Chapters 11–12 Summary

Continuing her discussion of parenting, Duckworth points out that extracurricular activities create the context for grit to grow in two ways. First, the adult in charge is ideally both tough and supportive. Second, the activities “are designed to cultivate interest, practice, purpose, and hope.” Follow-through in activities for two or more years predicts success later in life, perhaps because it “both requires grit and, at the same time, builds it.” Lower Grit Grid scores for students of lower socioeconomic backgrounds may be linked to fewer opportunities for those students to “practice grit in extracurricular activities.” Duckworth recommends the “Hard Thing Rule” for parents seeking to develop grit in their children. Every family member must have a “hard thing” to do, such as taking piano lessons. They must persist at it, but they get to choose it.

Culture, as well as individuals, can spark the growth of grit. Members of cultures have shared norms and values that help to identify group members as insiders. It helps if—like the Finnish people, who value “sisu” (perseverance)—the culture fosters grit. Revisiting Dan Chambliss, a sociologist who studied swimming champions, Duckworth concludes that grittiness begets grittiness because of the human drive to fit in. Members of a gritty culture support one another, push one another to improve, and grow grittier together.

Chapters 11–12 Analysis

The “playing fields” of extracurricular activities prove well suited for developing grit for reasons established in earlier chapters. First, the adult is demanding as well as supportive, just like the “wise parent” of Chapter 10. Second, the “pursuits are designed to cultivate interest, practice, purpose, and hope”—the “psychological assets” of gritty people as identified in Part 2. Chapter 11 has critical social implications, as children in poverty have limited opportunities to participate in extracurricular activities.

In Chapter 12, Duckworth yet again challenges a possible belief: that grit is an individual trait. Through the examples as diverse as the cultures of professional sports teams and the nation of Finland, she shows that the sense of shared values and beliefs that position members of a culture as insiders and others as outsiders impacts its members’ grittiness. This impact occurs because the group identity shapes the individual’s identity. In this chapter, Duckworth shows that at its core, grit is less about what people do and more about who people are. Identity affects decision-making more than a cost-benefit analysis.