Significance of non-cognitive skills

The audio talks primarily about how children succeed through non-cognitive skills and shows testimonials from different individuals who benefits from this interventions. Host Ira Glass talks with Paul Tough, author of the book How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, Hidden Power of Character. The book is about qualities that matter most to children’s success have more to do with character. Ira Glass also had Professor James Heckman, an economist and Nobel prize winner, his researched is on the GED (Graduate Equivalency Diploma), it discussed about the character traits that make a crucial difference for people who graduate from high school versus people who earn GED certification. There are three different approaches the video offers that help children become good students. First, is the Wings Program, this program offers emotional support for children and teens and educational assistance to students who are not succeeding in the regular education classroom. One testimonial is from Kewana Lerma, 15 years old and a product of a broken family, she grew up without a permanent home as she and her mom moves from one place to another. She has a bad temper, the school officials put her in Wings program but according to Kewana it didn’t work for her, she felt like all the students in the program were retarded. So they put her in another program, which is the second approach mentioned, the One Goal classroom, it helps individual to develop non-cognitive skills and leadership principles. As Paul Tough described it, One Goal classroom is like a sort of ongoing therapy session, their leadership principles includes ambition, integrity, professionalism, resilience and resourcefulness. After the program her GPA jumped from 1.8 to 3.4 and Kewana graduated high school with a GPA of 4.1 and scored a 15 on her ACT. And last approach that mentioned in the audio is the Parent-Mentor program, example was from Barbara and her daughter Anaya. The parent here has a