environment where this is an expectation, a natural part of their world.  Congratulations ladies. You are the grittiest girls I know.