I keep hearing about Duckworth’s “Grit” book and it seems the term itself is the word du jour. I read the same review in the Times a couple weeks ago and thought about buying it but didn’t, partly because there were a few criticisms mentioned in the NYT review that turned me off. For example, the reviewer says “Duckworth never questions the values of a society geared towards winning” so if the author is only going to give a bunch of examples of people who have grit and pull themselves up by their bootstraps, that’s awesome and could be a fun and inspiring read, and it might be something I’d flip through, but I’m more interested in the deeper discussion. I’m not dismissing grit as a concept or important character trait but I just don’t care to read another Ted talk book.
And, yes, no doubt the Peace Corps is an achievement. Talk about competition – it’s tough these days to be accepted, probably because the job market was so tight in recent years that the Peace Corps became even more attractive for new graduates. I have no idea if my son will be accepted to a program and country of interest as the application/interview/placement process can take two years. And FIH thanks for your stamp of approval on his sociology major. 😉 I have no idea if he will ever use it specifically in a career, nor does he, as he has not developed a passion yet. It’s gravy if a kid has a specific career intention after school, but most don’t, and that’s fine by us. I have no doubt he’ll be successful and look forward to watching his journey. Good news is he has already demonstrated plenty of grit (yes, even in high school and the college admissions process!) so he’ll be fine.
