Are We Raising a Nation of Quitters?

Today’s students are actively engaged in multitasking. They may have more homework that I past generations. There is also the pressure from both parents and peers to be a part of organized activities. It may be spots, dramatics, music or even debating, but today’s students are actively engaged in a wide range of time consuming activities.

What if a student suddenly comes to you and out of the blue proclaims that they want to quit baseball or marching band? Do we let them off the hook? The quick answer is no, at least not at first. It is the essential to investigate the WHY of their actions. Parents may be quick to resurrect the commitment and perseverance sermons but ultimately you need to investigate why children are reluctant to return to the activity. It might be prudent to talk to the coach, band director, or activity adviser to ascertain if there was any specific incident that led to the student wanting to quit. Some students only want to play for winners and give up when things don’t work out so well.  Allowing a student to walk away in this scenario sends the wrong message.  Not all things in life will go as planned. Parents, teachers, and coaches will not always be there to bail students out. Student must learn to work through their problems and not walk away from them.

This issue of commitments and perseverance is a great topic for classroom discussions and essay writing. You are encouraged to bring this topic up with your students. There are also other resources for you to refer to. They include:

Benjamin Bloom: Developing Talent in Young People
Carol Dweck: Mindset: The New Psychology of Success
Geoff Colvin: Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separate World-Class Performers From Everybody Else
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Kevin Rathunde, and Samuel Whalen: Talented Teenagers: The Roots of Success and Failure
Harold Stevenson: The Learning Gap: Why Our Schools Are Failing and What We Can Learn From Japanese and Chinese Education

We do not have to resign ourselves to raising a nation of quitters.

C.2013 J. Margolis