Over the next few weeks, I will be blogging through Paul Tough’s book How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity and the Hidden Power of Character. It is packed full of insight into the role that families and communities play in forming children, and the role that supporting organizations can play in those families in communities. Paul’s first book, Whatever it Takes: Geoffrey Canada’s Quest to Change Harlem and America sparked my interest in apprenticeship as a compelling metaphor to describe what happens in every family and home during the earliest years of life. How Children Succeed contains many overlapping themes with The Apprenticeship of Being Human, and is worthy reading for anyone who cares about education, inequality and social flourishing.

The Breaking Point

Paul tells the story of Kewauna, who was arrested at age 15 for striking a police officer. Kewauna’s mother sat her daughter down and said to her, “I don’t want you to end up like me.” For Kewauna, that conversation was the beginning of change. It took her mother’s radical honesty about her own history to help her change course. (In one year, her GPA changed from 1.8 to 3.4.)

In the weeks and months to come, I will argue that this kind of honesty is essential to breaking cycles of poverty. Only when parents can honestly say, “I don’t want you to end up like me,” can there be an honest dialogue about responsibility and possibility. Kewauna’s mom was ruthlessly honest and humble. Her courage made possible her daughter’s transformation. That is beautiful, praiseworthy and revolutionary.