Paul Tough

¶ … Children Succeed Tough Love in Tough's How Children Succeed Paul Tough's (2012) How Children Succeed puts forward the thesis that the most important education that a child can receive is not in the I.Q. developing department but rather in the character developing department. Tough tells stories of real-life people whose experiences support the thesis that Tough presents, but he also couples these stories with scientific studies which provide the empirical analysis that makes his qualitative study so compelling.

One important tool for developing character (which, Tough shows, is essential in developing the intellect) is the ability to overcome obstacles, to maintain self-control: "When kindergarten teachers are surveyed about their students, they say that the biggest problem they face is not children who don't know their letters and numbers; it is kids who don't know how to manage their tempers or calm themselves down after a provocation" (Tough, 2012, p. 17). The acquirement of this tool is gained by way of the "executive functions" which regulate cognitive impulses.

This paper will discuss Tough's thesis and how it relates to the topic of human services. Tough describes different parenting styles and their effect on children. For example, parents with hostile or conflicted attitudes towards their children cause their children to become anxious and needy, which in turn undermines the child's development of the regulatory executive functions. On the other hand, parents with warm, affectionate and emotionally supportive attitudes towards their children support this development (Tough, 2012, p. 34).

This theory was supported by the evaluations of KIPP Academy where researchers found that a focus on "personal growth and achievement" rather than "finger-wagging morality" helped children to develop successfully (Tough, 2012, p. 60). The aim of the KIPP program was on character development: by instilling students with a desire to better themselves rather than setting forth a strict set of parameters that the student had to abide by, the school was able to create a "paternalistic" atmosphere in which students had the security they needed to focus on themselves and self-control.

The point that Tough makes again and again is that when the basic needs of children are met, such as housing, food, love, affection, they are less likely to spend time seeking out these basic necessities and more likely to focus on personal growth and development.

But when these basic necessities are lacking, for example in homes where poverty is a problem or in homes where emotional instability is a problem, the child is forced to spend time focusing on filling these requirements and therefore has little time to devote to his or her own character progress. In terms of human services, the thesis that Tough presents is an important one because it underscores the need for compassionate understanding and care when interacting with individuals.

Compassionate care is like a support beam upon which individuals can lean as they develop their strength and learn how to focus on themselves and their own problem areas, if there are any that need attention. The idea corresponds with Maslow's hierarchy of needs, which stipulates that self-actualization is at the apex of the "needs" pyramid and an only be reached through a succession of the lower needs being met, starting with physiological needs, then safety, love and belonging, and esteem.

What Tough shows in his research is that the basic idea of Maslow's hierarchy of needs is legitimate: children need structure, stability, care, affection -- all of which affects their physiological development, their brain development, their executive functioning skills, and their ability to learn self-control and self-discipline. With these latter skills they are then able to differentiate between solutions and errors in process reasoning and problematic equations.

Tough's assessment that both rich and poor families struggle to find the right balance in their attitudes, because too much or too little of any one need requirement can upset the structure of the pyramid of development. Economic satisfaction is only a part of development; it is not the end-all, be-all. Tough's book is aimed primarily at helping children to succeed in any environment by providing parental figures, teachers, counselors and social workers the tools they need to help young people develop.

However, while Tough asserts that the basic needs have to be filled, he argues that children also need to be challenged, that they have to learn to how to overcome difficulties on their own: "it is a central paradox" Tough admits, but one that cannot be avoided (p. 84). Finding the right balance.